Feeding Ground by Swifty Lang & Michael Lapinski

Feeding Ground
by Swifty Lang & Michael Lapinski
Archaia, 2011

While ‘coyote’ Diego Busqueda is guiding a group through the unpleasant Devil’s Highway from Mexico to Arizona, the vile Don Oso pays his attractive wife a visit, and one dead Don and burnt house later, his family is on the run. Oh, and werewolves.

An evil American company on the border picks up unfortunate crossers to experiment on, unleashing the chupacabric results into the desert to wreak havoc on both illegal immigrants and the loutish rednecks who pierce their water caches. There’s a fair bit of sharp satire here.

The vivid artwork appears to be based on photo reference and is coloured with a striking and carefully controlled palette, with occasional strategic colour plate-misalignments to give panels an edge of psychological dislocation, and feral woodcut images. The only weakness is the depiction of the actual werewolves, which look a bit Lon Chaney Jr.-ish.