Maximum Superexcitement #3
I occasionally get to thinking that I’m too jaded to be shocked by much of anything these days, so kudos to Robin and Maxine for snapping me out of that delusion. If you saw “The Hills Have Eyes” (the remakes), either one or two, and thought “Hm, not rapey enough for me,” this comic takes care of that problem. If you thought that they were just rapey enough but that there wasn’t enough seriously twisted shit in them for you, then this comic is going to be even more perfect for you. Honestly, anybody who looks at that cover and is shocked at the insides is a little dense to begin with, but holy fuck. If you’re wondering why there is no sample page, granted, it would have been tough to find one that wouldn’t have scarred readers for life, but my scanner gave up the ghost right after scanning that cover. It is now resting comfortably in Champaign while I’m in week 3 in Momence (both in Illinois, o international readers and anybody who has never heard of “Momence”), so maybe it’ll be recovered by the time I get back. So, with all this hemming and hawing, what’s the story like? A family of travelers gets lost, stops to ask for directions, and follows a yelling deformed fellow back to his ramshackle hut. Horror movie 101 dictates that you never do this, but OK. The crew of mutants takes an immediate fancy to them and gets to the raping, but the mom manages to escape after a fairly brutal punishment that I’d never even imagined. The girls eventually take a liking to all this after they marry the cult leader and things take some strange turns from there. I’m guessing this queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach means that no, I do not actually have some buried reservoir of interest in violent pornographic images, so at least there’s that. I did enjoy how Robin and Max took a page in the middle of the book to stop and question themselves, said to hell with it and decided to get even more explicit and out there. Nothing wrong with the art or the writing either, as both were excellent for the story they told. It was clearly not for me, or maybe that Catholic upbringing has brainwashed me so thoroughly that I can’t enjoy something like this, but yeesh. Your call, as you’re all adults (or you should be if you’re reading about this, but it’s a little late for that now), but it turns out that I’m a delicate flower who just had his innocence shattered. Who knew? $4
