Graphic Content #5
Welcome back to Graphic Content. There was a mix-up in numbering last time, but I can assure you that this is #5. But hey, enough about my failures. Let’s talk comics, including the return of Killadelphia.
John Constantine: Hellblazer #7
Man, when Hellblazer goes dark, it goes dark. Issue #7, or “Britannia, Rule the Waves, Part One,” deals with nationalism, fishing, mermaids, and exploitation in a relationship. It’s all very good, plus we get a bit more of Old Man Constantine, who seems to be leaving a cheeky trail across the map of London in the shape of, what else? A dick.
Most of the issue’s narration comes from the unnamed mermaid character who recounts, fairly glowingly, about the plight and motivations of her fisherman boyfriend. It is not until that last third of the issue that we come to see the truth of the situation and that is when the real horror comes in. A mermaid killing people is creepy and all, but what happens to her is so much worse. Spurrier’s writing is solid, and perhaps some of the best of this run, particularly with how the story tackles generational differences and expectations as they relate to modern London and British identity. That and it will make you rethink sashimi.
Campbell’s art in this issue is probably the best meshing of his style with content yet. The dockside, the fish markets, it all is rendered quite well and Campbell’s heavily inked and scratchy style just screams “grime” in the best way possible, fitting the story.
(5 / 5)
John Constantine: Hellblazer #7 was written by Simon Spurrier, illustrated by Aaron Campbell, and colored by Jordie Bellaire.
Sink #4
Issue #4, or “Young Team,” follows a local group of Sinkhill kids who are on a mission to track down the van of clowns that is rumored to be snatching up kids in the area. We also see Mr. Dig again, the fox-mask-wearing vigilante of Sinkhill. As a series, Sink is no stranger to violence, but this could be the most shocking issue in the run with a prolonged and bloody sequence of strangulation and beating, all involving children. Sink doesn’t necessarily go to the child’s death well it could have possibly gone (a rare bit of restraint in a series of excess) but it doesn’t exactly end entirely positively, either. Lives are irreversibly shattered and the roaming gang of clowns is still out there, based on the ending. Regardless, it was a fun story that while still anthologized does carry some connections to other stories. It’s been an interesting approach so far.
The art is pretty solid, with a particular highlight being a Lovecraftian dream sequence involving a clown construct. In the bloodiest sequence of the story, however, things get a little muddled, and the presence of gobs of blood on all parties obscure forms and makes everything a bloody red lump for several panels. There may be such a thing as too much blood and Sink got pretty close to that here.
(4 / 5)
Sink #4 was written by John Lees and illustrated and colored by Alex Cormack.
Killadelphia #7
Killadelphia is back with a new story arc. This one, entitled “Burn Baby Burn” opens with issue #7, titled “Part 1, Jupiter Rising.” This storyline picks up after the near-apocalyptic events of the previous arc and we find ourselves in a new normal: vampires exist in Philadelphia. This is such a game-changer for the city that James Sangster Jr. now operates as an expect who must look at crime scenes and determine if there is vampiric activity. It is a fantastic note that makes the world really evolve in the comic and just part of why this series has been so successful.
This story revolves around Abigail Adams, newly ascendant as the leader of vampires since the death of John, who recounts a story about a slave named Jupiter. Jupiter is “freed” by Abigail back in the past and has been waiting on the sidelines until, as part of her own campaign of terror, he is unleashed on Philadelphia. It’s all very brutal and Jupiter’s look and “mask” is very striking.
This issue also addresses, to a degree, one of my concerns about the series. I did not really get behind to romance between James and ??? as it felt sudden, but this is addressed to a degree with a discussion between the two about the nature of their relationship. Suddenly it all feels a lot more grounded. I understand the irony of this given this is a comic about a vampiric invasion in the United States, but the romance as initially presented struck me as sloppy and impulsive. it turns out that this was the case for the characters and the reality of this, and how to navigate it, suddenly makes it a lot more tolerable for me.
The series also introduces a new backup feature named “Elysium Gardens,” set during the Watts Uprising and features a werewolf. This feature is, of course, drawn by Jason Shawn Alexander who is the regular artist of Killadelphia. However, this backup is presented in very stark black and white. It makes you wonder how Killadelphia would look in grayscale, and I do wonder if there are any plans to release the first volume in such a manner. It all evokes work from Creepy and other such horror magazines.
(4.5 / 5)
Killadelphia #7 was written by Rodney Barnes, illustrated by Jason Shawn Alexander, and colored by Luis Nct.
I am personally aiming to do more than one of these columns a month, but I could use some comics to read. Please feel free to send me suggestions of horror and horror-adjacent series you think I should cover.
See you next time.
