Dragon Head

Dragon Head by Minetaro Mochizuki 4/5 stars (amazon)

Reading Dragon Head gave me the feeling that I was watching a great Twilight Zone episode. Fans of horror and suspense will like this series. Teru Aoki wakes up in the chaos of a crashed train. He was returning from a school trip with his classmates, but as he surveys his surroundings it is clear that everyone is dead. The train crashed after going into a tunnel, so everything is dark. Teru finds a lighter and tries to explore the tunnel to find a way to escape but he finds rockfalls at both ends of the tunnel. He discoveres two other survivors, an unconsious girl and an unhinged boy named Nobuo. As they try to survive and take stock of their situation, flashbacks from the train ride before the accident raise questions about the cause of the accident. It seems like more than a simple earthquake. The art in Dragon Head matches the story – the dark tones add to the claustrophobic atmosphere of the tunnel.