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COMICS TO FEAST ON: January 4th 2011

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Why not bring in the New Year with some brand new books on your pull list? Yeah that’s right, venture outside your comfort zone and try something you’ve never tried before. Who knows, you might even like it! This week storms in with the first issue of FERALS, plus the newest issues of ANIMAL MAN, SWAMP THING, and more. Read on for the skinny…

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With the ever-increasing number of books coming out between the tie-ins, the crossovers, and the new series, we’ve got to limit our lists for the week somehow. Rather than cramming so many previews down your throat that you barely breathe, we present you with our ten most anticipated books of the week. So feast your eyes on these! Whether you’ve been into comics since you were a young’un, or you’re new to the game, we’re here to help you decide which books to pick up.

Ferals #1

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WRITTEN BY: David Lapham
ILLUSTRATED BY: Gabriel Andrade
PUBLISHER: Avatar
PRICE: $3.99

The Low Down: “Lapham unleashes a new on-going horror series! David (CROSSED) Lapham returns to his Stray Bullets roots with a brutal supernatural crime drama that features the grueling horror of a new type of werewolf! Officer Dale Chesnutt has a big bloody problem – slaughtered civilians are turning up in the sleepy town of Cypress and now it’s on him to figure it out. But while he is discovering more carnage, and his violent passions for a sexy mysterious woman, a vicious creature strikes again, this time at Dale’s own family. The horrific mystery begins to unfold with Gabriel (LADY DEATH) Andrade illustrating the on-going Ferals epic. Available with a Regular, Wraparound, Gore, and special Slashed Retailer Incentive cover by series artist Gabriel Andrade.”

The Feast: Since Avatar released a huge preview of Ferals a few weeks back, it’s been a massively anticipated book in the horror world. Lapham is making sure his name known in the comics industry and this book may be the one that marks him as one of the best in the biz.

Crawl to Me TP

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WRITTEN BY: Alan Robert
ILLUSTRATED BY: Alan Robert
PUBLISHER: IDW
PRICE: $17.99

The Low Down: “Wire Hangers creator/hard-rock musician, Alan Robert, is back for blood with this all-new horror tale, Crawl to Me. The story centers on Ryan, as he struggles to protect his family from what appears to be an evil entity living within their basement’s crawl space. It is only after a series of violent events occur, that Ryan realizes he must set aside all he believes to be true in order to face his shocking and inevitable reality. This intense thriller will keep you guessing every step of the way.”

The Feast: Crawl to Me is one of the most highly acclaimed horror titles of the past year, and for good reason. This book will knock you off your feat and awaken you to the horrors that exist in our world every day. Crawl to Me is a book every single horror fan should read. (See BD review here)

Swamp Thing #5

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WRITTEN BY: Scott Snyder
ILLUSTRATED BY: Yanick Paquette
PUBLISHER: DC Comics
PRICE: $2.99

The Low Down: “Alec and Abby bring the fight to Sethe’s chosen servant in the blood-slicked slaughterhouses of west Texas! But while the battle is joined in America, the war may already be lost in the jungles of Brazil, as danger approaches for the Parliament of Trees…”

The Feast: Swamp Thing is starting to get really, really good, and Alec Holland is finally realizing his proper place among the Parliament of Trees. With that creepy child wreaking havoc across the USA and voices telling Alec not to trust those he loves, Snyder looks to be crafting another horror tale of epic proportions.

Sweet Tooth #29

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WRITTEN BY: Jeff Lemire
ILLUSTRATED BY: Jeff Lemire
PUBLISHER: Vertigo
PRICE: $2.99

The Low Down: “Part one of a new storyline and a great jumping-on point for new readers! Jeff Lemire returns as regular artist for part one of “Unnatural Habits.” While Jeppard, Singh and Gus make plans to head to Alaska, things start to deteriorate for the rest of the group back at the sanctuary in the dam. Plus: a variant cover by ANIMAL MAN artist Travel Foreman!”

The Fest: This book will have your heart. Lemire has created a wonderfully dark post-apocalyptic world like nothing you’ve seen before. The adorable creatures combined with the ruggedness of the world they live in contrast beautifully. Lemire has promised that the series is now passed its halfway point, so prepare yourself for the beginning of the end.

Animal Man #5

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WRITTEN BY: Jeff Lemire
ILLUSTRATED BY: Travel Foreman
PUBLISHER: DC Comics
PRICE: $2.99

The Low Down: “With Ellen and Cliff’s lives hanging in the balance, Buddy finally faces off against The Hunters Three! But the fight doesn’t go as planned, causing the Baker family to go on the run. What dark new threat is chasing them — and why? Find out as the first arc of DC’s surprise breakout hit comes to a startling conclusion!”

