What do you think?
Rate this book
Hollow Heart: The Complete Series
Once EL was a man. Now he is a monstrosity--a tortured jumble of organs in a hulking biosuit. Mateo doesn't think EL is a monster, he might even him. But will their relationship set EL free, or tighten his shackles?
IMAGINE A WORLD WHERE EVERYONE CAN SCREAM AND BE HEARD.
EL used to be human. Now he’s a jumble of organs in a bio-suit. El is also in tremendous pain and has been for a very long time. Hope arrives in the form of Mateo, a mechanic brought in to work on EL’s suit. Mateo sees EL in a way no one else ever has. And what’s more: Mateo offers EL an escape. Hollow Heart reunites Tet creators Paul Allor and Paul Tucker for a queer monster love story about the choices we make between giving our loved ones what they want and giving them what we think they need.
Collects the complete six-issue series.
IMAGINE A WORLD WHERE EVERYONE CAN SCREAM AND BE HEARD.
EL used to be human. Now he’s a jumble of organs in a bio-suit. El is also in tremendous pain and has been for a very long time. Hope arrives in the form of Mateo, a mechanic brought in to work on EL’s suit. Mateo sees EL in a way no one else ever has. And what’s more: Mateo offers EL an escape. Hollow Heart reunites Tet creators Paul Allor and Paul Tucker for a queer monster love story about the choices we make between giving our loved ones what they want and giving them what we think they need.
Collects the complete six-issue series.
144 pages, Paperback
First published October 19, 2021
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
November 11, 2021
A poorly done Frankenstein for modern times. El is some lab created monster that just wants to die until he meets this new mechanic, Mateo, who helps him escape. There's some kind of weird love story that I think was just in El's head. There's also a bunch of awful ancillary characters. There's this storytelling device each issue where the narration is some fable Allor has written told over what's actually happening each issue. It quickly gets tedious by the second issue. The art is quite rudimentary and Tucker hasn't learned how to draw side profiles of characters' faces properly yet.
January 31, 2023
It's a modern Frankenstein, with a constant running narration that never directly says what they're thinking, but has to do it by telling little stories. Every chapter, a new little story would start, and by the third chapter I started loudly sighing. You can overdo a narrative trick.
I did think the overall narrative picked up towards the end, and maybe if it was sharpened a bit, it would make the impact it deserves.
The art is messy, crude and generally not very good, I'm afraid.
(Thanks to Vault Comics for providing me with an ARC through Edelweiss)
I did think the overall narrative picked up towards the end, and maybe if it was sharpened a bit, it would make the impact it deserves.
The art is messy, crude and generally not very good, I'm afraid.
(Thanks to Vault Comics for providing me with an ARC through Edelweiss)
October 10, 2021
4.5 stars, and a contender for my favorite comic mini-series of the year.
This is a really intriguing horror/sci-fi hybrid story that, even though it's gloriously queer-centric, manages to deal in both universal truths as well as shades of grey. And, best of all, both story and art merge together seamlessly to tell the tale.
This is a really intriguing horror/sci-fi hybrid story that, even though it's gloriously queer-centric, manages to deal in both universal truths as well as shades of grey. And, best of all, both story and art merge together seamlessly to tell the tale.
October 29, 2021
Let’s recap. A robot-monster and a scientist plot an escape from this experimental torture lab, but they also fall in love? And at the start of every issue we get glimpses of other stories that have nothing to do with the plot, like one about a kid and a fish, a guy losing weight, and some other vague nonsense. Sound cool? No? Well, what if the robomonster’s chest opens up and thats how he is tortured, BUUUUTTTT it’s also how he has sex? Eureka! Alright, great. Let’s throw in some other worthless characters who sit back and do nothing and call it a day.
October 31, 2022
Hollow Heart collects issues 1-6 of the Vault Comics series written by Paul Allor and art by Paul Tucker.
