In Utero

by Chris Gooch

AKIRA meets ALIENS, and ANNIHILATION meets EVANGELION, in this coming-of-age monster tale from award-winning graphic novelist Chris Gooch. Twelve years after a disastrous explosion, young Hailey is dropped off by her mum at a holiday camp in a dilapidated shopping mall. Alienated from the other kids, she connects with an eerie older teen named Jen… but soon dark horrors awaken, and the two new friends are caught up in a cataclysmic battle between two terrifying creatures who have been lying dormant all this time. One of Australia’s most acclaimed young graphic novelists, Chris Gooch expertly crafts a taut and intimate thriller about mothers and daughters, the monstrous and the mundane, and the power of friendship in the midst of catastrophe.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Horror, Comics, Science Fiction, Young Adult, Fantasy, Fiction

244 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 23, 2024

About the author

Chris Gooch (b. 1993) is a cartoonist based out of Melbourne, Australia.

Reviews

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all] · Rating 3 out of 5]

An unfathomable terror awaits In the wreckage of a massive and deadly explosion 12 years prior in Chris Gooch’s sci-fi horror In Utero. The story follows 12 year old Hailey as she sneaks away from her chaotic daycare inside a closed-down shopping mall and befriends Jen, who turns out to be far more than anyone could ever imagine and needs a companion before the great horrors beneath the mall begin to rise. While the artwork is breathtaking and conveys some seriously creepy sights and vibes, the monster plot falls a bit flat through a rather cumbersome execution and unfortunate lack of context. In Utero delivers surreal thrills and mind-bending concepts making it a worthwhile read though riding along the story feels like being jostled along a bumpy road too quickly to enjoy the scenery and left in the dark about where you are going or why.

Okay, but for real the art is amazing

There’s a lot to enjoy in In Utero. The characters are pretty fun like the frazzled head of the daycare who is more concerned with confrontation than caregiving, or Hailey and her habit of rattling off random facts. There’s a great bit too with the frustration of the scientists trying to study the specimens and the general who is ready to go in guns blazing and kills some monsters. Or be killed. It doesn’t go very well for anyone and this has some great action moments.

And then there is Jen. I really enjoyed the aspects of a metaphysical “monster” who can project into the world or draw Hailey into her strange alternative universe (shown above) and the whole idea of rival beasts fighting across space and time and over generations was cool it just never quite came together. The general confusion is a bit fun at first since its all so creepy and surreal, but the tiny bits of context given don’t add up to much and feels less like a creepy feature and more like a flaw. The pacing is also pretty jumpy and while I appreciate the effort of jump-cuts between locations and characters it isn’t always successfully handled. Also the timeline just doesn’t feel natural for the amount of things happening.

‘It's not the ground we're worried about... it's what came out of it.’

That all said, the art here is extraordinary. I really liked the two-tone art with scenes in either all red or a dark blue. The style reminded me a bit of a favorite graphic novelist, Tillie Walden, especially in the architectural aspects and honestly, even if you are confused this is just a great graphic novel to look at. It handles the surrealism quite well and there are some really strange things going on in this book.

Ultimately, In Utero is a fun and eerie graphic novel that feels like its missing some elements but ultimately is a worthwhile read. Gorgeous art, gory monster battles and just a good time.

3.5/5

[Rod Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple and tidy monster story that kept me glued to its pages from start to finish.

[Stay Fetters · Rating 3 out of 5]

"It's not the ground we're worried about... it's what came out of it."

Imagine shaking a soda. Shaking it and shaking it. Building up all that pressure and seeing it get all foamy. You know that once you twist the cap off, the soda explosion is going to be epic. You twist the cap, waiting for the pressure to hit. Then the cap comes off and it fizzes a tiny bit. Wah wah... the soda has lost all of its carbonation. So no pressurized cap, no soda shower, and no passing go and collecting two hundred dollars. That is this book in a nutshell. A lot of build-up for little payoff and we still have no idea what in the hell happened.

[Matt Graupman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chris Gooch is a madman. His comics have always been pretty “out there” but his latest, “In Utero,” a gloopy, surreal creature feature-style epic, is him pushing even further towards the outer reaches of his personal universe. Beautifully drawn and more than just a little bit insane, “In Utero” is like Tillie Walden illustrating a David Cronenberg movie. There’s also an undercurrent of sweetness - almost innocence - to the book, though, which is weird when you consider it’s full of slime and blood and astral plane lunacy. It’s safe to say that no one makes comics quite like Gooch.

[Anna Quilter · Rating 3 out of 5]

intriguing read about aliens in an one time Australian mall.

[Haze · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

YA science fiction creature-feature graphic novel. Entertaining, if you are in the right mood.

[Zedsdead · Rating 3 out of 5]

An area spanning 20 city blocks explodes. Twelve years later and a couple miles away, bored children find thousands of slowly fusing grapefruit sized blobs underneath a semi-legal daycare center. A ghost that lives in a giant egg befriends one of the kids. Then things start to get weird.

My feelings are mixed. The characters are really well written: the precocious tween who wants to be anywhere but daycare, the ghost who's learning how to have a human friend, even the understaffed, overmatched, frantic daycare manager who is far more concerned with covering her ass than protecting her charges.

And Gooch has a great instinct for creepy, unpredictable imagery. The brains, the mindscape, the silhouette watching hungrily on the horizon, even the egg graphics that precede each chapter. It feels like fresh, untapped visual design space.

