Nate Powell, $19.99, Top Shelf Productions
 
I’ve always been a fan of Nate Powell’s art. He does great things with a brush, really expressive stuff, but I’ve never connected with his writing… until now. SWALLOW ME WHOLE reminded me a great deal of Peter Jackson’s first movie, “Heavenly Creatures”. I can manage few compliments of that magnitude. Here we see the struggle of two adolescent siblings either dealing with the onset of mental illness, or pulling the veil back on our mundane world and seeing the magic underneath that escapes most of us. As with Jackson’s film, we move between the real and the unreal, often before we fully understand we were moving to begin with. This can be tricky subject matter, as lesser creators would get all maudlin or sensationalist. Not Powell, who exhibits a masterful restraint and subtlety in peeking into these characters’ brains.
 
Did I mention the art? Man, it’s gorgeous. Powell’s really throwing the gauntlet down on his peers. Everything is bathed in shadow, having a real weight to it, mirroring the dread hanging in the air. Sounds like fun, eh? Well guess what, comics aren’t always supposed to be fun! Get with the program! In fact, slip a copy of this one in the stocking of the Red Hulk fan in your life and really fuck up his Christmas.
 
On second thought, don’t. He probably doesn’t deserve it, and he wouldn’t appreciate it.