"You've got mail!"....yeah from the Dead.
The cover illustrations are amazing and make a for a great shadow puppets...also, death is not the end.

Hilarious and weird manga about a bunch of Buddhist oddballs who work for corpses in modern day Tokyo. Thank you, Dark Horse. ( )

Ugh, this was so good. I didn't look up the number of volumes in this, but apparently there's 4, 2 coming out in the next few months. I can work with that. This really wasn't what I thought it would be. For some reason I had the vague idea that it was about people who transport bodies and/or body parts a la Dirty Pretty Things (although I didn't actually see that movie so it might not be really about that). But it's about six people (ok, 5 people and 1 alien sock puppet-an alien sock puppet, c'mon, how do you not love this already?!) who combine their skills to find abandoned corpses and carry out last wishes that the dead tell the resident psychic . The dead generally find some way to pay the group back, directing them to a stash of money or something. The first one gave them a winning lottery ticket which they used to start up the business.

One aspect I found especially interesting was that the 5 human characters are students at a Buddhist university. I took a course in Buddhism as an undergrad (haha, I get to say that now!) and I've read a few books but I admit my understanding of Buddhism is limited and I've never met someone who described themselves as a practicing Buddhist, just people who incorporated various Buddhist practices/values into their lives. The Buddhist perspective leads to amusing dialogue like "Listen, Mr. My-Karma-Is-Oh-So-Spotless" and (when characters are fighting over dumping a mummified corpse in an alter in a field) "Hey! Remember your Buddhist principles of non-attachment! Let's dump her and get back to campus!"

In the back (er-front?) of the book is a "sound fx glossary and notes." Since this is a horror series, some of the translations of the sound effects are hilarious: "sound of body dragging itself on the ground"; "vomiting blood"; "an organ hitting the floor" and "foot bumping severed head." But my favorite is definitely the oh-so-zen "sound of silence."

The notes are incredibly informative and have a personal, quirky touch. ie: "If you want to grow up to be an editor and get good car insurance rates it is especially important to practice good spelling online, as that is where people do most of their writing these days. I personally think teachers should practice this with students if they've got computers in class. Never mind the porn filters, we need bad grammar filters to protect our children." The editor takes into account cultural differences in a way that is educational and not at all condescending, ie: why a characters says shooting a burglar is bizarre (guns are rare in Japan).

I don't think I've ever laughed at a comic that contains incestuous pedophiliac necrophilia. But there you have it.

There was also the great dialogue that I heartily identified with:
"Tell me again . . . why'd we agree to her idea . . . ?"
"Because we're all completely unemployable?"
"Oh, yeah . . . right." ( )