Product Description

The end of everyone was just the beginning...Returning home by train after a class trip, Teru Aoki takes a most frightening ride inside a mountain tunnel. When the train derails, nearly everyone aboard is killed. Amidst the bloody carnage, Teru discovers two survivors--but salvation is far from their grasp. As they try to dig out from the wreck in order to come up with a plan to stay alive, the lack of light and food, combined with the stench of death and decay, will lead one member of the group down a dark and demented path. And with sudden, violent earthquakes shaking the tunnel, escaping to the outside world may lead them to an even greater danger...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #915393 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-10
• Released on: 2006-01-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 232 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781595329141
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Imagine waking up in a pitch-black train wreck filled with broken glass and bodies. No one answers when you call for help—and as you begin to orient yourself, you realize that this might be because everyone around you is dead. Mochizuki opens this story with the wide, terror-struck eyes of schoolboy Aoki Teru as he wakes up into just such a nightmare, and from there, the suspense never lets up. Not that this is a particularly fast-paced book—instead of frenzied action, we get fine gradations of panic and exhaustion. Each new piece of information deepens a growing sense of dread: not only has the train crashed, it's also been sealed in by falling rocks. Aoki is not entirely alone, but of the two other companions he finds, one is unconscious and the other is going crazy. And then there's the strange, stifling heat. Mochizuki's narrative pacing is so deft, and his drawings so effective at communicating nuances of emotion that the story unfolds for us with the same urgency and immediacy as it does for Aoki and his companions. The result is an emotionally and psychologically compelling drama that promises to be an unforgettable journey into darkness with future volumes. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
Grade 10 Up Deeply psychological and dark, Dragon Head is a spectacularly scary and suspenseful tale. On his return home from a class trip, Aoki Teru is on a train that derails while inside a tunnel and is knocked unconscious. When he comes to, he finds his classmates, teachers, and train personnel dead. Searching for survivors and supplies, he encounters two other students: unconscious Ako Seto and deranged Nobou Takashi. The tunnel has collapsed, leaving no escape. The three teens are surrounded by gruesome carnage; the food is running out; the tunnel mysteriously keeps getting hotter and hotter; Ako is severely injured, and Nobou is seriously losing his mind. Teru must keep himself and the others together. Blood-spattered illustrations with heavy detail to eyes convey much of the visceral experience of the three main characters and helps convey terror where words cannot. This book does an excellent job of introducing the series and building tension as well as readers' interest in where the plot is going. Sinister and fast paced, with a fair amount of bloodshed and raw language, this first volume of 10 is a well-done psychological horror story that should appeal to fans of the genre. Jennifer Feigelman, Goshen Public Library and Historical Society, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Befriending the darkness...
'Dragon Head' was a pleasant suprise in the manga section of my local comic store. Its grungy and moody toned cover-art stood out on the shelf, contrasted amongst school-girl outfits, giant shiny eyes and colorful robots.
I picked it up on a recommendation from IGN, and have not been dissapointed.
The references to 'Lord of the Flies' and 'Battle Royale' aside, this series is fast growing into a thoroughly gripping and entrancing window into a human mind when met with frightening pressures. Mochizuki wisely chooses three teen protagonists, juxtaposing their wildly swinging and confused hormones and self-identity with the terrifying reality of their entrapment in the subway tunnel, surrounded by the rotting bodies of their dead classmates and teachers.
The artwork isn't amazing, though it has been steadily improving through the first four volumes, and more than succeeds in depicting the moodiness or the fear and confusion of the situation and its characters. There are some moments of technical beauty in terms of page composition, which shows the extent to which the author/artist has considered the flow of his work.
At times certain themes or ideas are repeated, but this does not detract from the impact of the read.
Volume 2 is even more disturbing and captivating, and so far the series is just getting better and better.
One to watch. Recommended.

Reccomended
A school trip ends up in disaster as... well... nobody knows! This interesting, horror manga novel was introduced to me at the bookstore. While pacing through, I came along the book I had been waiting to read, and nearby, Dragon Head 1 sat. I began to read, and a couple days later, bought it for the cheap price of $9.99.
An amazing thumbs up to this amazing author and illustrator, Minetaro Mochizuki. I can't wait to buy #2!

More impressive for what it doesn't do than what it does.
Minetaro Mochizuki, Dragon Head vol. 2 (Tokyopop, 1995)

Dragon Head takes a safe, if slightly disappointing, turn towards straight action in this volume. Teru and Nobuo are set up as adversaries, with Nobuo claiming the territory inside the train and Teru taking what's outside--including an air shaft that may lead the three survivors to freedom. With Mochizuki not necessarily trying for horror-movie atmosphere here, there's ample time to focus on these characters and their situation. So while the series has (for the moment, anyway) lost its horror focus, there's a still a great deal going on here, and the fact that Mochizuki can take, essentially, a single event and draw it out into a 220-page manga volume without it seeming repetitive, or even dragging, is impressive indeed. *** ½