The Feast: Animal Man has been nothing but a sheer pleasure to read week after week after week. It was hard to imagine things could get better after issue #1, but Lemire opened up this series to bold new places that nobody could have imagined. This issue concludes the first chapter for Buddy Baker and his family and we can’t wait to see what the creative team has in store for them next,

DC Comics Presents the New 52 #1

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WRITTEN BY: Various
ILLUSTRATED BY: Various
PUBLISHER: DC Comics
PRICE: $7.99

The Low Down: “Don’t miss the special sampler issue reprinting four of the hottest DC COMICS — THE NEW 52 titles, including ANIMAL MAN #1, JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #1, I, VAMPIRE #1 and SWAMP THING #1.”

The Feast: If you missed the boat on the New 52 “Dark” books, have no fear! Don’t bother buying that super expensive hardcover that collects all 52 new series, buy these re-releases and not only will you save some money, but you’ll save some shelf space as well.

Charlie Adlard: Curse of the Wendigo TP

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WRITTEN BY: Mathieu Missoffe
ILLUSTRATED BY: Charlie Adlard
PUBLISHER: Dynamite
PRICE: $7.99

The Low Down: “From the New York Times Bestselling artist of the Walking Dead hit series comes another horror classic! July 1917. The night air is rent by sentries’ screams. Everyone thinks it’s a trap laid by the enemy, but soon they hear screams from the German lines. Both camps are obliged to declare a truce and send a team of men, French and German, to solve the mystery. With them goes Wohati, a Red-skin, one of the 12,000 Indians in the U.S. Army. And probably the only man who knows what’s out there, lying in wait. Illustrated by Charlie Adlard (The Walking Dead), this is the story of a strange phenomenon to strike the French and German trenches. Their only chance: to unite, and survive, the Wendigo!”

The Feast: This book was set to be released a few months back, but after many delays, it’s finally hitting the stores. To be honest we’re not realy sure what to expect from this book; we know the artwork will be nothing short of magnificent, and the story sounds intriguing but beyond that it’s quite mysterious. Hopefully Adlard has another hit on his hands.

Helraiser #9

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WRITTEN BY: Clive Barker
ILLUSTRATED BY: Stephen Thompson
PUBLISHER: BOOM!
PRICE: $3.99

The Low Down: “BRAND NEW ARC! Great for new readers! Witness Clive Barker’s long-awaited return to tell new chapters in the series’ official continuity – a trajectory that will forever change the Cenobites… and Pinhead! In this issue: The new era of the flesh is upon us! What surprises lay wait inside the pages of this issue of Hellraiser? Find out as this will be the issue everyone will be talking about! Clive Barker takes what you know about the Hellraiser mythos and changes it forever!”

The Feast: If you weren’t reading this title before, shame on you, but this is your chance to hop on board Barker’s newest thriller ride. Whether you’re a fan of Hellraiser or not, this is a crazy good book. With a new head Cenobite in town, this chapter will set the tone for what’s to come in 2012.

Fatale #1

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WRITTEN BY: Ed Brubaker
ILLUSTRATED BY: Sean Phillips
PUBLISHER: Image
PRICE: $3.50

The Low Down: “GUNS! SEX! SECRET CULTS! AND MONSTERS! Nothing the BEST-SELLING and AWARD-WINNING creators of SLEEPER, CRIMINAL and INCOGNITO have done so far will prepare you for the explosive debut of FATALE! A reporter in 2012 stumbles on a secret that leads him down the darkest path imaginable to a seductive woman who’s been on the run since 1935, a mobster who may be an immortal demon monster, and the stories of all the doomed men who’ve been caught in their decades-long struggle. FATALE blends noir and horror to tell a riveting epic unlike anything you’ve seen before. Issue #1 ships with “Beauty” and “Beast” variant covers.”

The Feast: I cannot think of two genres I would rather see meshed together than horror and noir. Coming from the mind of Ed Brubaker, this crime horror story looks absolutely insane. To be honest, I’m pretty jealous that Brubaker got to this before me.

Uncanny X-Force #19.1

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WRITTEN BY: Rick Remender
ILLUSTRATED BY: Jerome Opena
PUBLISHER: Avatar
PRICE: $2.99

The Low Down: “Return to the Age of Apocalypse as the AOA X-Men make their final stand against Weapon X! Introducing new Age of Apocalypse super hero team The X-Terminated! Setting the stage for the new ongoing Age of Apocalypse series!”

The Feast: Remender’s Uncanny X-Force is THE X-title to be reading right now. Plain and simple, pick up this point one issue and see what all the fuss is about.

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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