If Joe Lansdale and Grady Hendrix has taught me anything about fiction, it’s that many out-there premises can work as a story as long as it pays attention to the fundamentals. By fundamentals, I mean plot and specifically character development. And even if those are lacking, within the horror genre, a reader can forgive a story if there are copious amounts of gore and/or surreal weirdness. Not to say that the graphic novel Swine by Tyrone Finch and Alain Mauricet is trying to heap buckets of blood into their work to disguise its shortcomings. Rather, the pair tell an insanely weird horror comedy tale that saws at the heartstrings.
Simply explaining this premise makes me feel like I’m a director explaining this to a room full of skeptical Hollywood execs. Ellis has just been released on parole for the murder of his wife, and Zoe, the victim’s sister, doesn’t feel justice has been served. In following Ellis, ready to get vengeance on behalf of her sister, she makes a crazy and horrifying discovery: her sister Becky was killed by pigs. Not just any pigs, these swine that Ellis is hunting are members of Legion, the demonic horde that Jesus had cast into pigs.Zoe joins Ellis on his quest and, along with a possessed talking pig that has broken away from Legion, they seek to slaughter the rest of Legion.
A tale like this could easily end up fodder for a Syfy Movie of the Week, but Finch’s story strikes the proper tone between comedy and horror. The pigs are set up as formidable, especially since each issue shows these immortal swine helping guide humanity into its most infamous disasters. Simon, the talking pig that serves as a divining rod for locating these pigs, offers comedy relief when needed and a dose of reality, as much as a talking pig can provide, when the situation is dramatic. Mauricet’s realistic comic illustrations are allowed to go wild as he depicts some pig animal hybrids that channel Wells’s The Island of Dr. Moreau. Writer Finch and artist Mauricet have pooled their efforts beautifully to create a bizarre tale that has horror, humor, and heart. You might laugh, you might gasp, but this story will definitely keep you interested.
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