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Review: ‘Creepy Comics’ #10 The Lovecraft Edition

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Creepy #10 is an endearing collective tribute to H.P. Lovecraft, one of the most influential and greatest horror authors. This issue contains a series of Lovecraftian tales that dive headfirst into the macabre and suspense. Each creative team-up finds inventive ways of bringing Lovecraft’s famous name and influential works into the spotlight of popular culture. If you have never read Lovecraft (you call yourself a horror fan? Shame on you!), this issue will inspire you to buy one of his books to see what all the hype is about.

WRITTEN BY: Doug Moench, Matt Weinhold, John Arcudi, Jim & Ruth Keegan, Dan Braun, Bob Jenney
ART BY: Darick Robertson, Jim & Ruth Keegan, Bob Jenney, Kelley Jones, Richard Corben, Peter Bagge
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Comics
RELEASE: October 3rd, 2012

If you have read H.P. Lovecraft’s “At The Mountains of Madness” or “Herbert West: Reanimator”, you know the author’s writing primarily focuses on the fear of the unknown. At his prime, Lovecraft used his descriptive words to build suspense out of the strange and unexplained. What caught me off-guard with this issue of “Creepy,” these authors and artists are using horror comedy to describe a Lovecraftian tale. Because this is an unexpected if you’re not versed in the continuing exploration of Lovecraftian fiction this may seem off kilter. Nobody ever really thinks, “I want to read Lovecraft to get a good laugh.” But the end result is surprisingly hilarious and at times, laugh-out loud. Neil Gaiman has written several Lovecraft parodies and he once said “You only parody something if it’s really important”. That holds true for this edition of “Creepy”.

From Dan Braun and Pete Bagge, “The Strange Case of Panel Six” is a cartoonish play on storytelling. Two siblings suddenly discover their life is being displayed in a comic book. Word-for-word, everything they say is being repeated onto the page. The siblings try to think up ways of doing something different to break the pattern. Bagge’s artwork is animatedly exaggerated when it comes to eyeballs and facial reactions. Dan’s short story is a quick read and Bagge’s panels looks like a weird version of the Foxtrot comic strip.

Continuing with the bizarre, Matt Weinhold/Darick Robertson/Richard P. Clark’s “Mint in Package” is a hilarious premise about a collector who discovers Lovecraft’s Elder Gods as toys. The Dark Godz collection is a rarity, especially since their toy factory was previously burnt down. As they play off of Weinhold’s satirical humor in the beginning, Robertson and Clark then bring in the horror towards the climatic last page. When you open the toys from their mint condition packaging, a hideous creature pops out.

As the laughs keep coming, Bagge’s “The Bane” is another hilarious tale where a teenage girl hides under her bed covers. Bagge displays such poetic eloquence as he describes the girl’s teen angst. Afraid to go outside, the girl is frightened by what people will say when they see her face. Bagge’s keeps the panels in tight medium shots, steering towards the shadows and gray tones. What could be actually more hideous than a flesh-eating monster? How about a zit on the face?

The laughs come to a halt and the terror comes about in John Arcudi and Richard Corben’s “The Illuminations of Charity Wallis.” Booth Wallis dreams about gold after discovering the Necronomicon. Because Booth’s wife, Charity, can read Latin, he believes she can translate the text. The more Charity deciphers the meaning of the passages, she is repeatedly plagued by nightmares. As Arcudi builds the suspense as Charity’s life worsens, Corben illustrates such eye-popping imagery. The artwork highlights Charity’s surreal nightmares, depicting cavemen with eyes and mouths on their chests.

If you are looking for horror comedy, “Creepy” #10 is a near perfect anthology issue. Each short tale is filled with lots of enjoyable campy humor and finishes off with a twisted ending. After reading a few of these shorts, you will want to re-visit H.P. Lovecraft’s work, and what better time than Halloween month.

Rating: 4/5 skulls

Reviewed by Jorge Solis

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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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