Publisher's Weekly Review
This gothic-psychedelic first full graphic novel by Freibert (WEIRD Magazine) spotlights the condemned cemetery Old Grove, where the dead gossip in their graves while, above ground, a retirement home is being built on their remains. Old Grove is so ancient that nature has worn away the names from the gravestones, but the corpses remain optimistic that parents and loved ones are coming to rescue their wormy carcasses. The black-humored story is perfectly reflected in rubbery, fluid figures and even lettering that drips down the page, like a mind-bending macabre animated cartoon. It's all done in black ink, with dark inkblot shadowing spilled around characters. Freibert's skill at design and pacing is evident, especially during sequences in which static panels of chatting plots on one page are juxtaposed with horrific sequential images illustrating their conversation on the facing page. Fantastic creatures, superstition, and guilt haunt (and hunt) the two workmen assigned to desecrate the graves, and the art turns even more surreal and nightmarish as the dead finally rise. Freibert's curious, lively pen gives this gruesomely bleak and funny ghost story a savage bite. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Library Journal Review
The ruins of a forgotten cemetery are torn down to make way for a retirement home in this massively peculiar and frequently nightmarish tale from Freibert (editor, Weird magazine). Rendered in an at times fluid, at times abrasive and psychedelic style reminiscent of comics creators Gary Panter and Brian Chippendale, it features a pair of bickering corpses so long dead that they can't remember their names, a demonic frog, and two construction workers. The plot here is secondary to mood and tone as images shift, blend, and shred to create a sense that readers are experiencing an aging acid casualty's nightmare filtered through a deranged child's sensibility. Verdict This one probably isn't for everyone, but adventurous readers looking for something well off the beaten path and fans of an outsider-art sensibility or punk aesthetic are likely to embrace this title as if they've been waiting for it their whole lives.-Tom Batten, Richmond © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
