This is the second and final volume of a generically named loosely-connected series of Kazuo Umezz stories. The connective tissue is really only that a particular school reporter is sorta involved in the stories, and overall I would say that this is a generic Umezz collection. Which I’m not really opposed to! Umezz is very much that kind of prolific genre author where that kind of collection accumulates. This particular volume I read since I read the first volume physically because of the striking cover, but I read this one digitally, and it worked well as a bit of Umezz-ing horror when I was out and about and in the mood for that. So I read it piecemeal and don’t remember many specifics. The one story I DO specifically remember at this stage is the Santa Claus themed one, which is mostly a relatively heartwarming story about a kindly ghost who mistakes his grandson for his own son, but then very suddenly this happens…!
So reading that in the post office line was an interesting experience! Really something you just have to verbally or non verbally react to, and goggle around for a bit regardless of where you are… Between watching The Flying Guillotine in the morning, that, and the company I work for firing someone on the team, for better or for worse I sure had 首 on the mind that day… Like with Shigeru Mizuki recently, Umezz is an author with tons of work scattered around in various editions who I should probably pick a next thing to read from now, and have around in bookwalker to read now and then similar to how I read this… It doesn’t seem like he has as prominently identifiable of a “complete works” type of edition though (although this Umezz Perfect Collection I think it’s called is probably the closest thing I assume?). I’m super duper curious about his (I think rather famous) gag comic (?) まことちゃん, but it looks like I don’t own any of the volumes… The こわい本 series seems like the closest to this in terms of misc. horror stories… Cat-Eyed Boy and Orochi seem like big name works I haven’t read yet… I guess I’ll pick one of those to open on my phone in my bookwalker manga tab group, and probably regardless his Ultraman series might be the next thing I read from him anyway since I have that physical.