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Review: Hellraiser #12

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The battle between Kirsty and Elliot Spencer rages on in the new issue of Hellraiser. Spencer and his comrades have returned to the place where he left his former human life, in order to destroy the box that took him. However, while Spencer is trying to destroy the box on earth, Kirsty is trying to understand it in Hell. And if the two worlds collide, chaos is sure to ensue. Another great issue from the genius mind of Barker and the gang. Read on for the skinny…

hellraiser12review WRITTEN BY: Clive Barker, Robb Humphreys, Mark Miller
ART BY: Janusz Ordon, Stephen Thompson
PUBLISHER: BOOM!
RELEASE: Out Now

In Hellraiser #12, both Kirsty and Spencer are sucked into alternate realities. Kirsty is taken to a shattered room, where she is forced to battle her inner beast and control her reactions. Spencer, however, is destined for bigger and better things, and humanity is holding him back, as it has in the past. In order to let go of his mortality and become truly invincible, he must experience a stomach-turning initiation. Once both of them make their choices, something happens that allows a new evil to be unleashed on earth.

This series continues to establish itself as a staple for any fan of the Hellraiser franchise. Clive Barker and Mark Miller continue to construct a stirring tale, with a perfect balance of action, suspense, drama, and gore. Stephen Thompson and Janusz Ordon are working perfectly with Barker and Miller in bringing the story to life. Hopefully they will stick around for a while, so we don’t have to continue dealing with artist changes.

This issue, in particular, used a striking rainbow of colors; for instance, the beginning scenes seemed to integrate more abstract art with psychedelic color patterns, perfectly achieving a chaotic, otherworldly effect. Throughout the rest of the issue, the colors are mixed with heavy blacks, to show the impending evil about to be set free. Thompson is doing a bang up job, and it captures Barker’s universe perfectly.

Once again, Barker, Miller, Ordon, and Thompson are a dream team. BOOM! Studios has definitely released a masterpiece. This series never fails to disappoint, and it’s definitely destined to be a classic horror comic. Lucky #13 of Hellraiser drops on April 25th.


Comics

[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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