Published in January 2025, Virginia Feito’s second book, Victorian Psycho, is… hard to categorize. Much like Feito’s first book, Mrs March (which I also highly recommend), Feito has created a main character that is paranoid, violent and utterly charming. Victorian Psycho might be any classic Victorian novel about a governess. Miss Notty, entering her new place of employment and getting to know the Pound family and their two children, Andrew and Drusilla. That is if you ignore the psychopathic thoughts that keep entering Miss Notty’s head.
- SOON TO BE A FEATURE FILM FROM A24 STARRING MARGARET QUALLEY AND THOMASIN MCKENZIE”This book will be the bloody belle of the 2025 literary ball
- ” (Oprah Daily)Most Anticipated Books of 2025: Vulture, Oprah Daily, Polygon, Reader’s Digest, Lit Hub, CrimeReads, The Stacks, LibraryReads, PasteBest Books of the Month: Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, TIME, Goodreads, Gizmodo, Book Riot, The A
- V
Last update on 2025-03-03 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
The Plot.
When we begin Victorian Psycho, we meet Winifred Knotty, a young woman travelling to Ensor House through the English Grim Wolds in what feels like the Victorian era (the year is never actually pinpointed.) The reader is provided with a countdown of ‘three months till Christmas’ and simply told that “in three months everyone in this house will be dead.”
Miss Notty is to be the new Governess to the two Pound children. As she settles into her new position, she appears to be good at her job. She ensures that the children are fed, tucks them in at night, tells bedtime stories and provides them with intellectual conversation. She only jokes about eating children and really has no idea where that missing maid has disappeared to.
Highlights.
Victorian Psycho is written as a chaotic interior monologue, punctuated with intermittent dialogue as Miss Notty interacts with other characters, or eavesdrops on them from the hallway. The reader is completely immersed in this confused, violent mind, despite this, it is impossible not to like Miss Notty. I think it might be due to her witty intelligence and her keen ability to dismantle the other character’s social pretenses. Whatever it is, Feito has done a marvelous job of characterization on Miss Notty.
As an extra highlight I need to mention the way Feito has named her characters using a very Dickensian method of using words that describe their personalities. To name a few; Miss Notty, whose mind seems to be in knots, Mr. And Mrs. Fancy, who are very posh and the name that took the cake for me was the baby, called William Ebenezer Poncy Fancey, but don’t worry, you won’t have to read that name too often as he does not last long in Miss. Notty’s care.
Drawbacks.
There is a lot of confusion in Victorian Psycho, which is in keeping with our point of view main character. However, at some points in the story the confusion was so thick that I had to stop reading and try to untangle the events I had just read. If you are a reader who enjoys a clear and concise plot and action, this one is probably not for you. While you are in Notty’s head suffice it to say you have to roll with the unconnected tangents and strange metaphors, if you’re not willing to do this it would be best to jump ship.
The Final Take.
This is a perfectly perverse take on a Victorian gothic. Full to the brim with brutal horror and visceral imagery, balanced out with tongue in cheek sarcasm. Victorian Psycho flips the script on the traditional ‘women running away from houses’ theme of the gothic. Instead, we have a woman coming in and, well… you’ll have to read the book to see.
(5 / 5)
As a disclaimer, this is a review of The House of My Mother from a critical perspective. I will not be discussing my opinions of the legal case against Ruby Franke and Jody Hildebrandt. I will be discussing the merits of the book as a work of true crime alone.
In 2015, Ruby Franke started a YouTube channel called 8 Passengers. In August of 2023, Franke and her business associate Jodi Hildebrandt were arrested for, and later plead guilty to, charges of aggravated child abuse. And in January of this year, Shari Franke told her story in The House of My Mother.
The story
The House of My Mother is the true story of Shari Franke, the oldest child of one of the most famous family vlogger families.
As a child, Shari came to the conclusion that her mother didn’t like her. Soon, she began to fear her mother’s anger.
Things got significantly worse when Ruby started their family vlog. All of the families most intimate moments were splashed across the internet for anyone to watch. This became a living nightmare for Shari.
Of course, that was only the start of the family nightmare. Because Ruby was about to meet someone who would reinforce all of the darkest parts of herself.
Eventually Shari manages to escape her home. But her younger siblings were still in her mother’s clutches. She had to save them, and her father, from the monster her mother had become.
What worked
Through the book, Shari only ever mentions the name of one of her siblings, Chad. This is because Chad is the only of her siblings that is an adult at the time of the publication.
There are children involved in this story. Children who’s lives and privacy have already been damaged. Shari didn’t want to do that to them again, and neither do I.
It probably won’t surprise you that this book is full of upsetting details. But not in the way you might imagine.