El is trapped in a biosuit and in constant pain. When El gets a new handler, Mateo, who cares how he feels and helps eliminate his pain, El wonders if their is more to life than just pain and hate.
This a modern day Frankenstein story that is intriguing, but suffers from a repetitive narrative device where the story is told in parallel to a series of fables. None of the characters are given any motivation other than “it is my job to do this.” I think this book could have been something really special if instead of the fable narrative, time was take to build up the characters. Unfortunately, the art is a struggle and needed more detail, especially on awl’s face to really convey the emotion of the story.
El is trapped in a biosuit and in constant pain. When El gets a new handler, Mateo, who cares how he feels and helps eliminate his pain, El wonders if their is more to life than just pain and hate.
This a modern day Frankenstein story that is intriguing, but suffers from a repetitive narrative device where the story is told in parallel to a series of fables. None of the characters are given any motivation other than “it is my job to do this.” I think this book could have been something really special if instead of the fable narrative, time was take to build up the characters. Unfortunately, the art is a struggle and needed more detail, especially on awl’s face to really convey the emotion of the story.
August 24, 2021
I read this as single issues. This was a beautiful and tragic story. I like that it was unapologetically queer. It plays with some really cool themes and asks some important questions about ethical grey areas. I have a feeling this story will stick with me.
November 13, 2021
Hollow Heart is an interesting sci-fi, horror, romance? tale about an artificially-made sentient creature named EL that's trapped in a lab. After another failed attempt to "escape", he mets Mateo, a mechanic whose job is to fix him up. Mateo feels sorry for EL thus will try to help it escape for real. However, there's a huge risk that things won't go according to the plan.
This story has a particular narrative in which the start of every chapter tells a little anecdote about some person while the main story unfolds in the background. This intriguing way to deliver a message invites the reader to read between the lines and discover the connection between text and pictures. I had to read this twice to fully get it.
Also, it was great to read a sci-fi genre story with so many PoC and LGBT characters without making their sexuality their whole personality, they felt authentic, imo. Although this has a romance tag, i would consider it 'romantic' instead since the ends its tragic.
The artwork was fine, not as pretty as i expected nor ugly. I would have liked a more polished art style, though Paul Tucker's has a very indie vibe. Idk, i was brought back to the days i read a lot of Vertigo comics which is fine.
In resume, i feel this story had a lot of potential but it's limited lenght made it a bit rushed, i would have liked a deeper exploration of the emotional bond between Al and Mateo, and a bit more insight into the worldbuilding.
This story has a particular narrative in which the start of every chapter tells a little anecdote about some person while the main story unfolds in the background. This intriguing way to deliver a message invites the reader to read between the lines and discover the connection between text and pictures. I had to read this twice to fully get it.
Also, it was great to read a sci-fi genre story with so many PoC and LGBT characters without making their sexuality their whole personality, they felt authentic, imo. Although this has a romance tag, i would consider it 'romantic' instead since the ends its tragic.
The artwork was fine, not as pretty as i expected nor ugly. I would have liked a more polished art style, though Paul Tucker's has a very indie vibe. Idk, i was brought back to the days i read a lot of Vertigo comics which is fine.
In resume, i feel this story had a lot of potential but it's limited lenght made it a bit rushed, i would have liked a deeper exploration of the emotional bond between Al and Mateo, and a bit more insight into the worldbuilding.
January 4, 2022
I REALLY liked the concept when I read the synopsis and really wanted to like this, but the execution is... very disappointing, to put it lightly. You can tell, sometimes, when an author really wanted to write a romance in a speculative fiction setting but had no desire in actually what makes this world the way it is. The world-building is virtually nonexistent. You just have this cyborg who exists, in a Facility with other cyborgs, and is being tortured For Science. There's no purpose or motive for anything that anyone does. Every character is flat, lifeless, and miserable, with stilted dialogue, little development, and vague motivations. This is the worst with El, who has no personality or backstory or purpose beyond "monster who is constantly miserable." You know how the description says "El used to be human"? There's nothing that even implies that in the text. Ostensibly he's the main character but the story treats him more like a prop, which is ironic, given that it's meant to humanize him. Also, the little fables/anecdotes made following the plot difficult? I understand they were meant to reflect the plot but it was just distracting and I spent more time trying to keep up with them and figure out how they were relevant than being able to keep up with the actual dialogue.
