Connect with us

Comics

7 Most Shocking & Disturbing Moments From “Crossed” (NSFW)

Published

on

No other horror title turns a stomach quite like “Crossed”. The book is easily the most vile, depraved, and sickest horror comic being published today. The “Crossed” come up with some imaginative ways of torturing their victims, as readers have watched them rape, crucify, disembowel, and bludgeon people in every conceivable way. The only time the “Crossed” feel any semblance of remorse is when they’ve ran out of victims. Here is my list of the most disturbing moments we’ve been forced to endure in the pages of “Crossed” so far. Let us know yours in the comments.

1. Bludgeoning by a horse’s cock
Crossed_Horsecock
One of the most beloved villains in Crossed history, ‘Horsecock’ got his name from his infatuation with beating people to death with a horse’s cock. This twisted sadist was first introduced in the original “Crossed” mini-series by Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows. Watching a man get beaten to death by a horse’s cock looks as vile as it sounds and leaves the images burned into your mind.

2. Joseph Pratt raping his own daughters to repopulate following the outbreak


In ‘Crossed” Family values’ writer David Lapham introduced readers to Joseph Pratt, a tyrant that used his religious beliefs to justify physically and sexually abusing his own family when the outbreak began. Joseph ruled with an iron first to the point where his entire family was living in fear from his violent temper, in addition to the threat of the “Crossed”.

3. Harold Lorre cutting off a man’s face and wearing it as a dead skin mask
Crossed_HaroldLorr_DeadSkinMask
When the “Crossed” plague broke out, Harold used it as an excuse to unleash his twisted and perverse desires onto the survivors that remained. Lorre’s horrific highlights include countless sexual offenses, as well as cutting off a woman’s breast and saving it in a zip-lock bag as a souvenir. His most grotesque moment has to be cutting off a man named Darwin’s face then wearing it as a mask while rapes the his girlfriend Claire. Lorre’s action proves that it is possible for a human to be even more despicable than the Crossed themselves.

4. The axe wielding ex-firefighter Smokey
smokey1
Before writer Christos Gage introduced the axe wielding ex-firefighter Smokey to the mythos, the Crossed where nothing more than mindless killing machines. Gage introduced a new element of horror to the “Crossed” series with Smokey; intelligence. ‘Smokey’ was able to prolong his instant gratification, as he plotted a plan to inflect more damage on the remaining survivors. ‘Smokey’ toying with his victims added a psychological element to the series that was far more frightening than the disturbing acts of graphic violence.

5. A “Crossed” lung-fucking a dolphin
Crossed_Dolphin
Nothing will prepare you for the opening sequence of ‘Crossed: Wish You Were Here’ where one depraved Crossed fucks a dolphin in his blowhole. This scene definitely set the standard for sick and twisted in the “Crossed’ world, as readers can never be the same after reading this scene.

6. Spine on countertop
Crossed_Spine
Who could forget the scene that kicked off the original Crossed series? An infected man casually walks into a diner, emblazoned with a red cross on his face, and proudly plunks down a bloody spine onto the countertop. The man ghoulishly grins before biting off a man’s nose and kicking off a reign of terror. It was here that all the major characters were introduced, but the graphic imagery stuck with readers long afterwards.

7. LARPing
Crossed_LARP_TheLivers
After surviving the horrors of Harold Lorre in “Crossed: Psychopath”, Amanda finds herself on the run from the “Crossed”. While searching for a safe house, Amanda finds a band of survivors that are clearly insane and suffering from schizophrenic delusions. The group, dubbed the ‘Livers’, are doing a truly psychotic version of a live action role-playing game (LARP) during the outbreak. This story-arc was truly one of the strangest ‘WTF’ moments in the “Crossed” series that was unsettling to read.

Comics

[Review] Graphic Novel ‘Tender’ Is Brilliant Feminist Body Horror That Will Make You Squirm & Scream

Published

on

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

Continue Reading