In "Reason to be Excited," I spotlight things from modern comics that I think are worth getting excited about. I mean stuff more specific than "this comic is good," ya know? More like a specific bit from a writer or artist that impressed me.

Today, we look at how well Jeff Lemire and Phil Hester exploit the expansive narrative power of body horror stories.

Now, before I get into some of the more high-falutin' stuff, let me note that clearly the catchiest thing about body horror stories, and probably the most notable reason for why they are so popular to do, is because of the obvious relatability to these types of stories. Without exception, we all have bodies. Thus, it is freaky as heck when we see something horrific happen to someone else's body, because we can instantly connect to it. It's why the iconic Marathon Man scene works so well, because we almost all have teeth and so we KNOW what it feels like when you mess with someone's teeth and so that scene reverberates inside of us all. It's the same reason body horror stuff lands so well.

However, due to its universal application, that means it is also extremely well suited to be used in a more expansive way. What I mean to say is that body horror stories are some of the more elastic types of stories - you can fit in all sorts of existential dread into a body horror comic that doesn't come across the same way as, say, a slasher tale or a zombie tale.

When I did my 31 Days of Horror Comics feature last month, Phil Hester's suggestion (which was also the suggestion of a bunch of other artists, by the way, Phil just got there first) was Charles Burns' Black Hole.

In Black Hole, a sexually transmitted disease is spread among a group of teens in the Seattle area during the 1970s and so Burns uses these body horror mutations to explore themes of teenage isolation and the fear of growing into a whole other being (namely, an adult)...

Throughout their respective careers, Jeff Lemire and Phil Hester have been proving just how diverse body horror comics can get and here, the combine on Family Tree (with Hester being inked by Eric Gapstur and colored by Ryan Cody) to use body horror as a symbol of the sort of existential dread that parents face when something endangers their children. Lemire did something similar during his great run on Animal Man, but here, it is even more pronounced when a single mother (in 1997, so it is similar to Black Hole in that sense, which came out in the 1990s and was set in the 1970s) is forced to go to her son's school when he gets busted with weed (which appears to have come from her own stash). She brings her young daughter with her, who has developed a bizarre rash.

Later, at dinner, things get crazy (I suppose I should warn you about spoilers, but well, come on, you have to expect a spoiler here now, right? And again, this is the whole concept that the book is based on, so it's not like a twist is being ruined, hence it being the featured image, as well)...

Again, as I mentioned before, body horror works in a great sense because, well, HOLY CRAP, HOW FREAKY IS THAT!?!

So that's awesome, as Hester, Gapstur and Cody really sell the creepiness of that branch growing out of her lower back beautifully. Damn, that's impressive.

But that's where the parental instincts kick in and suddenly it's not, "Holy crap, there's a branch growing out of my daughter," but more, "Holy crap, there's a branch growing out of my daughter - what do I have to do for her now?"

Of course, things go progressively worse (we have been prepared since the book opened that this was the start of the end of the world) and some more crazy things happen, but the center of the comic is that anxiety that a mother feels for the safety of her children.

It's a very strong first issue spearheaded by two top of the line comic book creators and I look forward to a whole lot more of this.

Okay, this feature is a bit less of a reader-interactive one, as I'm just spotlight stuff in modern comics that specifically impressed ME, but heck, if you'd like to send in some suggestions anyways, maybe you and I have the same taste! It's certainly not improbably that something you found cool would be something that I found cool, too, so feel free to send ideas to me at brianc@cbr.com!