The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (vols. 1-4) by Eiji Otsuka, art by Housui Yamazaki, translated by Toshifumi Yoshida, edited by Carl Gustav Horn

Four fabulous volumes (the fourth just out) about a mismatched clan that makes up the fantastically talented Kurosagi (“black crane”) Corpse Delivery Service. Five unemployed Buddhist university students band together to help corpses find eternal peace, so to speak.

Numata finds the dead, Karatsu talks to the dead, Sasaki hacks any necessary background information about the dead, Makino preserves the dead, and Yata channels an alien voice that speaks through a handheld sock puppet that is often the lone voice of reason.

Irreverent dark humor – with plenty of gore, so don’t read it late at night – fills these addictive volumes as the fivesome help suffering souls find everlasting closure.

Review: “TBR’s Editors’ Favorites of 2007,” The Bloomsbury Review, November/December 2007

Readers: Young Adult, Adult

Published: 2006-2007 (United States)