Connect with us

Comics

EXCLUSIVE: Joe Harris Talks Ghost Projekt And MORE!

Published

on

As we look to bring readers a slew of exclusive one-on-one interviews this week, we continue with the conclusion of my extensive interview with screenwriter and comic book scribe, Joe Harris. (The first segment can be found here) Inside you’ll find info on his upcoming project from Oni Press, “GHOST PROJEKT”, as well as his plans for the future. Read on for the skinny!
TD: Yes it sure is a great time. Maybe I’ll even see you out there this year! So let’s talk “Ghost Projekt”. I recently previewed it, and I’m really excited for it. What can you tell us about the project?

JH: “It’s a supernatural thriller and an old fashioned revenge ghost story that takes place in the former Soviet Union. During the Cold War, the Russians experimented with all sorts of weapons of mass destruction and that vast country is littered with former test sites, decaying laboratories and twisted victims of leaks, exposures and tests. The United States knew all about most of the insidious things they did over there. Hell, we did plenty of them ourselves. And, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, our Department of Defense ramped up efforts to help a stretched-thin Russian government catalog and contain loose materials that might make it onto the black market and into potential terrorists’ hands.

Enter Will Haley, the best American Weapons Inspector working abroad. When he’s called in to investigate a break-in at a crumbling, abandoned Siberian facility, he crosses paths with a beautiful Russian detective named Anya Romanova who’s investigating a string of murders linked to the super-secret research and development that went on here. They don’t know much about the work that was conducted, but they know operations went on here under the project name, “Dosvidanya” which is Russian for good-bye. Ever since the break-in, people attached to the old project have been turning up dead and Operativnik Romanova suspects one of project heads of using whatever mysterious materials were stolen from that lab to pick off his fellow scientists and administrators who worked on this illegal program in hopes of covering his tracks and avoiding prosecution for any war crimes committed under his watch.

Only it’s far more complicated from that. Something has been released from that lab, but it’s something far more deadly than any sort of biological or chemical weapon Will is used to cataloging and containing. And Konstantin is responsible for far worse than anything Anya suspects. The whole investigation leads them down a rabbit hole of state secrets, deadly sins and research into the most deadly weapon of supernatural design imaginable since the Nazi’s sought the Lost Ark of the Covenant before Indiana Jones could shut them down.

The story criss-crosses the snowy Russian continent as our heroes chase the stolen Dosvidanya materials from the Siberian Taiga to Moscow’s Red Square. It’s full of hauntings, killings and one mother of a battle scene that completely devastates– well, I’ll let you read it when it comes out. I might have said too much already! But suffice to say, lots of ugly, deadly things were kept hidden beneath the Soviet Union’s Iron Curtain. Nothing like a little sunlight to send the roaches scattering.

TD: I think what draws me to the title so much is the fact that you really seemed to do a lot of research in order to make the title as relevant to the history it loosely revolves around. It just feels very thought out and well planned. How long have you been working on this title up until this point?

JH: “Well, it’s a combination of what I’ve heard about in the media really since those 2001 attacks on New York City and the Pentagon, research I’ve done since then, and my own imagination that’s filled in many of the gaps. Artist Steve Rolston and I have been discussing this project, on and off, for a few years now. And, I think, it was really in the months and years immediately following those events that this all sort of crystallized for me as a viable story. There’s not much written about the folks who do this kind of WMD collection and disposal, so I had to really glean what I could from what little was available. In the end, the book is a sort of amalgam of things. Procedurally and institutionally, I think I’ve taken a lot from movies like BACKDRAFT. Anything where you see the culture of a group of guys who do a specific, dangerous job. The ritual and camaraderie that goes with it, that sort of thing. As well as the dangerous work involved.

I guess this has all be gestating with me for a while, when I think about it. I’ve wanted to tell a horror story in frozen Russia ever since I read Brian Lumley’s NECROSCOPE novels as a kid. Those books are actually a tremendous influence on me and this project. Not directly, but tonally and in how they blend some of the espionage and supernatural elements.”

TD: “NECROSCOPE”? Really? I thought I was the only one who remembered those books.

