Comics
Max Brooks Announces “The Extinction Parade: War”
Hot off the heels of an announcement of a TV series adaptation, Max Brooks follows up his grisly zombies versus vampires series with a whole new volume! The son of Mel Brooks has been doing wonders for the current zombie world thanks to his work in World War Z. He doesn’t show any signs of slowing down either, so hit the jump to find the whole press release from Avatar and just what to expect when the new series drops in July.
From Avatar Press:
Extinction Parade: War in July. Brooks has been a driving force behind the resurgence in zombie interest over the last decade with his seminal prose works The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z. Fans have flocked to his novels and panel presentations to get the latest undead survival techniques from the charismatic master scholar.
Avatar Press is pleased to announce this horrifying continuation of Brooks’ groundbreaking series chronicling the breaking point for vampires as the privileged aristocratic race of immortals is finally forced to face a critical realization – that the human race won’t solve the zombie plague without their aid. And when these powerful undead creatures are finally mobilized the violent clash of Vampires and Zombies is summed up best in the new chapter’s subtitle: War.
Brooks explains the philosophy behind exposing the weaknesses of the vampire race in Extinction Parade: War, “Every individual human being knows life is hard. Sooner or later adversity’s gonna come knocking. But if you’re a vampire you’ve had a thousand years of comfortable joy. You’re not ready! You don’t have those survival skills.”
Extinction Parade: War #1 is a super-sized July shipping comic book that continues the story of Extinction Parade following issue #5. War #1includes the previously solicited single issue comics content of Extinction Parade #6 & #7 which have been cancelled. Fans who want to step into the terrifying world of Max Brooks’ Extinction Parade can do so with the electrifying first chapter of the story in the Extinction Parade Trade Paperback Collection also shipping in July and available for pre-order it now from your favorite retailer! Available at comic shops and retailers including Amazon.com and BN.com
About Extinction Parade:
In a world where the zombie plague has put the human race on the endangered species list, another predatory undead species realizes that to stand by idly means the end of their food supply. Vastly outnumbered by the zombie hordes, vampires descend into all-out subdead war, with humanity caught in the crossfire. This series further examines Brooks’ fascination with the lethal races of the undead and brings his unique voice to comics at a time when horror fiction is at an all-time high in popularity.
Extinction Parade, a softcover graphic novel with color interiors, 6.5″ x 9.5″, 160 pages.
– ISBN 978-1-59291-234-6
– $19.99 (US)
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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