An unreal magazine of were-panther stuff in Man-Eaters No. 8
Man-Eaters goes in deep on the fictional documents, to our delight.
Lovecraft did it. Tolkien did it. Fictional lore lends a sense of realism to a story; once there, the fake letters become a sort of anchor to feasibility. Hopefully. A good story allows you to immerse yourself in it, and Man-Eaters is an incredible romp through storytelling, twice now having full issues devoted to false documents presented to the people inhabiting the reality the comic is about. And we’re working with a doozy of a premise: how does a patriarcal American society deal with toxoplasmosis, a cat poop disease, mutating and causing infected women to turn into big cats, or “were-panthers” when they begin and continue to have their periods? Author Chelsea Cain and creator/designer Lia Miternique have given us a wild look at the theoretical coping mechanisms of such a society, and it’s something to think about.
Image Comics
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Man-Eaters is socially conscious in a way few comics are
At the end of the last issue, we found out Maude’s mom was, in fact, a were-panther, and that was a super cool revelation. She works for a government agency devoted to catching these man-eaters, her ex-husband is a homicide detective who deals with cat attacks, and her daughter is a middle-school rebel, who is literally part of a rebellion. They’re rebelling against the patriarchy, against a society that suppresses their hormones and against a government and companies that put out smarmy and alarmist literature, like the document currently in our hands. “What’s Happening To Me And Can It Be Stopped?” is the name of a “Student Health Edition” textbook produced by the Estropure Scholastic Foundation, and it includes a card game for students to play with complex rules, a role-playing exercise about peer pressure and hormone-laced beverages, a tampon game with pig’s blood, and combat simulation.
Image Comics
Man-Eaters takes “what if?” as far as it’ll go, and then some
There’s another section that reveals the propaganda-esque stories of the characters the students were playing those earlier games as; it turns out they were real people who turned and had terrible consequences because of it. A celebrity “pantherism rehab” is advertised, along with an advertisement for Estro-Lite™, a tap water flavoring, seeing as how the tap water is laced with hormones to suppress women’s periods. Then there are two games that are intended for the reader to play with a group of people, wherein men learn about empathy and people get to share their thoughts about the scenarios they are placed in. And dancing. We learn that Maude maybe went to rehab. The issue closes with the statement “PANTHERISM ENCOURAGES WOMEN TO LEAVE THEIR HUSBANDS KILL THEIR CHILDREN PRACTICE WITCHCRAFT DESTROY CAPITALISM AND BECOME LESBIANS.“, which pretty much sums up the mise en page.
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The layout here is just stunning. The concept itself is one this author always enjoys, but the creators have just outdone themselves this time. They’re getting a new artist, so we’ll see where that takes us. But it seems certain that this stellar comic will keep putting out supernovas like this one. 10/10, highly recommended. Let us know what you thought in the comments section below.