Comics
Monkeybrain Monday Review: “The Remains” # 1
While Monkeybrain comics may not specialize in horror, they do specialize in quality comic books. For those of you looking to expand your palette this is “Monkeybrain Monday” showcasing some of the digital titles this smaller publisher has to offer.
Cullen Bunn has recently taken the comics world by storm with “Sinestro”, and the new “Magneto” ongoing from Marvel launching this week. “The Remains” follows two young girl’s horrific encounter after their struggling father decides to take in a rat-like drifter. The dusty art style of A.C. Zamudio lends the book a homespun feel that is filled with skittering scares.
WRITTEN BY: Cullen Bunn
ART BY: A.C Zamudio
PUBLISHER: Monkeybrain Comics
PRICE: $0.99
GET IT HERE: http://www.monkeybraincomics.com/
After reading his stellar short story in “In The Dark” it’s clear the man has an obsession. Cullen Bunn seems to revel in the world of rats. “The Remains” is comfortable in the dirt and grit. Getting low to the ground with a children’s perspective of a terrible and horrific plight.
Birdie and her little sister Abbie don’t know what to think when a rough looking drifter interrupts their playtime. He’s looking for work and their father’s more than willing to oblige. He’s a scarred and scary looking man. He smiles with a certain glint of malice, and from the right angle, he looks remarkably like a rat. Although Birdie is uneasy about all this, she knows her father needs the help, so she keeps quiet.
The girls are ordered to clean out the barn, and what lies in wait for them there makes for one of the most disgusting, engaging, and horrifying sequences in any horror book. If something like this happened to me as a child I think I’d be mute today.
This is just the beginning. Bunn builds a tale of horror wrapped in mystery. The girls don’t get a ton of development, and the characters are somewhat archetypal, but the drifter intrigues enough to keep interest. Something supernatural is going on, and it’s clear this drifter has everything to do with it. Just how it all fits together isn’t clear but the setup is tantalizing enough to tease dire consequences in the future.
Zamudio’s art has a homespun feel that really understands the environment of the book. Characters look weathered and tired. The drifter has an air of otherworldly personification, but only from the right angles. It’s the type of chilling stuff that’ll have you giving the book a second glance. The sequence in the barn is paneled in such a way that feels overwhelming and hopeless. Which only adds to the girl’s plight.
Bunn has crafted a simple tale of horror around a questionable love of rodents to create a chilling tale of lost innocence and threatening strangers. It’s straightforward in its setup and smooth in its execution. It may not do anything new for the genre, so to speak, but it’ll assuredly get under your skin.
Rating: 4/5 Skulls.
The supernatural world of Korean folk horror movie Exhuma grows larger with the arrival of prequel spinoff webtoon Maengjong this weekend, Variety reports today.
Naver Webtoon debuts Maengjong on May 30.
The series hails from Haemuri (Olgami) and will trace the high school origins of how shaman duo Hwarim and Bonggil, played by Kim Go-eun and Lee Do-hyun in the 2024 film, came together to face occultish threats.
The story is set to begin when “Hwarim, who has been concealing her identity following a childhood encounter with a snake spirit called Jin, crosses paths with Bonggil at their school.”
Variety notes that Exhuma director Jang Jae-hyun participated in the project’s early concept stage.
“We are presenting ‘Maengjong,’ a new series capturing the appeal of the horror-occult genre, ahead of the full summer season,” said Lee Jeong-geun, Naver Webtoon’s Korea webtoon content leader. “With the high school story of Hwarim and Bonggil, who left a strong impression in the film ‘Exhuma,’ enhanced by Haemuri’s characteristic tense direction, we expect it will be a welcome work for genre fans.”
“It is meaningful that the spin-off story of ‘Exhuma,’ loved by many audiences, expands by meeting the new grammar of webtoon,” said Lee Hyeon-jeong, managing director of the film business division at Showbox, which distributed the film. “We hope it will be a fresh experience for both film fans and webtoon readers.”
Exhuma was a breakout hit in 2024, becoming the first Korean occult film to surpass 10 million ticket buyers and the country’s highest-grossing film of the year. I wrote in my review that “the intricately woven Exhuma delivers one of the year’s biggest surprises in horror so far.”
The bond between Hwarim and Bonggil was one of the film’s highlights, making this prequel webtoon a must for fans.
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