Comics
Review: “Art Monster” # 3
There is a certain familiarity with “Art Monster” that straddles the line between Reanimator and my own life. It’s a strange mixture of horror and finding your own artistic calling. This month Jeremy Holt pinpoints the moment where it all makes sense, except for Victor his moment of clarity is brooding in darkness that is sure to set him on a path to ruin.
WRITTEN BY: Jeremy Holt
ART BY: Francesa Ciregia
PUBLISHER: Monkeybrain Comics
PRICE: $0.99
GET IT HERE: http://www.monkeybraincomics.com/
I relate to a lot of what’s happening on these pages. It’s a lovely trip inside the head of a twisted creative. It’s no mistake that Victor’s last name is Stein, the connections to the famous story are there, but here Holt focuses on the path that inspired the creation of a monster rather than the monster itself.
Although you can make an argument that in his pursuit to reanimate life, Victor is becoming a monster himself. Yet, you can’t help but sympathize with his goals, as you understand his struggles. Everyone has a tough time finding their calling in life, their unique pursuit that fulfills them, and their voice within that pursuit. Victor is realizing his potential, and it’s dark.
That’s why “Art Monster” works so well for me. It rationalizes the motivations behind becoming a monster as the one thing someone could be good at. They have to do it to fulfill themselves, and that reality is actually more horrifying than the actions they commit.
Francesa Ciregia brings a certain bleak vitality to the whole world of this book. The panels are soaked in thick black contrast but they help to create a world of death and despair. The dark characters feel full of life despite having dark traits that would make them replusive to most normal people, but Ciregia makes them warm and vibrant in even the most challenging situations.
Together the team on “Art Monster” has created a book about the process of inspiration and creation, but has chosen to seed it in something sinister. It’s perverse but inspired and a joy to read. I’m constantly floored by how much I relate to someone so fucked up.
Which is to Jeremy Holt’s credit. He’s able to really tie in some real struggles into a story like Frankenstien or Reanimator that for me weren’t present in those stories. Instead of focusing on the plot or the story device, he focuses on character motivation for the horrible actions and the story elevates to another level because of it. I can’t recommend this book enough for anyone who’s ever struggled with their creativity, you’ll be frightened by what you see and just how much you relate to it.
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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