Manticore

by Keith Miller, Ian Gabriel (Artist)

Aryan race warrior. A Mexican drug lord. A Korean hit man. A career stick-up man. The wrong guy at the wrong place at the wrong time. The puke Cho-mo-kiddy-toucher. And you! This ain't the Breakfast Club and these are ain't your new friends. Welcome to the Protective Housing Unit (PHU), home to some of world's worst criminals—many of whom so reviled they must not only be shielded from the American public, but the general prison population. This is your new life. Simon, a white-collar criminal, is a new transfer to Pensacola Federal Prison Camp. He's having a hard time adjusting to prison culture, and his newfound "friends" aren't all that interested in making his new life any easier. Everyone in the PHU has his own agenda; alliances are, at best, temporary; and even the notion of friendship is laughable. But all that is about to change. This brutal yet familiar life they've all grown accustomed to is about to come to an end as a mysterious stranger is transferred to their unit and these hardened inmates start to die… Horribly. One at a time. Manticore collects the 5-part prison horror comic series by Keith Miller and Ian Gabriel into one engrossing volume.
Keith A. Miller was born but not completely bred in Brooklyn, New York. When he’s not busy corralling thirteen-year-olds (he's a teacher), he writes independent comics. He likes to play around in the science-fiction and urban fantasy genres but is not above a good slice-of-life graphic novel. He is the co-creator of Triboro Tales and Insensitives. His latest graphic novella, Infest, will hit the convention floors in 2015. He is a graduate of CUNY Queens College, where he received a degree in Comparative Literature and Cultural Anthropology, and CUNY Law School. His interests lie in telling speculative fiction stories of people generally not represented in genre fiction so that the plucky character of color will not die first.

Ian Gabriel is an illustrator who graduated from SUNY Geneseo with a Bachelor’s in Studio Art. Manticore is his first foray into graphic novels, but won’t be his last. He lives in New York.

128 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2019

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Neat concept, poor execution. Simon is the new prisoner on the cell block with a bunch of hard cases. Shortly after a prisoner from Gitmo arrives in the middle of the night, inmates are horrifically murdered in their cells by a manticore. As more convicts are killed, the prison spirals out of control. This is where this thing falls apart. The art is not very good and most of the inmates look the same to the point where I couldn't tell who was who. I'm still not really sure what happened at the end. Out of the blue someone turns up from a pharmaceutical company and I guess the experimental drugs the prisoners were given were the culprit. I don't know. It made no sense.

Received an advance copy from Rosarium and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Diane Hernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truly horrifying!

Manticore is set inside the worst unit of a maximum security prison. Fish is the newest prisoner until a transfer from Gitmo arrives. Then the bodies start piling up. Why are the prisoners given experimental, and possibly psychotropic, drugs? Does that explain the deaths?

This is a good psychological thriller with horror elements. I believe that one image in particular will stay with me for awhile. The artwork is fine. The plot is fantastic. The characters are clearly defined and most of their back stories are shown. However, some of the lettering was too small and blurry to read on my Kindle or iPad.

This graphic novel would be good for fans of The Walking Dead because both are plot-driven horror.

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for a free digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Theediscerning · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well I've tried my best - following this comic through its quarterly issues and then seeing the fifth and final installment in this trade - but whatever I said hasn't really helped. The lettering is awkward, the reading order is jumbled, and most heinously the artwork is so mediocre that even by the end when all the proverbial has hit the fan you don't know who the baddie is, who has survived, or what has happened. It's an intriguing premise - something mythical killing off inmates in a corrupt prison wing, but it doesn't ring true in the end, and ultimately the execution isn't on a par with the ambition. I found the separate issues sometimes good, sometimes frustrating - the trade didn't change my mind on that, and the netgalley really didn't allow me to plump for the former, however much I wanted to.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Manticore is a story that takes place in a prison. The prison staff are abusive and tests experimental medicines on the inmates. The graphic novel follows Steven a white-collar criminal who is scared of being put in with murderers and child molesters. All the prisoners are forced to take medicine with their meals. Why? The medication gives them nightmares. Later that night a prisoner is brought in, masked guarded by military guards. That night a prisoner is murdered. Who did it? Simon is asked by the murderer to keep his secret. Will he?

The art style is interesting. It's done in black and white colors. It only makes me wonder why the story ended. I was captured by the author's style of writing besides the illustrator's drawings.

[Sue Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Manticore by Keith Miller.
Aryan race warrior. A Mexican drug lord. A Korean hit man. A career stick-up man. The wrong guy at the wrong place at the wrong time. 
A brilliant read. I loved the illustrations and story. 5*.

[Jesse A · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a bad idea just not executed very well.

[S · Rating 2 out of 5]

Illustrations where basic and captions where hard to read and I feel there was too much swearing in it some one other then my myself my enjoy reading this but I for one did not.