Under: Scourge of the Sewer Collection

Bec (Carthago), who is French, and Raffaele (Fragile), Italian, give the tried-and-true genre of “armed forces against monsters” a sophisticated European-art style in what could otherwise have simply been a catalog of tropes. In an unspecified future, Lieutenant Jericho of the Megalopolis Water Authority teams with cryptozoologist Sandra Yeatman to investigate attacks in the city’s sewers. In addition to clans of lower-class human scavengers, the 700,000,000 feet of tunnels are home to gigantic mutant creatures, among them colossal spiders that prey upon humans and use the corpses to facilitate their reproductive cycle. As infestation by superarachnids looms, both the authorities and a separate team, led by a vicious “specialist” dispatched by the corrupt mayor, journey into the sewer’s depths, deploying heavy ordnance and contending with rogue human factions. Reminiscent of film thrillers like Them! and Aliens, this narrative of looming dread features realistic art, visceral and gruesome imagery, adult content, and salty language—it’s not for the faint of heart. The intelligent script elevates this work above garden-variety “bug hunt” yarns. Fans of man-versus-monster tales will want to give it a look. (Apr.)