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Review: ‘Amala’s Blade’ #2

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Following a successful first installment, Steve Horton and Michael Dialynas turn in another gem for Dark Horse Comics, with Amala’s Blade #2. Focusing on the remarkable world-building of Naamaron in both script and art, this issue shows Amala’s supremacy as a master assassin. Through a gripping depiction of fantastically illustrated violence, the second installment surpasses the level of quality produced in issue #1, and promises more greatness in the issues to follow.

WRITTEN BY: Steve Horton
ART BY: Michael Dialynas
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Comics
PRICE: $3.50
RELEASE: May 29th, 2013

Picking up right where issue #1 left off, Part 2 pulls no punches as readers are thrust into a brief flashback teasing Amala’s origins. The issue then jumps to the present narrative which follows the assassin on her suicide mission to kill a Purifier noblewoman named Lady Strawbale. Unfortunately, the bounty on her head is making the journey an arduous one. Amala is able to enlist possessive help from her spirit companions, leaving a pile of ravaged and dismembered corpses in her wake—and making for an awesome carnage-heavy panel-piece by Dialynas.

Horton moves the story along by expanding on the Naamaron universe he’s building, and giving his readers a more in-depth look at the Purifier vs. Modifier culture. As it’s already been established from last month’s issue, Naamaron is a land divided by twenty years of civil war between the two warring factions. The low-tech Purifiers, powered by steam, are on the West, while the high-tech Modifiers, worshippers of technology, are to the East. Traditional steampunk and Biopunk aspects are extensively featured throughout most of the issue, and are brought to life by Dialynas’ colours and creative renderings of Horton’s world.

By the end of the issue, readers become closely acquainted with two clashing capital cities on either side of the divide. We also meet the respective spiritual leaders of both: Lady Strawbale of Ouon and the Prince of the Modifier capital, Avatouon. While the status of their relationship is being revealed, Dialynas expertly illustrates Amala’s sneak attack and infiltration of the Purifier Palace. The precision in how she successfully scales the palace walls and takes out the palace guards is perfectly executed by Dialynas’ knack for authentically capturing the fluidity of her movements.

The last few pages are probably the most intense in terms of dramatically paced action scenes, narrative progression, and reader speculation regarding Lady Strawbale’s true identity. With only two more issues left, it’s hard to see where Horton is going to take the series, especially considering the fact that Amala’s target is the answer to bringing peace to Naamaron. So much seems to be going on, and there are still many questions that remain unanswered, but if the first two installments are any indication, the last two will surely deliver. Here’s hoping both Horton and Dialynas have more in store for Amala beyond this Dark Horse mini.

4.5/5 Skulls

Reviewed by – ShadowJayd

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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