April 18, 2023

I love Chelsea Cain.

When I read the Man-Eaters Vol. 1 trade paperback, I found yet another exceptional series from her. There was Spy Island. Of course, Mockingbird, one of my all-time favorite series. I was excited to see how this amazing series continued.

As I was looking for the series in comic books (besides just in the trade paperbacks), I found that there was a second volume of the regular series, called Man-Eaters: The Cursed and I was excited.

There is so much creativity in this book. From the creative storytelling to the amazing advertisements that fall into the world she is building. It is amazing that Image does not have any ads for their other books in these issues. It is all-encompassing man-eaters.

Man-Eaters #1-12.

The first series was exceptional. We start finding out that some menstruating girls, at one point, started turning into vicious killing werepanthers. Maude is our 12-year old protagonist who is right at the age for the possible transformations. And her father, a detective, is investigating a series of brutal attacks that certainly could be werepanthers. Maude is not sure if she is turning into a killer cat or not.

I love the story and I really love the ending. It switched everything that the series had been working on over the entire run and the ending was a great surprise.

Another fantastic bit of this series is that issue #4, issue #8 and issue #12 have no part of the basic story and are more like magazines or training manuals. Issue eight included a card game that provided the cards on flaps on the inside front and back covers. It feels like a teacher’s manual with games that can be used to instruct students in the problems of menstruations. It is a really cool feature of this.

Man-Eaters: The Cursed #1-5.

The second series took a different path. With the werepanthers wrapped up, we find out that Maude had attended a “Craft Camp” and was the best camper ever. She was sent to the camp once more until she discovered that all the campers, except a boy named Burt, had disappeared.

More so, we discover that the camp was a “Witchcraft” camp and that Maude was a practicing witch.

The Cursed was a shorter run, but it was an even tighter story and was funny and well done.

I know that some people are not fans of how much of a feminist Chelsea Cain is and how much she uses those beliefs in her writing. That has never bothered me. I love a good strong woman. Sure there are plenty of misogynists on the internet or in the world of comic collectors, but that is not my beliefs. I love Chelsea Cain’s work and I find it engaging, entertaining and hilarious.

I hope we get some more in the Man-Eaters world someday.