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Review: “Liberator/Earth Crisis: Salvation of Innocents” #2

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Now that writer Matt Miner has dispensed with the exposition for his new chapter of animal liberation he jumps right into the action. Sarah is done being pushed around and when it comes to taking charge she totally excels. She might be a little more reserved than we’re used to when it comes to “Liberator/Earth Crisis: Salvation of Innocents” but it makes for a thoughtful conclusion to the powerful series.

WRITTEN BY:STK636082 Matt Miner & Earth Crisis
ART BY: Javier Sanchez Aranda
PUBLISHER: Black Mask Studios
PRICE: $3.50
RELEASE: May 7th, 2014

Being stuck in a job you hate must be absolutely dreadful. If I had to work for monsters Id be miserable, contemplating rebellion with every passing moment but I’m to weak to act on such things. Instead I’d just enter a horrible depression like most people. Except, Sarah is not like most people. She’s tenacious and filled with energy, much like Matt Miner. The energy transfers through the page and resonates with the reader.

So when Sarah is finally ordered to dispose of her only friend at work, enough is enough. She takes matters into her own hands and begins a personal quest to undo her workplace at whatever cost. What starts as a teardown of the lab ends with a personal showdown against the horrendous Dr. Reznick. She’s a real piece of work but Miner ensures Sarah never stoops to her level. She respects life and uses violence in a different way than the people she’s against. It’s a strong reminder of great ideals.

Javier Sanchez Aranda doesn’t miss a beat in this issue. He manages to balance the tough action of the climax with the preparation at the beginning of the issue without anything ever feeling stale. It’s dark but feels dynamic and exciting. All of the destruction is exhilarating. Aranda makes his art the perfect catalyst for change that demands your attention and forces you to root for Sarah’s cause.

Tying this story into the chracters of the first trade almost feels like an afterthought. Although it’s really cool to see Jeanette in the beginning of the issue, after a brief interaction with Sarah the connection is already over. Either it’s a simple passing of the torch nod, or a way to show that the world of vigilante justice is expanding. I sincerely hope the latter. I could totally get behind a Justice League like series following a group of Liberators who make efforts to change the world on a monumental level.

I really hope Matt Miner has more developed for this fantastic series. It takes important concepts and explores them through lens of vigilante justice without ever feeling preachy. Ever month with “Liberator” feels like a month where I’m a little more socially conscious about animal rights. It’s definitely made me more conscious of the horrible state of animal testing, which above all else is why you need to read this book. It’s incredibly entertaining, educational, and inspiring.

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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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