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Review: Buzzkill # 3

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“Buzzkill” goes through the motions this month as Ruben tries to clear his conscience of all those that he wronged. Along the way we’re introduced to complicated past relationships with a myriad of colorful heroes, love life complications, and a major challenge that could potentially destroy our hero. The comedic insight on addiction doesn’t stop this month, but the real star of the show is Ruben’s past.


WRITTEN BY: Donny Cates & Mark Reznicek
ART BY: Geoff Shaw
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: November 20, 2013

Donny Cates, Mark Reznicek, and Geoff Shaw create such a great deconstruction of the superhero genre with “Buzzkill.” Every month takes another step in changing what we know about our protagonist and experiencing the character through a new lens. This month said lens is a Justice League type of organization. Ruben does his best to make amends, but these heroes will hear nothing of it.

Cates and Reznicek ensure that Ruben speaks through them, giving us a scathing analysis of the superheroes here. Characterization here is spot on. Both writers and Shaw have gone the extra mile to ensure you understand all of these heroes with a single panel. It borders on parody but it works so well. These colorful characters chose to distance themselves from Ruben because of the nature of his powers.

From here we’re drug back into Ruben’s personal life. The past of issues one and two come back to haunt him here. Everything comes full circle. A fantastic battle breaks out, but abruptly comes to an end as a bigger threat is posed.

This month the real star of the show is Doctor Blaqk. The character is imbued with such energy that he manages to liven up every scene. He continues to be a positive force in Ruben’s life, and at this very moment seems to be his only friend.

Geoff Shaw’s art is nothing short of miraculous. Over the course of the series he has done his best to transition Ruben from a strung out loser to a better, cleaner, version of himself. Which is in conjunction with his fantastic display of action scenes. Shaw makes sure you feel it when High Guard grabs Ruben and pins him against the glass paneling above the earth.

Actually, High Guard is particularly and fantastically imposing in every panel he’s in. He’s a looming presence, and the writers ensure us that Ruben doesn’t give a shit. He’s not afraid of this bulletproof bastard.

“Buzzkill” has amounted to an atypical story of redemption. Unlike other stories of redemption, this seems to be for Ruben and Ruben alone. At first his motivations seemed to be for others. A feeble attempt to win back the life he lost. Yet, in a moment of realization near the end of the issue Ruben is willing to lose everything just to make a difference.

Cates and Reznicek make sure that it’s not that easy. They dreg Ruben’s past back to haunt him and we learn a fantastic piece of backstory that gears us up for the finale. With nothing left to lose, and no powers to speak of, Ruben heads to his demise. Of course, things won’t be that cut and dry. They never are with this book. Now that Ruben has accepted his fate we head into what promises to be a fantastic and emotional battle.

With that promise, I’ll be jonsing for my next fix of “Buzzkill” for a whole month.

Rating: 4.5/5 Skulls.

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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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