Review: ‘In Utero’ Is A Perfect Mix Of The Spectacular, Alien Body Horror, & Coming Of Age Drama

When I previewed Chris Gooch‘s In Utero a while back, I commented that Top Shelf’s PR promise of “Akira meets Aliens, and Annihilation meets Evangelion,” was setting a damned high bar. But it was a high bar that In Utero sails over, with a genuinely creepy bit of graphic novel that actually lives up to the hype.

In fact, it goes way beyond the hype, does the whole body horror thing with that glorious dystopian architectural style, shows us all the nightmarish organic sci-fi monster movie type thing, but then goes deep into a coming-of-age narrative, albeit a widely unconventional one, that’s got something very sweet about it. It’s the combination of all of those things that make In Utero something that really starts off the reading year in fine style.

Set in Australia, In Utero starts with a devastating explosion viewed by a pregnant mom and her young son, an explosion that gets bigger and brighter and takes out more of their city – something that becomes known as the Stonehill explosion.

Then we jump 12 years later and join young Hailey and her Mom on their way to dropping Hailey off at a holiday camp so that Mom can still go to work. We’re given a vision of that same devastated city, the huge crater integrated into the cityscape, crisscrossed by roadways.

That short intro section and that first part of Chapter 1 immediately establishes Gooch’s credentials and is very much in Akira territory – it’s laced all through the art, all that Katsuhiro Otomo styling, both in the characters we’re seeing and, most particularly, in the architecture that Gooch gets so absolutely right. Damn, this is such a good-looking book.

 

There’s also that highly effective thing Gooch does with the colours. It’s open to interpretation for sure, but generally the blue is more character, more the coming of age element of things, whereas red is all about the body horror and all things alien as things go on, such as this very early use of the reds as the first responders racing into the smoking site that is about to become the Stonehill explosion.

Even this early on into things and before we get any of the horrific aspects of things, there’s a goodly amount of tension that Gooch laces through his pages, putting the reader on edge, expecting things to go dark and to go weird. There’s a masterful control of the writing and art to accomplish all that.

And then, as we move on to Hailey joining her holiday camp, Gooch gets to show off another string to his storytelling bow with perfect comedic timing, not a huge element in the grand scheme of things here but used several times through the book, allowing Gooch to offer us a counterpoint to the utter creepiness of certain moments, a gentle humour that perfectly fits the absurb dichotomy of the main threads of body horror, massive monsters, and coming of age tale.

Okay, now to give you something in the art from the very earliest bits of In Utero that illustrate much of what I’ve told you so far. A two-and-a-bit-page section in chapter one where Hailey’s on her way to the summer camp inside the dilapidated and abandoned shopping mall for the first time. Here’s page one of the sequence – oh, there’s so much Otomo going on here, but a hell of a lot more besides. A glorious silent page that sets things up so well.

 

Next there’s the moment of wonderful physical comedy and the use of the comic page to express that timing perfectly. I’ve always loved the way comics can do comedy this way, using the panels and the transitions perfectly, the sort of incredible things that comics does so well, playing with time between panels, using the gutters to deliver the moment. Here it’s the panel-to-panel transition that opens with the baby crawling and ends with Hailey doing that perfect little double take…

 

Of course, Gooch isn’t done yet, there’s the pay-off for the whole thing to deliver yet. And it happens as Hailey scoops up said baby and delivers her back into the day-care play scheme, the one she’s just arriving at, where the play scheme leader’s having a meltdown because she’s the only one there in charge of all these kids…

 

Yes, that shows you all you need to know. That’s a great little bit of comedy right there. It’s also a perfect illustration of the urban decay/Akira-esque nature of the style of things and the architectural nods to Otomo.

Okay, back to what’s happening. With an obviously too old for the playscheme Hailey surrounded by babies and a terminally stressed out leader, she meets another older kid, a very weird kid called Jen. And that’s the moment things take a sharp turn into both body horror and weirdness – and a rather masterful turn as well.

Plus there’s the absolute creepiness of the kids in the playscheme finding some particularly unpleasant organic things in the building – again Gooch using that colour shift to introduce the moment of danger, a simple thing but one that is perfect to add a moment of tension and excitement in the horror of what he’s showing us.

Again, let’s break for an art moment for that introduction of Jen and the moment she reveals that she’s really not from around here…

 

And then the weird and creepy nasties that are turning up all over the building, Gooch really getting that body horror element so right with all that goo and organic matter and the way he pulls the kids into things. You might not be sick, but you will feel that chill go down your spine as the mini-brain or gut things keep appearing.

 

Okay then, that’s all of the elements of this excellent creeper of a tale in place. From everything I’ve told you and shown you so far you’ve got everything you really need to get a feel for things and to realise that this is a book that you should be loving.

I’m not going to go deep into things after this, but let’s just say that things split perfectly into a dual narrative with Gooch keeping a tight hold on two very different plot elements, but two plot elements that he makes work flawlessly together.

First, there’s the unusual friendship of two lonely kids with absent mothers as Hailey and Jen bond, albeit in some very strange circumstances and very unusual landscapes as Jen takes Hailey on a very strange psychic journey into the unknown. But no matter how weird it all is, this is still grounded by that developing friendship.

And then, against the rather sweet, if very unusual, thread of the two lonely girls becoming friends, we have everything else. And that everything else is huge and explosive and violent. There’s an expansion of the monstrosities you see in the cupboard again, there’s a response from Jen to provide her own monstrous form – and suddenly we’re racing towards something Kaiju, giant alien monstrosities facing off against each other with the authorities racing around with heavy weaponry and the civilians caught in the middle.

Yep, it’s a monster movie with a heart. Creepy morphology, plentiful viscera, dripping and oozing alien bodily fluids set against the lovely tale of two lonely young girls finding a friendship together. It’s got the sort of blockbuster with a difference narrative that’s absolutely crying out for a film or TV adaptation but they’ll still never be able to get the beautifully constructed balance between the elements here as right as Gooch does.

In Utero by Chris Gooch is out now from Top Shelf Productions