#the deviant

[cinemamind]

The Deviant #5 variant cover by David Romero

[ironiadevil]

ROCK !!!

You like Franco with a beard ? :3

Raa.. the Deviant... Xb

[absencesrepetees]

cover art by anand radhakrishnan for ram v, simon spurrier and james tynion’s books

[ufonaut]

You were a little queer boy and you liked to hug your friends a bit too much. You liked their touch. You liked the way they smelled. You liked when you could trick them into wrestling with you. Any little intimacy. Any chance to get close. And you start getting the sense that there's something wrong with you. That the little feelings you're feeling are one-way. And they're all looking in another direction. Then you find out there are other people in the world who are just as wrong as you are. And no matter what horrible thing they did, you know you aren't the only monster in the world.

The Deviant (2023) #1

(James Tynion IV, Joshua Hixson)

[kryptonbabe]

The gay experience in literature: a horror comic and a literary fiction novel parallel

From The Deviant #8 (2024) by James Tynion IV, Joshua Hixson & Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

The Deviant is a horror comic from 2024, What Belongs to You is a literary fiction novel published in 2016.

Sexuality encapsulates multiple aspects of human life, the physical / hormonal aspect of love, the emotional aspect of intimacy, the social / historical side of tradition and expectations based on notions of gender... It can be a lot, so it's alarming to think about all that happening during your teenage years, usually when the discoveries are taking place. It's just too much for someone so young to make sense of, especially when you do not conform to what is expected from you. The moment in the panels above took me to several places, some deep and personal and others relating to the familiarity of this scene from other books, specifically to one moment in the novel What Belongs to You by Garth Greewell.

In the second chapter of that novel the author describes a teen boy's sexual discovery, and I believe what he says works to expand the themes of self-hatred and disillusion some of us feel when our feelings are confronted by the heteronormative perspective of how love is supposed to be. These feelings are also present in the comic panels above, partially described, with the art also playing a part in evoking a sense of otherness and shame. There are differences in how rejection occurs in the comic and the novel, but despite that, I still felt an intertextuality in the way the emotions are expressed in these works.

For context, the scene in the novel takes place after the first night these two boys (the narrator and K.) spend together, they've been best friends until that moment and on that night they share moments of intimacy, cuddling together and letting all the confusing and satisfying feelings of sexual discovery take hold. However, K. gets sick and wants to go home, the narrator wakes his father, with whom he has an uneasy relationship much due to the narrator homosexuality, to drive his friend home.

Novel excerpt under the cut.

"As if by instinct we sat well apart, and though I couldn’t help glancing at him we said nothing to each other. Shortly into the ride I realized I could still smell him, not only his vomit but his body, too, his sweat, which was bitter and strong; I was embarrassed for my father to smell it. I lowered the window a little and laid my head against the glass. The air was cool as it flooded in but the foulness still remained, and though K. had always before filled me with joy he seemed part of my shame now and of the foulness in the air, not just a bodily foulness but something stranger and heavier. My father glanced at us often in the mirror, a quick flick of the eyes. K. sat with his face to the window but I thought he must feel it too, that watchfulness and the weight it added to the air. It was the watchfulness that made it foul, I realized, not with its own foulness but with a foulness it found in us. K. turned away from the window but didn’t look at me, and when I asked him if he was all right he didn’t answer, though when my father asked him the same question, the very same, as though he hadn’t heard me ask it or as though it were a different question from his lips, K. spoke, he said Yes, sir, and I felt him turn from me, in that foul air I felt him identify me as foulness. It was as though he felt my father was health and I contagion, and I was at once bewildered by this and unsurprised. Those were the only words they shared; for the rest of the drive we were silent, and it wasn’t until we arrived at K.’s house that he glanced my way and nodded, and then he thanked my father and got out of the car and hurried inside the door his mother held open. My father waved at her, leaning across to the passenger-side window, and then he reversed the car and slid out of the driveway as I turned to look at the door that closed behind K. When the car stopped for a light at the end of the street, I looked again at the mirror where I could see my father’s face. He was watching me, not with the flickering surveillance of moments before but steadily, and when my eyes met his he grimaced, as if he could still smell K., though there wasn’t any smell in the air anymore. I stared back at him. For a moment I thought he was going to speak and I steeled myself, I saw his face harden with what he would say; but instead he saw that the light had changed and began driving again, and I let my head fall back against the window, watching the streets as they passed. I had been ready to accuse my father of what he had done, the disgust he had shared with K., and I felt my anger again as I walked through the grass in that undeveloped space I hadn’t known was there."

