i picked this little story up at a zine fest and i absolutely loved it!
re-animator, specifically the gordon/yuzna adaption(s), holds such a strong place in my heart where gender and sexuality go and i love that so many other people have felt the same while watching. in this zine herbert struggles through his feelings towards dan and of accepting that something has changed within himself.
i don't want to go into a huge analysis in the comments so i'll go off about just one thing: the colour in this zine is limited but it works. for the most part it is green, familiar and classic-its what every fan of re-animator comes in expecting. it contrasts greatly with red, the other prominent colour throughout that i feel echo herbert's uncertainty-his fear. in an early part of the zine, after preforming some surgery with dan, herbert washes the blood off his hands which transitions the colours back from red to green while herbert questions his romantic/sexual attractions. the imagery of washing away red/blood on the surface only to look at the sterile green hand and know that the same stuff very much flows through his own veins. ah! its so good!
thank you for making this and sharing it! also the art is so cute and pretty and i loved the paneling!
Viewing post in The Autopsy of Herbert West comments
hi, thank you so so much for taking the time to write up such a lovely and detailed comment. it really made my day to read, and i've reread it several times since then. it's a huge honor that you felt my work was impactful enough to be worthy of analysis like this, and i'm really glad that the themes & intent came through how they did.
it's easy to think that my overly-earnest and meticulously thought out transformative work is silly, so thank you for making me feel like it was worth it to put so much time and effort and care into this comic, and to share it publicly. i'm really glad that you connected with Autopsy!