INTERVIEW: Japanese parlor game inspires Joel Rose, Anthony Bourdain’s ‘Hungry Ghosts’

The traditional Japanese parlor game known as Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai has inspired a new graphic novel by Joel Rose and the late Anthony Bourdain. Hungry Ghosts, now available from Dark Horse Comics, features an all-new horror story and five original recipes.

In the book, food serves as a key component, which should come as no surprise given Bourdain’s status as a celebrity chef and host of his own reality TV programming. He tragically died in June, and Rose finds himself in the difficult position of bringing the graphic novel to the market without his friend by his side.

In Hungry Ghosts, a Russian oligarch dares a circle of international chefs to play the samurai game of 100 Candles. In the game, each contestant blows out a candle after telling the audience a terrifying tale of ghosts and demons.

Rose will make a special appearance Tuesday, Oct. 16 at Joe’s Pub on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He will be joined by historian Laura Spinney, poet Greg Pardlo and playwright Itamar Moses — all of them telling stories on the theme of “Forget Me Not.”

Hollywood Soapbox recently exchanged emails with Rose, who also wrote Kill the Poor, Kill Kill Faster Faster and The Blackest Bird. This was not his first project with Bourdain. He also co-wrote the graphic novel Get Jiro! Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.

First off, I am very sorry for the loss of your friend. What has it been like publishing this book after that tragic news?

Thank you. Publishing Hungry Ghosts without Tony sucks. There’s no two ways around it. We were friends for 35 years. We’ve shared a lot. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. We both took so much away from working together. The book is beautiful. The artists we were privileged to work with outdid themselves. That Tony is not here to share the pleasure of seeing this book as a concrete object, a thing of fun and elegance in the world, leaves a wide gap in what things were meant to be.

What can fans expect in Hungry Ghosts?

For Tony and me, Hungry Ghosts came out of a place of pleasure. We both loved the old EC Comic horror classics: Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, Haunt of Fear. We wanted to pay our dues. And looking at the finished book we did just that. Beyond our homage, although I might now have realized it at first, Tony had his agenda. Couched in the entertainment, he pointed us to morality. I was surprised when he told me he wanted to do a horror comic. To tell you the truth it was the last thing on my mind. We had worked together over all these years, and this was not where I was expecting to go. Assessing now, however, what I think fans will get from looking at this beautiful book, his last work really, he is there. Not hiding. In plain sight.

How much research was needed to understand the parlor game that inspired the narrative?

We did a lot of research to make Hungry Ghosts happen. Of course, the whole hungry ghost concept is celebrated in a score of different cultures and peoples throughout eastern and south Asia. We were but one of many and as such, keyed into that a little bit. But first and foremost we went to Lafcadio Hearn and his 1904 classic, Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things. Right there is the bible. There’s terrific stuff online, most especially the work of Zack Davisson. Much literature, too. Read a lot of books like Miyuki Miyabe’s Apparitions: Ghost of Old Edo. Tony had a steel-trap mind, was a complete autodidact. He knew the bones of the 100 Candle game when first we talked. We swapped out the samurai for chefs, and we were in business.

What was the writing process like with Anthony Bourdain? Did you always agree on the direction of the story?

Tony and I did not always agree, and I could be lectured. By the same turn, I could lecture him. I worked with Tony to publish his first story, helped him realize Kitchen Confidential. We did Typhoid Mary together. He had always been after me to do graphic novels with him. I had worked at DC once upon a time, and I met him first time through a comic book he had drawn and written and sent me to be published in Between C & D, a small magazine I once published in the East Village, long ago now, in one of the East Village’s cascading heydays. I rejected his comic, told him his drawing sucked, but his writing was good. Next I knew he showed up at the building door, came upstairs, sat at the kitchen table, and you might say he stayed ever since. At least our conversation across the yellow formica. The back and forth. That which I cherished.

What was it like to work with the various artists on the book?

For a writer, for the teller of stories, there is nothing better than working with another storyteller, one with a completely different vocabulary than your own. Karen Berger, our editor, put us in touch with an amazing array. Tony and I had our ideas, what we wanted each story to look like, but Karen was the one to come up with this crew. We were surprised every time. Working collaboratively always affords the luxury of seeing your work turn into something, boundaries beyond what you envisioned. Herein lies case in point. To get to work with these people was honor. Paul Pope, Alberto Ponticelli, Vanessa del Rey, Leonardo Manca, Mateus Santolouco, Sebastain Carol, Irene Koh, Francesco Francavilla, Jose Villarrubia. If only to do it again.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Anthony Bourdain’s Hungry Ghosts by Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose is now available. Rose will make an appearance Tuesday, Oct. 16 at Joe’s Pub in New York City. Click here for more information.