cover image Old Ground

Old Ground

Noel Freibert. Koyama, $18 trade paper (224p) ISBN 978-1-927668-50-4

This gothic-psychedelic first full graphic novel by Freibert (WEIRD Magazine) spotlights the condemned cemetery Old Grove, where the dead gossip in their graves while, above ground, a retirement home is being built on their remains. Old Grove is so ancient that nature has worn away the names from the gravestones, but the corpses remain optimistic that parents and loved ones are coming to rescue their wormy carcasses. The black-humored story is perfectly reflected in rubbery, fluid figures and even lettering that drips down the page, like a mind-bending macabre animated cartoon. It’s all done in black ink, with dark inkblot shadowing spilled around characters. Freibert’s skill at design and pacing is evident, especially during sequences in which static panels of chatting plots on one page are juxtaposed with horrific sequential images illustrating their conversation on the facing page. . Fantastic creatures, superstition, and guilt haunt (and hunt) the two workmen assigned to desecrate the graves, and the art turns even more surreal and nightmarish as the dead finally rise. Freibert’s curious, lively pen gives this gruesomely bleak and funny ghost story a savage bite. [em](Sept.) [/em]