Comics Features

REVIEW: Post Mortem Preview: The Harvesting

The preview of Post Mortem: The Harvesting is certainly an attention-getting comic that combines some rather stunning eye-catching visuals with enough mystery and intrigue to make the next issue, Post Mortem: Skin & Bone, one that I am eagerly anticipating.

While The Harvesting really feels like more of a teaser than an actual issue, its important to note that it teases successfully. This wasn’t the kind of preview issue that left me dreading having to read the full thing. Each panel felt well-placed and pertinent to the overarching story of the issue. The comic immediately threw mysteries and questions at me that remained entirely unanswered by the time I reached the back cover, something that I appreciate considering it only left me wanting to see where the story goes next.

Post Mortem: The Harvesting was seemingly over as soon as it began since I turned the pages faster than the Cookie monster devouring a plate of warm chocolate chips.

Ironic considering Post Mortem is a comic that will likely cause you to immediately lose your appetite.

PMoperate

The comic opens with the graphic depiction of a man on an operating table, paralyzed from head to toe and watching in horror as two doctors whip out every surgical instrument that likely terrified you as a child sitting in the waiting room for your next check-up. As horrific as surgery can be in general, and as squeamish as some people may get, it is infinitely more terrifying to watch someone who is very much alive, and very much awake, look on as they get sawed apart.

We don’t know who the man on the table is, nor do we know the identities of the two men hacking him apart, but its clear that each of them is in that room for a very specific reason.

Though, clearly none of them are there to serve as the resident anesthesiologist…

The level of detail in the artwork of Post Mortem only heightens the horrific nature of the comic, showing everything from the anguished tears of the anonymous man on the operating table to the veins of the organs that are being cut out of him. Post Mortem wouldn’t work nearly as well were it not for the decision to draw the story in such a detailed fashion. The cringe-worthiness of the images is what really makes the story so compelling and I’m certain that, had any other art style been used, its likely that the plight of that poor guy on the operating table wouldn’t have felt nearly as visceral. The cooler color tones really emphasize the eeriness of the comic, highlighting the ominous nature of the story itself by casting the characters in a perpetual blue tint that seems the utter definition of, “foreboding.”

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The comic relies heavily on the visuals to keep the story moving, as there isn’t a ton of dialogue or words in general, but the high-quality nature of the artwork easily carries the weight.

By the final few frames we’ve gotten a clear taste of the general tone of the series, involving a healthy mixture of blood, gore, horror, and mystery. There’s not a ton to say about this teaser of Post Mortem, due simply to the fact that it was such a short snippet, but I’m confident that anyone who reads it, and more importantly looks at it, will be left wanting more.

Be sure to head over to the Kickstarter page for the first issue of Post Mortem and let us know on Twitter or in the comments below what you think of this gory horror comic!

About the author

Silje Falck-Pedersen