Connect with us

Comics

Review: “Deep Gravity” #1

Published

on

An interplanetary mining company is contracted by the government to pluck resources from a distant earth-like planet called Poseidon.  It is a three year journey to Poseidon, a deadly rock that is home to acid spitting serpents and gigantic mastodon beasts.

25975

WRITTEN BY: Mike Richardson, Gabriel Hardman, Corinna Bechko
ART BY: Fernando Baldó
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: July 30, 2014

Reviewed By Epic Switzer

The story begins with a tri-yearly rotation as a new group of workers, soldiers, and scientists arrive and the former group cycles out.  We are introduced to many characters and vague references are made towards their established relationships; just enough to be intriguing.  Ultimately it is revealed that some one is set on sabotaging the entire operation without any regard for human life.  “Deep Gravity” #1 is an imaginative sci-fi mystery that is both smart and accessible.

This book is misleading when it starts:  There is a full page of prose that setup Maelstrom Science and Technology Corp, the planet Poseidon, and provide a definition for gravity wells and deep gravity.  Right of the bat I thought I was going to be in for something dense with a lot of jargon and entities to keep up with.  Thankfully, I found “Deep Gravity” #1 to be really accessible.  At its heart this is a character story, albeit amidst an alien setting with a somewhat complicated premise.  Like any good book, however, the emotional complexity of the characters is what really shines through.

The protagonist, Paxon, is hung up on an ex-girlfriend.  So much so that he travels to Poseidon three years away just to get some closure from her.  Michelle, the ex in question, is not impressed by this gesture, as she has been subject to the harsh conditions on Poseidon for three years and is dealing with collecting man eating aliens to bring back to Earth for research.  This is the central conflict the drives the first issue.  The play between Paxon and Michelle is interesting to say the least, and discovering more about their relationship will certainly be a major driving force for the book.

Surrounding this conflicted couple is a hellish alien world for us to slowly discover.  The beasts are interesting and deadly, and the operation put together to combat/capture is well thought out.  On Poseidon, the gravity is much higher than on Earth, thus making humans weaker, less coordinated, and easily exhausted.  This clever details adds a lot to the threat and anxiety in the book.

This first issue packs a ton of story in while introducing readers to a brand new world.  The hook at the end will keep you coming back for more.  Even though I don’t typically read sci-fi, I enjoy a well plotted mystery and interesting relationships.  As an added bonus, the aliens are majorly cool.  I hate to gloss over the art as much as I do, but I found it to be effective without being distracting and entirely appropriate for the genre.  Dark Horse doesn’t do a ton of new IPs these days, so I found “Deep Gravity” to be a fun and refreshing read.

 

Epic Switzer AKA Eric is an aspiring filmmaker and screenplay writer living in Los Angeles.  His work tends to focus on the lighter side of entropy, dystopic futures, and man’s innate struggle with his own mortality.  He can be found on twitter @epicswitzer or reached via email at ericswitzerfilm@gmail.com

 

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