August 5, 2023
Absolutely DEVASTATING. What if Dr. Frankenstein was gay and also in love with the monster he created??? I am just obsessed with this story. I would die for El, and quite frankly, I probably would if I was in this story. Only lost one star because I was not a fan of the illustration style. It seemed digital, which is just not my jam. Otherwise, beautiful.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 26, 2021
An LGTBQ+ modern retelling of Frankenstein about a sentient flesh cyborg engineered to be tortured and studied, being 'loved' and manipulated then seeking revenge. There are running short stories in the narration that frames each chapter about how love is complicated, and many relationships can be built on deception and manipulation. Our protagonist, El, starts out looking for death to end his miserable existence but once he learns about love and pleasure he becomes angry that such things had been kept from him for so long. Everyone is flawed and screwed up, and you get to watch a cyborg get a hand job then kill a bunch of people. It's tragic and dramatic and exactly the sort of weird monster movie horror romance I expect from Vault. The art is serviceable with some nice layouts but lacking finesse.
March 24, 2024
Damn this was actually kinda sad. But it really needed to be expanded on with more depth to really feel or understand what they wanted to show. And just wth they were doing with El and such. The potential this story has is a bit lost bc of how short it is. Also the story narration told in each part.. kinda in the way. Its vaugeish at times on what is supposed to be taken out of it.
I just feel lost at times. Damn and I like this too. But eh. Anyways its the new age gay Frankenstein. Also why have the final action "off screen"? Just ugh
The art is mleh i couldn't tell if mateo was crying at the end.
I just feel lost at times. Damn and I like this too. But eh. Anyways its the new age gay Frankenstein. Also why have the final action "off screen"? Just ugh
The art is mleh i couldn't tell if mateo was crying at the end.
December 28, 2021
Writer Allor describes Hollow Heart as being “the story of a man trying to save a monster, and inadvertently teaching him to be monstrous”; it’s a delicately paced story with both action and deep introspection, a “moody slow-burn” from the writer–artist pair who previously worked on
Tet
, “a startling, nuanced exploration of a conflict many of us thought we knew and understood”.
To quote the blurb directly:
Queer writer–letterer Allor adapted from his experience of his father’s decades of living with chronic pain; to quote his interview with Preview World:
And illustrator Paul Tucker, responsible for both the line-art and the colours, brings beautiful depth to the story, including surprising emotion to a hot-pink skull in a mecha suit, and helps obscure the body-horror of our Frankenstein protagonist without removing the horror of the impact of violence.
And importantly, again to quote Allor, “Hollow Heart isn’t primarily a horror story about being queer; it’s a horror story about queer characters” — there is no homophobia, no sexual violence and no awkward coming out: “everyone is queer, … the monsters, the heroes, the villains, everybody”.
Alexandra Iciek puts it perfectly in her review of the 6th and final edition, describing it as being “as heartbreaking as it is genius”. Short and sweet — and beautifully illustrated — Hollow Heart is indeed a great queer monster love story horror and an interesting view into how good intentions towards disabled people are not what we need; intent is not magic and impact is what actually matters.
CN: slavery, murder, chronic pain, body horror, “well-intentioned” suppression of a disabled character's agency.
To quote the blurb directly:
EL used to be human. Now he’s a jumble of organs in a bio-suit. El is also in tremendous pain and has been for a very long time. Hope arrives in the form of Mateo, a mechanic brought in to work on EL’s suit. Mateo sees EL in a way no one else ever has. And what’s more: Mateo offers EL an escape.
