Feeding Ground #1-4
Written by Swifty Lang
Art & Letters by Michael Lapinski
Story by Swifty Lang, Michael Lapinski, and Chris Mangun
Edited by: Paul Morrissey
Archaia Comics
Release date: February 23, 2011 (Issue #4)

Feeding Ground is a comic about the blurring of borders: borders between man and animal, good and evil, childhood and adulthood, even borders between countries. The Feeding Ground of the comics namesake is the term given to this nowhere space the characters find themselves in, trapped and hunted by monsters of all stripes.

Swifty Lang and Michael Lapinski have created a fascinating comic in Feeding Ground, one that marries the topical politics of the day with supernatural horror and traditional Mexican folklore. It follows the story of Diego and his family, living on the edge of the Mexican/American border. Surrounded by Mexican gangsters, Diego works as a snakehead, safely transporting illegal immigrants across the Mexican/U.S. border. His daughter, while playing along the edge of a farm owned by local land baron, Backwell, is bitten by something she couldn’t see, and begins a horrifying transformation right as her brother kills a local pimp and hustler in order to defend his mother.

Forced to flee, the whole family pulls up stakes and attempts to cross the border into America, across the no man’s land. Unfortunately, it’s not merely border guards, minutemen, and gangsters they have to look out for. Something controlled by Blackwell is stalking the night as well: the lycanthrope, the goatsucker, the chucacabra: the half-animal, half-man creatures stalking the border.

The art in Feeding Ground is simplistic, done in light shades, and it serves the story well from as it translates heat and desperation of the Mexican family as the move through the heat of the night. However, where the art does fall apart is in the depiction of the werewolves: the design is uninteresting and to be frank, even goofy looking at times. But in a very creative comic, it’s the one weakness and it has a serious impact on my appreciation of the comic.

Other then the art, Feeding Ground is a top rate comic and unique idea. What’s more interesting, the comic has been translated into Spanish, and so clearly targeted to Mexican audiences along with the rest of the North American audience. It’s a creative project and I’m sorry it’s ending after 6 issues.

Rating: 4 out of 5 Bloodless Goats.