Swine

by Tyrone Finch, Mauricet (Illustrator)

“By page twenty, it was already one of the best graphic novels I’d read in years. By the end, it was one of my favorites ever. Of all time. For God’s sake, just buy it.” —Gail Simone (Deadpool, Birds of Prey)

After serving time for the murder of his beloved wife, Ellis is released from prison and teams up with his sister-in-law to hunt down the demonic beings that were truly responsible for his wife’s death: Pigs!
 

Ellis Rafferty spent seven years in prison after being wrongly convicted for the murder of his wife, Becky. Now released, he seeks to avenge her death. Joining forces with Becky’s sister, Zoey, they hit the road to take on the most pernicious threat in human history: bloodthirsty, cunning, immortal demons originally cast into the bodies of swine—and they are Legion. Ellis and Zoey travel the country to put a stop to the pigs’ murderous rampage, leaving carnage in their wake in this horror story with a dark-comedy cream filling.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Horror, Comics

120 pages, Paperback

Published October 5, 2021

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the kind of story that only works in comics, it's so over the top. It extrapolates on the story of Legion from the bible. Jesus cast a group of demons named Legion from a person into a sounder of swine. Finch extrapolates that the swine have lived on forever causing havoc and disaster throughout time. They are responsible for the sinking of the Titanic and the Hindenburg disaster. Yes, it's ridiculous and that's all part of the fun. Chasing down and killing these pigs are a man and woman joined by tragedy, a man whose wife was killed by the pigs and his sister-in-law. The story gets more and more ridiculous as the book goes on, so you just need to go with it. But what do you expect from a story about murderous, talking pigs, Shakespeare?

[Geoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

High concept (demon pigs!), silly (demon pigs!), scary (demon pigs!), and incredibly well scripted, this graphic novel is one of the best action comics I've read in a long time. This is only 120 pages, but the amount of depth to the characters, the twists to the backstory, and the economy and sharpness of the dialog are great. There are a few cliché twists and a bit of hokiness, but you get DEMON PIGS! With that and good writing, what more do you need?

**Thanks to the author, artist, publisher, and NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two thousand years ago Jesus confronted Legion in the exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac and cast them into pigs to drown. But a handful of the swine lived and have spent the centuries planning revenge and causing a few random disasters along the way.

I was hoping this would all be scary, but it's just silly as it turns into a weak Supernatural retread: a couple of grim monster hunters equipped with a magical knife, informed by a collage of newspaper clippings, and accompanied by one of the demons set out in a cool old hot rod to slaughter the hogs. The creators seem content to make a couple bacon jokes and call it a day.

Meh.

[Jon Hewelt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I keep reading these comic series and keep coming away with the same conclusion: these stories need to be longer.

The idea for Swine is great! Jesus cast demons out of man into a herd of pigs, who subsequently drowned, but some lived for centuries and are now plotting to take over the world. A man convicted of killing his wife (who was killed by these pigs) gets out of prison, teams up with his sister-in-law and a rogue pig to try and take them down. Darkly comic, that premise sounds like a lot of fun, right?

But then you try to fit all this into six chapters (comics?) and the results are rushed, incoherent and messy. For the first four sections of Swine, everything's nicely paced, ramping up to an exciting conclusion. But then (and no spoilers, promise) it's as if the flood gates open, and everything's happening at once and the chaos at first is fun, but then you realize that part of why it's chaotic is because everything NEEDS to happen right now because there's only so much space left and you need to wrap things up and...

Well. The ending of Swine left me very unsatisfied. New elements were being introduced at the eleventh hour and it's like, "Wait, which pig is what now?" "Who's...what's going on?" and you get annoyed and have to write an angry review about.

Also, and this is definitely more of a personal thing, but I was annoyed by these protagonists. I'm sick of the brooding, jaded, sarcastic anti-hero who keeps screwing up, doesn't learn from it, and keeps saying cynical, sarcastic things despite the fact that they just screwed up in a major way. It's how some people are, sure, and the narrative totally justifies why this character would act this way and KEEP acting this way. I, personally, just find it very annoying, and keeps me from investing in the stories. Frankly, I wanted the pigs to take over the world.

It's like that with a lot of these comic miniseries. You've got these dark, brooding, sarcastic protagonists taking you through these bizarre scenarios, and the scenarios are FUN, but it's like having the worst, most boring tour guide take you through it. It's very Stephen King: a wet blanket of a white male protagonist detracts from all the fun, supernatural horror going around.

Oink. Consider me disgruntled.

[Matthew Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. This was weird and wild and ridiculous in mostly entertaining ways, but also in ways that just felt a little forced at times or just unnecessary at others. I’m all for a book with unnecessary ridiculousness, and I enjoyed the plot of this one for the most part, I just don’t feel strongly one way or the other about this one. I feel like the reviews hyped this one up a little too much for me and I went in with higher expectations than I probably should have. This was fun, but not memorable.