But what the hell does it all mean?? What the hell is the brain-maw thing and where did it come from? What the hell is the dogmonster that is also a ghost? Whence came the explosion and how was it even related? Why does Hailey keep it all secret? Are the monsters going to keep coming back? What's next for a giant uncontested dogmonster with a ghostmind?

All the ingredients for a five star book are here. It just needs another pass through the plot validator.

[Songie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the limited color palette usage! Coupled with the art and strategic paneling, it did an amazing job of telling the story.

I read it in one sitting since it was entertaining and flowed with ease.

Honestly, not wholly sure if I missed something or I need it all to marinate in my head for some time. When reaching the end, it left me wishing there was an overarching story or purpose to it all.

Would recommend if you want to enjoy something visually compelling and be entertained with ✨the horrors✨!

[fer · Rating 5 out of 5]

a historia demorou um pouco pra me pegar, de inicio estava achando tudo meio she's so crazy demais. mas depois adorei! achei que tem inspiraçoes fortes de strangers things, a arte é lindinha e o final é quentinho no coraçao

[Isabella · Rating 4 out of 5]

i’m disturbed

[Delta M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

this struck me weirdly hard for what it was. I'll eat up anything with loneliness as a primary motivator for a main character.

[Michael Perez · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent horror graphic novel with some really great art.

[Katie Florida · Rating 3 out of 5]

So weird and unsettling, but I couldn't stop until I saw how it ended.

[P. Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

alongside On A Sunbeam for the classification I label "the future of fiction." Can you fricking believe I'm able to read as much as I am while in grad school? That the power of libraries baby.

[Paul Albright · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve decided to get into graphic novels to enjoy stories with some visuals and a reading style more my speed. So I’ve kicked that off with some 2024 releases.

This one is pretty solid - dug the minimal color scheme and art work. I’m a sucker for a monster story, whether that’s film or otherwise. I’m not sure the relationship of our main duo had quite enough time to flourish or feel completely natural but it didn’t break the story.

Knocked it out in one quick sitting and that must say something, right?

[Patricia Q · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had me hooked from the start. Loved the art.

[Rummanah (Books in the Spotlight) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not exactly sure what to make of this "creature feature" graphic novel. The illustrations and color schemes of red, white, and black are vibrant and have another worldly effect on them. I couldn't quite wrap my head around the plot and what the graphic novelist is trying to say. This reminded me a bit of Ghostopolis by Doug TenNapel, but with more violence. I actually liked Ghostopolis much more.

[J MaK · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4.4) This light horror was an enjoyable yet tense read with just the right amount of oddity.

[S46354595 · Rating 5 out of 5]

How can it be over already? I get the feeling that this author likes to end his stories like this and never write sequels, but I really want some sequels...

http://aminoapps.com/p/dkqtafk

[Brad Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a pleasant surprise!! I’d never heard of this, never heard of the author/illustrator, but I was out shopping with my girlfriend (hello by the way <3) and stumbled upon this and decided to give it a shot. It was so good!! It felt very much inspired by Akira which is always fun, but it was very simple. The presentation of the story was perfect, flipping back and forth between the perspective of one monster and a team of scientists trying to discover what’s going on. As our monster tells us their story, the scientists uncover clues and stuff, until the stories collide in a cool little fight at the end.

It’s not earth shattering, in scale or in execution, but everything it set out to do, it did, and it did it well! I thought it was an extremely fun read with surprisingly good characters. Not that I expected them to be bad, it’s just in a single little comic book, it can be hard sometimes to write characters that you can be attached to, but they did it! I actually really enjoyed the characters and the little world it was established. Not a single word was wasted in the limited space the book had.

5/5! A perfect little story!

[Peter Hollo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how every one of Chris's books is different, but they are all recognizably him.
The artwork here is gorgeous, especially with the two spot colours alongside the heavy blacks.
The story is both sweet and creepy. The characters are... not particularly fleshed out, but that doesn't matter to me, as it's super evocative, and they are visually so expressive.

I would love to read more of this very strange milieu. Given the "unexplained explosion happened years ago" scenario, it's like a small-scale take on Akira - only different in every detail. Lol.
Nevertheless. I think what Chris does so well is take bits of tropes from comics & sci-fi and subtly reshape them into something quite new, and quite odd. I love it.

[Joanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

In Utero has some cool visuals and emotional moments—great cover art—but overall it was a bit too bizarre for me. The color palette shifts help keep things clear, and I liked the friendship between Hailey and Jen—but the strange creatures and out-there storyline just didn’t click with me.

[Liv · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gorgeously rendered, confusingly written. I expected all of it to mean something but if it did…I missed it. It built and built and built and the climax was a bit of a let down.

[Bant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully strange graphic novel. It could sometimes be haunting. And I love the color palette.

[Ricky Lima · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really everything I love about giant monster stories. It's weird, action packed, and full of emotion. The cartooning is perfectly subtle when it needs to be and in your face other times. Fantastic book really.

[Darth Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fairly enjoyable despite being your standard kaiju/monster story. Speaking of, really like how Gooch (what a name) told it.

[Jessica Haider · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creepy, weird sci-fi horror set in an abandoned mall. I liked it!

[Elysse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really cute quick read with fantastic artwork.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

The art was phenomenal, I was left with more questions than answers, fantastic horror book!
contains slight gore and violence