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Titan Brings A Range Of European Graphic Novels To North America

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It all started when Titan Comics acquired the rights to bring the English translation of “Snow Piercer” to North America, a book we’ve been waiting to read for three decades (review here). Now, Titan continues their awesome initiative to bring in more well-known European comics, the first of which are “Elric: The Ruby Throne” and “Void”.

“Elic: The Ruby Throne” is the first collected edition of an adaptation of comics featuring Michael Moorcock’s infamous character, Elric. “Void” is a sci-fi thriller from the minds of Sean Phillips and Herik Hanna. Both are expected to ship in September, with a wave of other Euro books to follow. Check out all the details below.


From the press release:

Following the phenomenal runaway success of Snowpiercer, Titan Comics continues in its bold mission of presenting the highest quality European graphic novels to a brand-new audience!

Titan Comics is thrilled to announce that Elric: The Ruby Throne & Void will be published in deluxe hardcover editions this September!

Elric: The Ruby Throne is the first in a series of graphic adaptations of legendary fantasy author Michael Moorcock’s signature creation Elric. Written by Julien Blondel and beautifully illustrated by Robin Recht, Didier Poli & Jean Bastide, this new comic adaptation of the Elric of Melniboné novels has been produced with the full and enthusiastic endorsement of Moorcock himself, who provides an exclusive introduction to this edition!

“The best graphic adaptation of the story,” writes Moorcock, “has to be the current one by Julien Blondel and his team. This is perhaps the first graphic version of Elric fully to capture the sense of utter decadence I tried to convey in the books.”

Gripping science-fiction thriller Void is illustrated by superstar artist Sean Phillips (Fatale, Criminal, Sleeper) and written by Herik Hanna (Bad Ass). Concerning the sole survivor of an interstellar prison ship, this tense and atmospheric graphic novel is Phillips’ first venture into science fiction!

“We’re very excited to be launching a range of European graphic novels, spear-headed by Mike Moorcock’s Elric and Sean & Herik’s Void,” said Nick Landau, Titan publisher.

From late 2014, Titan Comics will follow Elric: The Ruby Throne and VOID with a host of new projects including best-selling medieval thriller The Third Testament; The Chronicles of Legion, which is the prequel to Fabien Nury & John Cassaday’s I Am Legion, and The Rage; a shocking horror about zombie children.

Void will hit comic and book stores from September 2, 2014.

Elric: The Ruby Throne will hit comic and book stores from September 16, 2014.

Void and Elric: The Ruby Throne will also be available to read on the iPad, iPhone, Web, Android and Kindle Fire, exclusively through the comiXology app and comiXology.com
To keep up-to-date with news from Titan Comics, visit www.titan-comics.com , join us on Facebook or follow @comicstitan on Twitter.

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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