[Whoo-boy. I sound like a cunt in this one. I made a promise
to myself that I would never review something I didn’t like. Generally, I like
telling people about what I like rather than what I don’t like. I made an
exception for this one because I’d heard someone comment that I like
everything, so I’m not to be trusted. When I picked up FEEDERS #1, I did not do
so with the intention of writing a shitty review. It just turned out that I
didn’t like it much. As far as the writing goes, I stand by what I said. I
apologize to Mike Allred, the artist, because I was flat out wrong about him. I
have become a lot more familiar with Allred’s work, and I have come to
appreciate it. From the Elmhurst College Leader, Nov. 22, 1999.]
Looking for a confusing as hell comic with bad artwork, no
discernible plot, and pretension up the ass? Then Feeders will definitely be a
winner. However, Feeders is a waste of time and money for the rest of us.
There are redeeming qualities, but not many. Writer Shane
Hawkins was off to a good start when the nun is praying at the foot of a
mummified Jesus Christ on a cross, and the church is filled with emaciated
ghosts. It’s a creepy effect, and it would have been better if artist Mike
Allred had talent. Everything looks two-dimensional, and there’s no sense of
depth other than the lazy technique of darkening certain lines to show that one
object or person is in front of another.
Hawkins has more talent than Allred, although not much more.
At least Hawkins has his moments. Another such instance is when it’s revealed
that the nun is actually one of the ghosts seen earlier. They are known as
Feeders, and it’s pretty obvious why. When the nun starts fading, she walks
through a door and into the hospital room of an old man. “I’m sorry,” she says,
“but I need your soul.” She then proceeds to suck the life out of the old man
until she is solid again.
Aside from a few facts, the story is a shambles. Fact 1: the
nun is a Feeder, a bunch of ghosts who feed off the living’s lifeforce. Fact 2:
the main character, a male patient, had a fixation on his sister, and thus
every time he draws a woman (he’s an artist), she looks like his sister. Fact
3: his sister shares those feelings. Fact 4: the patient feels guilty about
these feelings, so he punishes himself by wearing a crown of thorns. While
doing this, he lost too much blood, which is why he’s in the hospital. Fact 5:
the Feeders can feed on their own; they feed on the nun when her throat is cut.
Fact 6: the patient can see the Feeders.
That is all that can be discerned from this jumbled, if
existent, plot. These events do not come together, and they are patched
together with no cadence, no reason. The nun lets the patient drink her blood
at some point. At another, she’s dancing with her own corpse. When she shows
her corpse to the patient, there’s an immediate jump, with no explanation nor
reason, to the patient getting ready to have sex with his sister. At the end,
the strips and panels start breaking up and elongating because, apparently, all
this time, it wasn’t really a comic but a film in a theater. There are hands
all around the borders, as if the audience is a group of Feeders themselves.
Most pretentious of all is that Hawkins doesn’t really know
what this is supposed to mean, either. Apparently, there’s a movie called Eyes
to Heaven to go with this comic, which is impossible to find. In the afterword,
he says of the movie that he wanted to make them “esoteric and somewhat
confusing, because the premise deals with ideas that are supposed to be beyond
our understanding as mere mortals.” Firstly, there’s no need for [word smeared]
in comics. Just because something is supposedly beyond our understanding doesn’t
mean someone can write a self-indulgent piece of crap about it. Secondly, what
premise? The existence of the Feeders? The “story” of the incestuous brother
and sister?
This comic is confusing. That’s not bad, but when the
confusion is created purposely, for the sake of confusing, then what’s the
point? While Allred is simply not talented, Hawkins is pretentious and
insulting. Feeders just isn’t worth it.
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