Comics
Review: “The Life After” #2
Spoilers: Lost the TV show was about Purgatory. There. Now you know. “The Life After” #2 goes head first into this story and tells readers this IS Purgatory. Get used to it. Who is in this middle ground for the souls? You wouldn’t believe me. I can hardly believe it and I read the book! Read on and see what is going on in this original new series from Oni Press.
WRITTEN BY: Joshua Hale Fialkov
ART and COLORING BY: Gabo
PUBLISHER: Oni Press, Inc.
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: 20 August 2014
Reviewed By Your Friendly Neighborhood Brady
If everyone around had committed something as tragic as suicide, would it lose its impact? Does it feel like prison if everyone is trapped together? Writer Joshua Hale Fialkov seems to give off that mood in this new series. Apparently even dogs can kill themselves and be trapped in limbo for it. It’s a fascinating idea on exploring this realm. I don’t know if it’s been explored before but this series is off to a very intriguing start. Regular guy Jude gets saved multiple times from multiple horrors by literary legend Ernest Hemingway. Yep. This book has all kinds of curve balls like everywhere.
Artist Gabo makes people killing themselves a very pedestrian thing in this middle world. Folks keep offing themselves in front of our lead characters. It looks odd which I think is the effect the creators are going for. Jude’s ability to help souls move on looks to be a major point to explore as the series progresses. Gabo’s mix of regular and surreal is a major help to such an ambitious story.
All of that plus the hook of “The complete history of creation in three pages!” has me intrigued enough to keep reading. This book is so out there, it’s worth your attention to see where it leads to next. Demons, aliens, dogs, management and upper management look to be interesting oddities to see in the coming months. Get into this book now and be ahead of the cool curve for once.
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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