Gorehounds, gut-sifters, and comic book ghouls will no doubt be aware that Bay Area death metal titans Autopsy have been immortalized in in Feast for a Funeral, a band-authorised comic by E-Comix.
As you’d expect from Autopsy’s generously gruesome back catalogue, and gather from the promotional video trailer for the comic [below], Feast for a Funeral has a narrative that’s 100 per cent NSFW or your money back, and is predictably unrestrained by any concessions made to decency, subtlety, good taste, and so on.
https://youtu.be/WDbo8e75KSg
Apparently Feast for a Funeral “. . . details how Hell came on Hallowe’en night for Johnny and his girlfriend, Heather. Their head-over-heels endless love and foreplay would be replaced with meals on meat hooks, and ghosts greedy for murder once a ouija board, spell book, and radio were used for incantations and magic. Dead surgeons have returned to practice forbidden surgeries. And these monsters with masks are eager to practice evil. It will not be just another drunken Hallowe’en night for Chris and his friends dressed in costumes. They have unknowingly resurrected psychopaths that were once a cult in search of eternity. Consuming the flesh of their patients, these satanists searched for the secrets of our souls. And now Chris and his friends have just made the guestlist.”
Well, that’s nice ain’t it. Feast . . . comes across a bit like Severed Survival meets Halloween, taking slasher flick tropes and stitching them to the awkward lurching corpse of classic horror of yore (The Evil Dead-style misadventure in disturbing ancient supernatural malevolence, etc.) is sure to trigger interest from the freakier Autopsy completists out there.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that one of Peaceville’s roster has been chronicled in a comic—to mark the release of Darkthrone’s 2010 LP Circle the Wagons, French artist Nagawiki rendered the gruesome twosome Nocturno Culto and Fenriz in B&W panels. It was pretty gnarly, and you can check that out here.
E-Comix have also published a 28-page comic for Dying Fetus. Entitled Supreme Violence, it’s a (marginally) more tasteful piece of merch than a thong emblazoned with the band’s logo or sweat pants that beg the question as to what one’s lounge wear has got to do with slamming-brutal death metal? Supreme Violence is written by Vince Brusio and inked by Mats Engesten, and while we’re not wholly privy to what’s going on with this one narratively, the cover depicts a baby toting a hunting knife which, as you know, is every day care center’s worst nightmare.
Sure, Feast for a Funeral is obviously gonna be pretty niche, even in a world of niches. But maybe this whole Metal Band x Comic Book crossover could work on a grander scheme; bands and graphic comic art could be a real winner, and it certainly worked for KISS and Marvel. And who wouldn’t be interested in Alan Moore writing a conceptual dystopian revolutionary story arc featuring Napalm Death as an underground anarcho sect? Or a J.R. Hayes penning Se7en-style Pig Destroyer one-shot for someone like Jock to draw?
**Order Feast for a Funeral here
**Order Autopsy Born Undead DVD here
**Autopsy on Facebook
