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‘Monocyte’ Gets Deluxe With IDW Limited

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Menton3 and Kasra Ghanbari’s dark, sci-fi, horror, post-apocalypse masterpiece, Monocyte is getting a well deserved set of IDW Limited releases. This Deluxe hardcover editions will feature original artwork from an insane group of artists including menton3, George Pratt, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Ben Templesmith. The book is now available for pre-order over at www.idwlimited.com. This one is going to sell quick, so don’t blow it. Full details after the break.

Official Press Release:

November 20th, 2012 (San Diego) IDW Limited today announced a deluxe limited-edition treatment of MONOCYTE from art visionary menton3 and writer/artist/entrepreneur Kasra Ghanbari. The book is now available for pre-order on the IDW Limited website (www.idwlimited.com). The special edition includes hand-drawn artwork from the book’s artist and co-creator menton3, as well as several other gallery artists, including George Pratt, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Ben Templesmith.

The MONOCYTE Deluxe Limited Edition book is being offered in both Red Label and Black Label editions from IDW Limited, and for the first time, Black Label buyers have the opportunity to choose which artist they’d like to own original art from. Black Label editions are limited to 30 copies by menton3 and 5 copies each by Pratt, Sienkiewicz, and Templesmith. All Black Label editions will be housed in a handcrafted black cloth tray case and include a hardcover original art portfolio. Artwork techniques by each master range from watercolor to mixed media.

Created by menton3 and Kasra Ghanbari, drawn by menton3, and co-written/edited by Kasra, MONOCYTE is a cerebral, frightening, and beautiful story about old gods battling in a future wasteland. An incredible scope of gallery artists and comic talent contributed to this series, which include Ashley Wood, Phil Hale, Bill Sienkiewicz, David Stoupakis, Ben Templesmith, George Pratt, Steve Niles, Barron Storey, Riley Rossmo, and Christopher Mitten.

“MONOCYTE was such a personal book for us, and we were thankful to be able to work with IDW on it and have them be so open-minded and supportive of our approach and design ideas,” said menton3. “With IDW Limited, this relationship was taken even further, and I can’t wait to see this presentation of the book.”

The Red Label edition of MONOCYTE is limited to 150 copies, each presented with a special black cloth slipcase and hand-signed by both menton3 and Kasra. George Pratt, Ben Templesmith, and Bill Sienkiewicz have all provided original pieces and signatures for their individual Black Label editions, all of which are also signed by the book’s co-creators, Kasra and menton3.

“We created MONOCYTE as a love letter to the medium and because it was the kind of book we wanted to see on the shelves,” said Kasra. “With IDW Limited, we had access to incredible production possibilities and direct input into every design element. What we ended up with is a true definitive edition that fully realizes the art and reading experience.”

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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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