Hollow Heart reunites Tet creators Paul Allor and Paul Tucker for a queer monster love story about the choices we make between giving our loved ones what they want and giving them what we think they need.
Queer writer–letterer Allor adapted from his experience of his father’s decades of living with chronic pain; to quote his interview with Preview World:
Empathy is a tool and a burden and a gift … Hollow Heart is about what happens when a largesse of empathy does the same thing. It’s about the overwhelming desire to relieve someone’s burden, and how that desire can warp our view of someone, transforming them from a complex being with conflicting wants and desires, into something more abstract: a person defined only be their pain, and by the need to remove it.
And illustrator Paul Tucker, responsible for both the line-art and the colours, brings beautiful depth to the story, including surprising emotion to a hot-pink skull in a mecha suit, and helps obscure the body-horror of our Frankenstein protagonist without removing the horror of the impact of violence.
And importantly, again to quote Allor, “Hollow Heart isn’t primarily a horror story about being queer; it’s a horror story about queer characters” — there is no homophobia, no sexual violence and no awkward coming out: “everyone is queer, … the monsters, the heroes, the villains, everybody”.
Alexandra Iciek puts it perfectly in her review of the 6th and final edition, describing it as being “as heartbreaking as it is genius”. Short and sweet — and beautifully illustrated — Hollow Heart is indeed a great queer monster love story horror and an interesting view into how good intentions towards disabled people are not what we need; intent is not magic and impact is what actually matters.
CN: slavery, murder, chronic pain, body horror, “well-intentioned” suppression of a disabled character's agency.
December 17, 2021
So, I kinda liked this, but I kinda didn't, leaning more toward liked it. I can't really explain what was going on well, but this feels like a Frankenstein retelling where the monster, El, finds love with one of his creators. There is a running narrative of what seemed to me unrelated stories over the actual story, and I'm not sure what the purpose of that was, but I could've done with less of that, with more explanation of what was going on, why these experiments were happening. This is a story that lets you/requires you to fill in bits for yourself, so be prepared for that. If you're looking for trippy weirdness with decent art (I really liked how El looked, but everything else was a bit, idk, messy), this is your tale. I did get sucked in, and I did like the end, but the constant unrelated narration could've been either more related or not so prevalent.
December 10, 2023
A creature is cobbled together from multiple bodies and reanimated with the help of a technological power suit. He’s then used as a lab subject, subjected to various tortures. This setup all happens off screen.
One mechanic shows him kindness, and when the creature repeatedly attempts to escape, the mechanic eventually helps. But all isn’t as it seems, and the creature’s trust is tested.
The story is another Frankenstein variation, but didn’t seem to add much to the conceit. The back cover says it’s a queer story, but it’s a variation on the old trope of ‘man in love with supernatural being’, and learns what that love will cost, while also seeming to be all only internal imaginings of the creature.
The story was something of a slog to finish, and the art and creature design weren’t to my taste.
One mechanic shows him kindness, and when the creature repeatedly attempts to escape, the mechanic eventually helps. But all isn’t as it seems, and the creature’s trust is tested.
The story is another Frankenstein variation, but didn’t seem to add much to the conceit. The back cover says it’s a queer story, but it’s a variation on the old trope of ‘man in love with supernatural being’, and learns what that love will cost, while also seeming to be all only internal imaginings of the creature.
The story was something of a slog to finish, and the art and creature design weren’t to my taste.
May 7, 2023
OK, so from the blurb you know that this can go two main ways. Let's just say that if you're into monster love stories for any sort of hopeful reasons, you should probably walk on by. Also, some spoilery warnings:
Two stars for like the first half of the arc, as the idea was interesting, but in the end I felt like this devolved into hallucinatory incoherence rather than a solid ending. The story had a theme, but in the end, that theme just seemed to revolve around what you want vs. what you need, and the resolution was basically .