[Ingólfur Halldórsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Skemmtileg jólamyndasaga. Djöfulleg svín valda usla og þjakaðar fyllibyttur þurfa að ganga í málið. Tóm vitleysa frá byrjun til enda en hress á sama tíma. Rann ljúflega niður við arineldinn.

[Jennifer Worrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The bible tale was news to me (I did look it up after, expecting a metaphor...nope. Totes demon pigs) and this expansion got more inventive with every chapter. What would have happened if every pig didn't drown as Mark 5:1–20 suggests (at least in my version)? Apparently, some very exciting plot twists. I can imagine how much fun the creators had putting it together, from hilarious lines like "I'm more of a freelancer" to its beautiful artwork. I can't wait to see what these folks have up their sleeves next.

[☽｡⋆ Shells (jlreads_) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Trigger Warning: Blood, Death

Ep 1 of my reading slump series.

.

I honestly don't know what to say abou this graphic novel. Did I like it? I don't know as well. It's just that whule reading this graphic novel, I definitely had a schocked pikachu face.

It was honestly chaotic and hillarious. I was most of the times just want the chaos to end.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

What's "Meh" sound like coming from a pig? Squeh?

Wasn't terrible, but sure didn't have its hands on my bacon like some recent spooktober readings.

Had a Chew, Vol. 1: Taster's Choice feeling to it - or rather, more like Chew, Vol. 9: Chicken Tenders when the jokes got stale and the writing had lost forward momentum. This had a "high concept but not a lot of depth of mythology" to it, so after the 4th or 5th time talking about how smart pigs are and how good they taste, I was looking for the exits to seek out something that made me smirk again.

Maybe they'll tighten up in future volumes, but so far I'm a solid chunk of bacon fat on this - good in very small doses.

But hey, at least I got another buddy read opportunity with Chad of Shallow Readers fame:

[Theediscerning · Rating 3 out of 5]

One minute at the start of this book, the heroine is demanding her male counterpart not get his parole and instead stay in prison for murdering her sister, his wife at the time. The next minute they're an ungainly odd couple, sweeping the States to get rid of the demon hell-pigs that want to take over the world. Yes, really – it's something biblical. Speaking of which, the puff quotes that abound in this volume make it out to be the second coming, and of course the reality is a bit of a step back from the heightened peaks of praise it's got. It is drolly entertaining – especially in flashbacks to pigs being naughty in history – but the story bogs down into body-swap cliches, and keeping track of who is who and what species is a bit too much like hard work. The original pitch was for ten episodes, and we get six here – who knows if demand will justify further instalments? A rasher reader than I would declare whether this will bring home the bacon or not. I didn't really get much more than disposable fun from this – three and a half stars, and no porkies.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an eARC of this title through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this graphic novel, but I honestly could not get passed the main plot. It really sounded far fetch like the movie Black Sheep. Basically, Legion was sent into pigs and drowned based on the bible story in Mark 5. However, this graphic novel takes a look to see what would have happened if some of those pigs survived. The answer is they still roam the Earth and cause all kinds of chaos such as the Titanic sinking and the Hindenburg, all to take steps to taking over the world.

While I get that this is based off of a bible story and maybe it was meant to have a little bit of satire to this bible story, I just could not stop laughing at how ridiculous the whole plot was. I think if I understood the backstory of what this graphic novel is based off of, I may have liked it more. I just could not stop reading this book like a horrible pulp fiction novel.

[Joshua Gage · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some might find the plot too far-fetched or silly; to be sure, Finch is working as much within the horror comedy genre as he is the religious horror and body horror genres. However, with a bit of suspension of disbelief, readers will be able to delve deep into this world where demon swine have plagued mankind for centuries and are finally meeting their match. There are enough twists and turns in the plot to keep people guessing, and while there are some graphic scenes of blood and guts, it’s pretty understated, so squeamish readers will not be too put off. Overall, Swine is a really fun and successful horror graphic novel with a unique and clever premise, and horror readers will enjoy this tale.

Full review here: https://www.cemeterydance.com/extras/...

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

A man who was wrongfully accused of brutally murdering his wife goes on a murder spree against demon-pigs wanting to take over the world. Yes, it sounds kinda wacky and it is. The best part is that it actually came out of a passage in the Bible. How exactly do they plan on taking over the world is just a MacGuffin though, so the revenge angle is more on point. Going through the story, it was entertaining enough, with pork jokes scattered here and there, but it didn't go much beyond that, like a budget action movie.

[Iranoctis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interessanter Ansatz mit den biblischen Racheschweinen, komplett drüber, in einigen Höhepunkten mit genialen Ideen, aber an vielen Stellen wird sich zu sehr auf den skurrilen Aufhänger verlassen, sodass Erzählung und Zeichnungen nur Mittelmaß bleiben.

[Rob Schamberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wildly fun!

[Mark L · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the concept, centred around demonic pigs after the biblical exorcism of Legion. Well told story.

[Johan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This comic contains pig hunters instead of vampire hunters. You will also learn why pigs are considered unclean. There is even a guest appearance of Jezus.