Comics
The Saints Are Coming! First Look At ‘Boondock Saints: In Nomine Patris’!
This is going to kick some major ass! Today it was announced that 12-Gauge Comics has acquired the rights for the first ‘Boondock Saints’ comic arc (about damn time) titled “IN NOMINE PATRIS” to be released this May! For those of you that loved ‘All Saints Day’ you’re especially going to dig on the news. Read on for the full press release!
The Official Press Release Reads…
“It’s official! The BOONDOCK SAINTS make the move to comics this May, in the two issue limited series “IN NOMINE PATRIS” from 12-Gauge Comics.
TROY DUFFY’s original BOONDOCK SAINTS film is one of the most successful independent movies of all time, with a fiercely loyal and devoted fan base. Now, on the heels of the recent theatrical release of THE BOONDOCK SAINTS II: ALL SAINTS DAY, this new limited series marks the first official story to take place outside of the cult-hit films. Already tagged as both “Certified Cool” and a “Staff Pick” by Diamond Comic Distributors, THE BOONDOCK SAINTS: IN NOMINE PATRIS is destined to take the comic book marketplace by storm.
Written by BOONDOCK SAINTS creator/writer/director TROY DUFFY and comic scribe J.B. LOVE, (with art by newcomer GUUS FLOOR and covers by CHRIS BRUNNER) “In Nomine Patris” is the perfect companion to the recent movie (coming to DVD and BLU-RAY March 9th). Conceived as a “deleted and extended sequence”, the comics expand on the story and characters in ALL SAINTS DAY and delve deeper into the secret origin of the “Original Saint”, IL DUCE.
This is just the beginning of the Boondock Saints in comics! THE SAINTS ARE COMING!”
About the Publisher
12-Gauge Comics was founded by Keven Gardner in 2004 and currently publishes some of the most successful and critically acclaimed independent comic books in the marketplace today, including the recent hit LUKE MCBAIN, featuring country music mega-star TRACE ADKINS as the lead character. 12-Gauge members Jason Pearson, Brian Stelfreeze, Cully Hamner, and Doug Wagner are creating new and innovative multi-media concepts for the company, including Pearson’s run-away hit BODY BAGS and THE RIDE, which debuted as the top-selling black and white comic of the year in 2004. 12-Gauge helped develop THE O.C.T. (Occult Crimes Taskforce), an original comic book concept co-created and starring actress ROSARIO DAWSON. 12-Gauge has found a niche in the music industry; packaging comics for the rock band Coheed & Cambria, with other music-related projects currently in development. For more information, please visit www.12gaugecomics.com or email
info@12gaugecomics.com.
Comics
[Review] Graphic Novel ‘Tender’ Is Brilliant Feminist Body Horror That Will Make You Squirm & Scream
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.
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