Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: avatar, Comics, david lapham

Ferals – A Very Nasty Comic By David Lapham

Published Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:32:03 -0600

So William Christensen, publisher of Avatar Press and Bleeding Cool, asks me if I'd like to look at the first issue of Ferals, coming out in January by David Lapham and Gabriel Andrade. He tells me that the comic is his favourite thing he's read of David's work so far. And that he's onto the script for issue 12 already.

I've been reading David Lapham since I pre-ordered Stray Bullets #1 on a whim, and have been loving it since. Recently that's specifically included Young Liars, DeadpoolMAX, Crossed Family Values and Caligula and it's gone a bit dark and bloody to be honest. And there's no let up here… in fact in Ferals, we're embedded in it.

From the first issue, exploring this small, cold world, of snow, blood and people getting drunk, we become part of the police action, addressed specifically, brought in by Dale, below.

Equally we become a member of the crowd in the bar where Dale goes to drown his sorrows and explore revenge…

…and then we get shouted at for our collective crimes.

Ferals makes the audience a virtual cast member, embodying a variety of characters, living the story in the way that a TV movie would divorce us from the action. This is a horror comic, sure, but one that we are willing, if passive participants in. The snow is under our boots, the drink is on our breath, the blood is on our hands. And it stains the white.

For all that there is a strong narrative here, driven by characters with their own disparate agendas, and whose lives are being ripped apart, along with their limbs. Because, yes, there is a monster, a proper monster. There's no hiding in the shadows from it, there's to much brightness from the snow. When we see the creature, we see all of it, and there is no mistaking its nature. And then everybody dies.

Because, yes, there is violence, and sex, and nudity and bad language, often all at the same time. Small towns, what are you going to do? It creates a consistent community, and one that reacts badly to the new monstrous reality.

Where this goes, I haven't a clue, But clearly David does. Nothing seems to be happening by accident, circumstance or filler. And I've been given the momentum to keep going – at least till I catch up with William.

Retailer advance orders for this comic are due tomorrow. If you fancy getting on board for the long haul on David Lapham's new ongoing horror comic, you know what to do.

Ferals #1 by David Lapham and Gabriel Andrade is published by Avatar in January.

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