Nowhere in this book will you find gory details about the abuse the Franke kids suffered. And I consider that a good thing. Those sort of details are all fun and games when we’re talking fiction. When it’s real kids who are really living with the damage, it’s not a good time.
What you’ll find instead is a slew of more emotionally devastating moments. One that stuck with me is when Ruby’s mother gives her a pair of silk pajamas as a gift after Ruby gave birth to one of her babies. Shari asks Ruby if she’d bring her silk pajamas when she had a baby. Ruby responds that yes, when Shari becomes a mother they can be friends.
What a lovely way to make a little girl feel like she’s not worth anything unless she reproduces. And, if she does decide to have children, who is going to bring her silk pajamas?
- From eldest daughter Shari Franke, the shocking true story behind the viral 8 Passengers family vlog and the hidden abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother, and how, in the face of unimaginable pain, she found freedom and healing
- Shari Franke’s childhood was a constant battle for survival
- Her mother, Ruby Franke, enforced a severe moral code while maintaining a façade of a picture-perfect family for their wildly popular YouTube channel 8 Passengers, which documented the day-to-day life of raising six children for a staggering 2
Last update on 2025-03-02 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
In the end, this isn’t a story about ghosts or demons. It’s not about a serial killer waiting on a playground or in the attic of an unsuspecting family. Instead, this is a story about things that really keep us up at night. It’s the story of a woman so obsessed with perfection that she drove away her eldest daughter. The story of a young woman who’s forced to watch from afar as her beloved brothers and sisters are terrorized and abandoned. These are the sorts of things that really keep us up at night. These are the real nightmares.
More than that, though, The House of My Mother is a story of survival. It’s about a family that was ripped apart and somehow managed to stitch itself back together again. It’s about a brave young woman who managed to keep herself safe and sane in the face of a nightmare. If you haven’t read it yet, I can’t recommend it enough.
For more like this, check out my review of Shiny Happy People.
(5 / 5)
Boreal: an Anthology of Taiga Horror is a collection of twenty-two haunting tales that dwell in the deepest darkest woods and frozen wastelands, edited by Katherine Silva and including Haunted MTL’s very own Daphne Fauber. Each story has even been gifted with its very own poster, hinting at the horrors to be found within it, bestowing a beautiful visual collection as well.
The tales are varied and touch upon the environment in new and different ways, each hearkening to a sort of epiphany or raised awareness. These stories exude both dread and wonder at the smallness of our human existence in contrast to the sacred world we have isolated from, sheltering ourselves in our comfortable houses with centralized heat and everything we could possibly need or want at the ready. The taiga becomes a sanctuary outside of our own dulled awarenesses. It is a holy place imbued with powers beyond mortal human reach, a wilderness that threatens to swallow us – both whole and bit by bit, simultaneously.
The protagonists enter into this realm through ritual, superstition, longing, stubbornness, and their own hubris – yearning to survive its dangers, and to make their own marks upon it. The starkness of their surroundings harbors delicate moments that would be all too easily missed if not deliberately sought or pointed out. The softness of fur, the dappled sunlight shining through trees, the hazy clouds of breath forming in crisp air, the brittleness of bleached bone… those quiet experiences that beg to be forgotten, to lay safely sleeping just below the frozen surface, awaiting spring.
There are those who followed in the footsteps of their predecessors, seeking to escape the constraints of their parent’s and elders’ indoctrination, traditions, madness, and abuse, yearning to find their own way despite also being inextricably bound to their own pasts. There are those who just wanted to go for a walk in the woods, and remained forever changed by what they experienced. There are those who wished to impose their will upon the wilderness, their order falling to disarray, unable to make lasting impact. There are those who sought to leave behind the world of mankind, looking for oneness in the natural order of things through isolation, leaving a bit of themselves behind after being consumed by the terrors they encountered. There are those who truly found communion with the woods, became one with its wildness, and invited its spirit into their hearts to find peace, even at cost of their own lives. And then, there are the spirits themselves…
(3 / 5)
All in all, I give Boreal: an Anthology of Taiga Horror 3.0 Cthulhus. I love existential angst so I found it to be an enjoyable read, and I appreciated the myriad manners in which the biome was explored. But there were points in which I found myself struggling to follow along, as if the words were swept up into their own wilds in ways that alienated myself as reader, as if my mere voyeurism into this otherworldly place was not enough to comprehend the subtle deviations in storytelling mannerisms fully. I suppose in some sense this seems appropriate, but at the same time, it left me feeling a bit unfulfilled, as if I had missed a spiritual connection that should have resonated more deeply.
- English (Publication Language)
- 248 Pages – 02/25/2025 (Publication Date) – Strange Wilds Press (Publisher)
Last update on 2025-01-23 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