So readers can expect a very adult, smart, and edgy story from “GHOST PROJEKT”. Is the story equal parts thriller and action? Or can readers expect a more chilling type of read for this one?

JH: It’s definitely a thriller with both chills and action scenes throughout. Keep in mind, it’s very much a ghost story, so I’ve tried to really build out some creepy, haunted moments. But make no mistake. There’s some thunder in this series too. We’ve got the Russian Red Army and para-military police dealing with unleashed hell, of a sort, both figuratively and literally.

One thing I always loved about Lumley’s books–it might have been the first one, I’m not sure–but it involved an assault on the headquarters of the Russian espers and the Necroscope, Harry Keogh, who could communicate with the dead who would, in turn, rise up and do his bidding, called on a field of fallen Tartar warriors lying calcified beneath the frozen crust. That scene always stuck with me and damn if it didn’t infect and influence some of my own machinations.

Reminiscing about those books is making me a bit nostalgic. I want to write the NECROSCOPE movie. Very, very badly. I’d settle for some new comics adaptations done right. But I digress…

TD: NECROSCOPE would make a fantastic film though I hadn’t heard anything about a possible movie. Are you telling me you know something I don’t? Haha What about “GHOST PROJEKT”? With all the hype and positive press going on for it right now would you be open to a film adaptation one day?

JH: Well, sure. Of course. I mean, I’d like to think all of my present and upcoming original comics properties would make great film franchises. We’ll see, obviously. But that’s certainly a goal going forward. The first goal is telling a good story and putting out a great book that satisfies readers and justifies their spending their money, reading the publicity, interviews and what not. But yeah, of course. I want to make movies and so does Oni Press. I’ve made movies based on original ideas of mine and I’ve written comics featuring other peoples’ properties and characters. One of the biggest reasons I decided to get back into telling comics stories, rather than writing spec scripts or pitching concepts to studios and buyers without the established publishing behind them was to sort of merge these two tracks I’ve been on. I only wish I’d done creator-owned comics sooner as I’m having a great time right now.

I don’t know anything about NECROSCOPE, the movie. I just wish I did.

TD: Well I think I can speak for the majority of us when I say I’d surely by a ticket to see the movie. The book itself has gotten a huge amount of positive press, which has to excite you. Besides “GHOST PROJEKT” though, is there anything else that readers can be on the lookout for from you in the year to come?

JH: “Yeah, quite a bit actually. Following GHOST PROJEKT, I have a host of new books in the works from Oni Press. Next up is an original graphic novel called THE HASHISHIAN. It’s a stoner, action and adventure story about a two upstanding young Brooklyn lads in the Cheech and Chong and Harold and Kumar tradition who find some magic weed, in more ways than one. Turns out it’s actually connected to an ancient order of Islamic assassins dating back to the time of the crusades. When one of these assassins–or “Hashishians” as the first assassins were actually plied with hashish and that’s where the word “assassin” comes from–shows up in the present day looking to pick off the President of the United States, our dynamic duo tries to do the right thing and tell the authorities, the government, the secret service, anyone who’ll listen to what they’ve discovered… only they’re too stoned for anyone to take seriously and set out trying to save democracy and freedom on their own.

After that, I’ve got two other Oni Books coming down the pike, including a very awesome young adult fantasy story with artist Adam Pollina and some new horror properties we’ll be announcing as the convention season gets rolling later this year. I’ve also got a new horror title coming from a major comics publisher that, again, will be announced as the year gets going.

Aside from this, I’m still contributing to Dark Horse Comics’ newly re-launced hit, CREEPY. Part Three of my serialized mind-fuck story, THE CURSE will be out in CREEPY #3 next month and I’ll likely have stories popping up in year two of that wonderful book.”

TD: Everyone here at Bloody-Disgusting would like to thank Joe for his time and for always being a pleasure to speak to. For all of you out there that haven’t marked your calanders yet, Joe’s newest serialized epic “GHOST PROJEKT” comes to you from Oni Press on March 3rd!

Comics

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

Published

on

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

Continue Reading