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Zomblog – The Larger World Of Shared Universes

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We all have those faint dreams of what we’d do in a zombie apocalypse. Just how things would go down if we were in a state of complete control. Everyone has their over-prepared checklist of things they’d do, places they’d go, and people they’d save. For Double Take’s universe – this is decidedly more difficult to imagine.

This comes from a “different” approach to telling zombie stories. Often we’re treated to one side of a story. The narratives always slide into familiar territory – a fixed perspective with a given protagonist and their set of goals. Well, with the Ultimate Night of the Living Dead things are a little different.

You know those big universes filled with superheroes from Marvel and DC. Well, imagine if those universes were just different books in the same zombie apocalypse. Yeah, it’s not about one perspective anymore – it’s about ten. The books in the Big Bang imitative are meant to share a unique world, but show the different kinds of people who inhabit this apocalypse.

It’s worth mentioning that these books are meant to function on their own, but read together will give you a fundamental understanding of a world in ruin. It’s hard to embody that bigger world in just one book. With my own book, “Race” I was briefed continually on the larger mechanics of the world. It was imperative that I understood just how the world works. I was given an “escalation schedule” that broke down, in detail the events of the first three nights, beginning with the titular Night of the Living Dead.

Here’s a taste:

Sunday – April 24, 1966
Midday
Murders start.
Murderers band together.
4:00pm
Local Posses begin to form.
LBJ deploys Z-Men.
Radio/TV signals start to fail.
5:00pm
Road blocks are set up within and around the affected area.
Like most crises, however, life for most goes on as usual.
7:00pm
Federal government learns of zombies. They decide to deploy “advisors.”
Advisors reflect those deployed in the early days of Vietnam and other late 20th Century conflicts. Helicopters fly overhead.

This should show you just exactly how detailed everything fits into the framework of a shared universe. My story had to fit within a specific timeline that adhered to what was laid out here.

Previous to this, my idea was just to throw my story into their world. Perhaps this was ignorant of me but writing a story in a shared universe isn’t that easy. You know, if DC kills off Bruce Wayne, and you want to feature him in “Superman” well that’s too bad. You’ve got to go with the pulse of the universe.

Now, I know it’s not that groan worthy. It’s more to the idea that you need to learn the rules and the how’s and whys of these “zombies.” Once I had the escalation schedule it provided an incredible backdrop to the world of my writing. I knew exactly what was happening 50 miles away with a certain degree of intimacy. And, the best part is, as the events of my book begin to unfold they are weaved into the larger canon of the universe.

Suffice to say – there has been nothing like this in the zombie genre – ever. It’s why we’re all so excited at Double Take, and it’s why you should be too.

This Zomblog will run every Monday and Friday until I run out of things to say about zombies. 

Until then check out Double Take’s blog – Double Take Universe to keep up to date on the incredible comics that will be coming your way in September. And their Kickstarter Just got FUNDED.

 

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[Review] Graphic Novel ‘Tender’ Is Brilliant Feminist Body Horror That Will Make You Squirm & Scream

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Tender Beth Hetland Graphic Novel

Beth Hetland’s debut graphic novel, ‘Tender,’ is a modern tale of love, validation, and self-destruction by way of brutal body horror with a feminist edge.

“I’ve wanted this more than anything.”

Men so often dominate the body horror subgenre, which makes it so rare and insightful whenever women tackle this space. This makes Beth Hetland’s Tender such a refreshing change of pace. It’s earnest, honest, and impossibly exposed. Tender takes the body horror subgenre and brilliantly and subversively mixes it together with a narrative that’s steeped in the societal expectations that women face on a daily basis, whether it comes to empowerment, family, or sexuality. It single-handedly beats other 2023 and ‘24 feminine horror texts like American Horror Story: Delicate, Sick, Lisa Frankenstein, and Immaculate at their own game.

Hetland’s Tender is American Psycho meets Rosemary’s Baby meets Swallow. It’s also absolutely not for the faint of heart.

Right from the jump, Tender grabs hold of its audience and doesn’t let go. Carolanne’s quest for romantic fulfillment, validation, and a grander purpose is easy to empathize with and an effective framework for this woeful saga. Carolanne’s wounds cut so deep simply because they’re so incredibly commonplace. Everybody wants to feel wanted.

Tender is full of beautiful, gross, expressive artwork that makes the reader squirm in their seat and itch. Hetland’s drawings are simultaneously minimalist and comprehensively layered. They’re  reminiscent of Charles Burns’ Black Hole, in the best way possible. There’s consistently inspired and striking use of spot coloring that elevates Hetland’s story whenever it’s incorporated, invading Tender’s muted world.

Hetland employs effective, economical storytelling that makes clever use of panels and scene construction so that Tender can breeze through exposition and get to the story’s gooey, aching heart. There’s an excellent page that depicts Carolanne’s menial domestic tasks where the repetitive panels grow increasingly smaller to illustrate the formulaic rut that her life has become. It’s magical. Tender is full of creative devices like this that further let the reader into Carolanne’s mind without ever getting clunky or explicit on the matter. The graphic novel is bookended with a simple moment that shifts from sweet to suffocating.

Tender gives the audience a proper sense of who Carolanne is right away. Hetland adeptly defines her protagonist so that readers are immediately on her side, praying that she gets her “happily ever after,” and makes it out of this sick story alive…And then they’re rapidly wishing for the opposite and utterly aghast over this chameleon. There’s also some creative experimentation with non-linear storytelling that gets to the root of Carolanne and continually recontextualizes who she is and what she wants out of life so that the audience is kept on guard.

Tender casually transforms from a picture-perfect rom-com, right down to the visual style, into a haunting horror story. There’s such a natural quality to how Tender presents the melancholy manner in which a relationship — and life — can decay. Once the horror elements hit, they hit hard, like a jackhammer, and don’t relent. It’s hard not to wince and grimace through Tender’s terrifying images. They’re reminiscent of the nightmarish dadaist visuals from The Ring’s cursed videotape, distilled to blunt comic panels that the reader is forced to confront and digest, rather than something that simply flickers through their mind and is gone a moment later. Tender makes its audience marinate in its mania and incubates its horror as if it’s a gestating fetus in their womb.

Tender tells a powerful, emotional, disturbing story, but its secret weapon may be its sublime pacing. Hetland paces Tender in such an exceptional manner, so that it takes its time, sneaks up on the reader, and gets under their skin until they’re dreading where the story will go next. Tender pushes the audience right up to the edge so that they’re practically begging that Carolanne won’t do the things that she does, yet the other shoe always drops in the most devastating manner. Audiences will read Tender with clenched fists that make it a struggle to turn each page, although they won’t be able to stop. Tender isn’t a short story, at more than 160 pages, but readers will want to take their time and relish each page so that this macabre story lasts for as long as possible before it cascades to its tragic conclusion. 

Tender is an accomplished and uncomfortable debut graphic novel from Hetland that reveals a strong, unflinching voice that’s the perfect fit for horror. Tender indulges in heightened flights of fancy and toes the line with the supernatural. However, Tender is so successful at what it does because it’s so grounded in reality and presents a horror story that’s all too common in society. It’s a heartbreaking meditation on loneliness and codependency that’s one of 2024’s must-read horror graphic novels.

‘Tender,’ by Beth Hetland and published by Fantagraphics, is now available.

4 out of 5 skulls

Tender graphic novel review

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