From What Belongs to You (2016) by Garth Greenwell

I find this excerpt (the whole chapter honestly) resonant with my own experiences, I believe it's safe to assume it can resonate with others too. This also underlines the necessity of queer representation in art from multiple angles and in different mediums. From the early discoveries, being good or bad experiences, to late in life reflections... Give us all sides of the queer existence. We are multiple and there are more than one way to feel the world around us, and art is key to connect us despite our differences. Thanks for reading!

[thefailurecult]

[coolcomicbookcovers]

[dispatchdcu]

The Deviant #2 Review

The Deviant #2 Review #thedeviant #deviant #comics #comicbooks #news #art #info #NCBD #comicbooknews #previews #reviews #Amazon #image #imagecomics

Writer: James Tynion IV Artist & Colorist: Joshua Hixson Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou Cover Artist: Joshua Hixson; James Stokoe; Alex Eckman-Lawn; David Talaski; Publisher: Image Price: $3.99 Release Date: December 20, 2023 Michael interviewed Randall Olsen in prison. Yet he’s unsure why he wants to write about the convicted murderer. Many others have covered the horrific events that took…

[wickedjack81]

Detective was meh again, this Orgham story is dragging on and on… hope it is building to something. Deviant is a great read but pushing the overly woke side… really needed to include MAGA? Worldtree is just a great read maybe my new fav from 2023

[smashpages]

Horror for the holidays: James Tynion IV + Joshua Hixson bring ‘The Deviant’ to Image

The nine-issue miniseries begins in November.

[cinemamind]

Have you done any comic book covers lately? I love going to my local store and collecting them

The most recent variant cover I illustrated was for James Tynion IV's 'The Deviant.'

It's unavailable and unseen for now, but I hope it will be released around Jan-Feb.

[ironiadevil]

The Deviant/Fuckerman is here

My version of the Fuckerman without a mask ! :D

...This character is detestable... 🤢

Be careful, he is "almost" completely naked ! Poor Phyllis ! X'(

[comicsreading]

The Deviant 1-7.

[graphicpolicy]

The Deviant #7 Has Derek Shine a Light to Save Michael from the Darkness

The Deviant #7 Has Derek Shine a Light to Save Michael from the Darkness #comics #comicbooks

Locked behind bars and blamed for the recent killings, Michael waits in a jail cell as the public believes him to be the new Deviant Killer. His partner Derek takes it upon himself to solve this decades-long, horrific mystery to free his partner from prison. Derek realizes he can only save Michael and clears his name by meeting the original accused Deviant Killer, Randall Olsen. As Derek works on…

[kryptonbabe]

If you like Christmas, serial killers and homosexuality this one is for you... Great writing paired with a fitting, evocative art and some creepy lettering.

The story is a deep dive into the psyche of gay men, how society demonizes anyone who doesn't fit into heteronormativity and the emotional consequences of it. It is also a thriller, so for anyone who enjoys a suspenseful narrative. Old gays, cats drinking blood, dumbass homophobes getting axed in the face, subtle critique of true-crime culture, gay romance and much more!

The Deviant #9, the concluding issue, is dropping December 25th, right on time to read the previous issues and celebrate the holidays with family and friends!

From The Deviant #8 (2024) by James Tynion IV, Joshua Hixson & Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou