Comics
Review: ‘Sons of Anarchy’ #1
Comic book adaptations of licensed properties are never an easy task to execute. There have been many failed attempts to take characters from film and television and adapt them into comic books, but BOOM! Studios have a proven track record of successfully adapted of licensed properties like “Adventure Time” and “Planet of the Apes” into comic book series. Now the publisher is taking a shot at adapting the FX TV series “Sons of Anarchy” and hoping that they can have similar success.
WRITTEN BY: Christopher Golden
ART BY: Damian Coueciro
PUBLISHER: Boom! Studios
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: September 11th, 2013
“Sons of Anarchy” #1 takes place in the in the middle of Season 5 with SAMCRO Sergeant-at-Arms Alex ‘Tig’ Trager still reeling from the gruesome murder of his daughter, when the daughter of an old member comes looking for safe haven. A hit squad is dispatched to take care of the girl and SAMCRO find themselves caught in the crossfire.
Writer Christopher Golden does a fantastic job of nailing the characters. He obviously is a fan of the source material and does the characters justice here on the printed page. His portrayal of ‘Tig’ in this issue, particularly the scene where he gives a soliloquy at his daughter’s grave, would fit perfectly into the confines of the television show. With just one issue under his belt it’s easy to see why Golden was the perfect writer to take ‘Sons of Anarchy’ from the screen to the page.
Artist Damian Coueciro perfectly captures the raw and gritty feel of the show in the pages of the comic. The characters look like they were ripped off the screen and transported into each panel of the book. Where Coueciro truly shines with this book is when he’s showcasing the emotional roller-coaster that characters like ‘Tig’ are riding. He does a great job conveying emotions like sadness, anger and contempt across through the depictions of the characters. Coueciro’s artwork enhances the story that writer Christopher Golden is telling and he does a fantastic job bringing everything to life.
If you are a fan of “Sons of Anarchy” TV series then this series is simply a must read. Rather than create a book just to cash in on the popularity of the series, Boom Studios have taken the time to find the proper creative team in Golden and Coueciro, and have harvested Season 5 of the television show to come up with another chapter in the ongoing narrative of SAMCRO.
4/5 Skulls
Comics
[Review] Graphic Novel ‘Tender’ Is Brilliant Feminist Body Horror That Will Make You Squirm & Scream
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.
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