Book Review: Tetra: A Graphic Novel by Malcolm Mc Neill

Tetra: A Graphic Novel by Malcolm Mc Neill

Paperback, 136 pages

Published July 2018 by Stalking Horse Press

"Tetra was a late 70s proto-cyberpunk transreal skin-mag SF epic serialized graphic novel starring a naked woman with no hair and a penchant for running-dialog wisecracks. The art is lovely, and language play of the alien characters is worth the price of admission alone." - Rudy Rucker

My first read of the year down is a lost classic graphic novel that was originally serialized in the post Star Wars late 70's in the adult magazine Gallery. I have only ever heard of Gallery before because I knew Stephen King was somewhat embarrassed in retrospect that so many of his early stories were published there. I was interested because James Reich and his press Stalking Horse has yet to fail me, and it also had the above blurb from Rudy Rucker whose opinion I trust.

I know in the wake of Star Wars and the crazy blockbuster that it was that lots of creative forces were trying to capitalize on the craziness. NBC did Battlestar, and Corman had Battle Beyond the Stars. I shouldn't be surprised that even a skin magazine would want to ride the massive space opera wave at the time.

Enter Malcolm McNeil the talented young artist who had just spent eight years working with genius surrealist William Burroughs (Naked Lunch)on a project. The idea was a space opera comic strip. McNeil just scratched the surface getting canceled after about 70 pages. This book includes a detailed back story, concept art and various promo materials he made.

The art alone is breathtaking when you consider the amount of work he put in, including hand drawing each panel he went as far as to sculpt the aliens. The story is equally bizarro and worth checking out. The inverse of many Campbellian hero's journeys Tetra is a subversive piece of space opera.

The main character is drafted by a living cyrstal starship into chosen one status after being born into a race of "pleasure pets" she has never had clothes or hair for that matter. She has planets to save and adventures to be had. She travels the universe looking for the elusive title object. The thing is she doesn't want to be the chosen one, she just wants to prove she is not the savior.

Look the feminist that I am could have done with the nudity, but hell it is the concept and I just went with it. The sad thing is that the concept got sold short by the short run. It sounds like the demands of the project were brutal for McNeil so he might not have been bummed that it got canceled.

This is a really neat project for bizrro and weird sci-fi readers. It is a really strange and awesome project that should not have been lost to history. In that sense, I gotta thanks Stalking Horse press for saving it. Super worth check it out.