Crossing Midnight Comic

Summary

Mike Carey - writer of the Eisner-nominated Lucifer and Ultimate Fantastic Four - returns to the magical world of twisted horror in a new Vertigo monthly series drawn by the breakout art team of Jim Fern (Fables) & Rob Hunter (The First). In modern-day Japan, Kai and his twin sister Toshi are born on opposite sides of midnight. But that casual line in time will have disastrous effects on their lives: Their friends will go missing; commonplace knives will hide deadly secrets; and Kai and Toshi will have to save themselves and their entire family from their own horrible destinies. Set in contemporary Nagasaki, Crossing Midnight taps into Japanese and Korean horror to mix the mythology of The Sandman with the fantasy of films like Hayao's Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. Together, Mike Carey and Jim Fern come up with flights of fantasy tethered to a reality where children are stolen, innocence corrupted, and where two teenagers will have to stare down bizarre beings capable of very visceral terrors. We are introduced to Kai and Toshi, twins born on opposite sides of midnight. Before they were born, their father, at the urging of his mother, says a prayer at an old family shrine, wishing for the safe birth of his child. As the children grow up, they discover that Toshi cannot be hurt by knives or sharp objects. She falls on a sharp fence and the spikes simply bend before her. Her father was unaware, however, that in praying at the shrine he entered into a deal with the Kami of Knives, Aratsu. Aratsu comes to collect his payment in the form of Toshi herself, but when she refuses to go with him, he kills the family dog.