Two stars for like the first half of the arc, as the idea was interesting, but in the end I felt like this devolved into hallucinatory incoherence rather than a solid ending. The story had a theme, but in the end, that theme just seemed to revolve around what you want vs. what you need, and the resolution was basically .
April 10, 2022
I’m trying real hard to separate what I expected this to be from what it actually was. But I don’t think even that would change the rate much. Closed the last issue and said out loud “welp, I hated it.”
It was just… miserable. The characters. The plot. The art. Everyone and everything was miserable. I could have maybe rated it 3 stars if we didn’t get that final twist of the knife at the end. But here we are.
It was just… miserable. The characters. The plot. The art. Everyone and everything was miserable. I could have maybe rated it 3 stars if we didn’t get that final twist of the knife at the end. But here we are.
September 19, 2024
3.5 stars. I found this confusing, but also compelling. It is so dark, and the mood is very clearly established by the art style and the plot/characters. Overall, I found it intriguing but I wish it was just a little more...fleshed out? I wanted more narrative for the current story, instead of the disconnected (but obviously related) stories. Maybe a less sleep-deprived me would have made the connection between the two more easily.
February 18, 2022
A dark, cyber fable of the pain of progress and empathy. I wish I could adapt this one myself, so many great moments.
Hollow Heart is an angry, brooding sci fi tale about the ways we hurt each other, mistakenly or on purpose. A nihilist tale of the failure of self preservation and empathy for others.
Hollow Heart is an angry, brooding sci fi tale about the ways we hurt each other, mistakenly or on purpose. A nihilist tale of the failure of self preservation and empathy for others.
October 6, 2024
I mean, the premise is not bad: somewhere between Frankenstein and a Warhammer 40k Dreadnought, yearning for the release of death.
But the execution is lacking and haphazard, with random bits of narrative accompanying the actual plot, while showcasing a gay mechanic's growing love for the thing in the bio-suit...? I think this is casual victim of too many ideas slapped together.
But the execution is lacking and haphazard, with random bits of narrative accompanying the actual plot, while showcasing a gay mechanic's growing love for the thing in the bio-suit...? I think this is casual victim of too many ideas slapped together.
May 1, 2025
1.5
This really read as baby’s first metaphor. Why are introducing a new one each or multiple ones per issue. There should’ve only been one. Especially because, at the beginning, the story was not that deep.
I admit that I didn’t get the ending, but it was so messy that I don’t feel like it’s my fault. I could feel everything half assed metaphor crumbling around the story.
This really read as baby’s first metaphor. Why are introducing a new one each or multiple ones per issue. There should’ve only been one. Especially because, at the beginning, the story was not that deep.
I admit that I didn’t get the ending, but it was so messy that I don’t feel like it’s my fault. I could feel everything half assed metaphor crumbling around the story.
March 24, 2022
I read this one very quickly, as other reviews mentions the little story motif can get repetitive, but this is a great love story with a great modern Frankenstein. The sloppy style of art works with the Story. I liked this a lot
April 2, 2022
Melancholy
May 8, 2022
god this was terrible. this fails to follow good story-telling practices and drives a spike through your heart at the same time.
July 31, 2022
Disappointing but ok
Intersting story, has potential. Dialog was ok. The artwork and coloring was mediocre. Overall, it was okay. Glad i got it on sale.
Intersting story, has potential. Dialog was ok. The artwork and coloring was mediocre. Overall, it was okay. Glad i got it on sale.
October 19, 2022
cw suicide
god, this was sad.
god, this was sad.
July 12, 2023
This was a good atmospheric read.
December 8, 2023
Hollow Heart is really good! Paul Allor can make you care about characters in just a few words, using the comic medium really effectively to build a devastating and beautiful story.
January 29, 2024
this resonates with me a little too much, ha ha
Read
April 2, 2024Read for work
June 18, 2024
Interesting idea, a very Frankenstein-ian story, but I am so confused who everyone is and what anyone's motives are.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews