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Review: “Veil” #2

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Rats. Rats are very important. These vile little creatures skitter through life unknowingly breeding disease and disgust. Yet, Veil embraces them entirely. The mystery of “Veil” is deepened, the world is fleshed out, and the stakes are raised even higher in this second issue of Greg Rucka’s mystery about the objectification of beauty.


WRITTEN BY: Greg Rucka
ART BY: Toni Fejzula
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse
PRICE: $3.50
RELEASE: April 2, 2014

Rucka said himself that the story of “Veil” would become much clearer with issue two. Bullshit. Not that I’m calling him a liar, because it does, but only somewhat. I mean the larger world of the comic comes into play, and now we know nefarious people are after Veil. That’s it though. We don’t know much else.

Which is part of the charm. Dante is our conduit for this beautiful and haunting journey. He’s a bad dude caught between his reputation and trying to do the right thing. He can’t understand Veil for the life of him, and the harder he tries the harder she pulls away.

The real magic in this issue comes with well… literal magic. We’re treated to some nefarious dudes who have performed sacrifices seemingly in their quest for Veil. One dude in particular harnesses power much like Veil’s. Rucka does a fantastic job at expanding his world and deepening the mystery of how this beautiful and lost girl relates to it.

There is a moment here that shows even the most “upstanding” of people find something magnetic about Veil. It stands to reason that most people lose control around her, and cannot resist her otherworldly charm. Although its not clear why Dante seems immune. In any event Rucka manages to make it all compelling by never answering these things. It’s not important to the story, at least not yet.

Toni Fejzula’s art has apparently gone through some progression before reaching the look that has come to define this book. Everything feels like a neon soaked fever dream that is captured in stained glass. It’s absolutely gorgeous and hard to shy away from. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like it, but the style imbues the adventure with a distinct otherworldliness that only deepens the mystery. I can’t sing the art’s praises enough. You’ve never seen anything quite like it.

“Veil” is this unique concoction of ideas that might seem a little cliché at first. The amnesiac with great powers has been done before, but never like this. The thematic implications within the narrative tell a story about objectification. Dante is an exciting and almost tragic character who is about more than likely about to enter what Walter Sobchak called “a world of pain.”

Dark things are brewing on the horizon, but the charm of this book far outweighs its grim implications. The mystery still runs rampant through the pages, but the pieces are moving across the board. We know more than we did before, but we still don’t know much.

Rating: 4/5 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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