Hollow Monsters is my attempt to move the graphic novel into new territory, by creating something ethereal, disturbing, challenging and profound, something which could only exist via Kickstarter.
Set in the eighties, it concerns horrors real and imagined lurking in a suburban forest frequented by a gang of kids from a nearby estate, and how what happens there echoes through the decades with disturbing effect. It’s a very personal and spooky semi-autobiographical story: an unsettling commentary on the nightmares at the heart of society, and how lives are shaped by them over time.
It’s subtle, original and highly ambitious. It can only be willed into existence by the support of comic book fans like you, people yearning for something more than high concepts and genre thrills. Much as I love the best of those, as a comics nut it frustrates me that nothing like Hollow Monsters exists. I feel a burning obligation to make this, and simply can’t rest easy until the comic is complete.
Like my previous comics, Hollow Monsters is funny, scary, thoughtful, shocking, and surprisingly lyrical. It exploits the full potential of comics in a way rarely seen before. And if that sounds like bullshit let me break down some of the specific areas I’m exploring.
Specifically, I’m trying to convey human experience vividly by depicting memory, reality, and imagination interchangeably. Comics are the perfect medium for this, exploiting the area between the visual and verbal – between images and words – creating emotions in ways which can’t always be achieved in films or books. I won an award for my academic work in this area, so as well as being a great story Hollow Monsters is a proving ground for some interesting new ideas.
This ambitious and somewhat mysterious comic will be delivered to you in a sequence of six mind-expanding thirty-two-page issues, the first of which I’m raising funds for on Kickstarter –launching Monday October 9th.
And the good news is, the first of these comics is already completely finished. I just need to raise enough press ‘print’, make your bespoke rewards, and cover postage and packaging.
Hollow Monsters deals in nostalgia, for a very particular purpose, repurposing iconic symbols from 80’s Britain such as Adam Ant, Pac Man, the test card, Vic-20’s, Raleigh Choppers, and Tiswas to complex effect. In a world changing so fast that it’s causing anxiety and depression, it explores the power of our imagined past greatness and why we cling to it with such passion.
I recommend this comic if you enjoyed any of my previous work, or the atmospheric stylings of Moshin Hamid, David Aja, Josh Middleton, or David Lynch.
It is, in short, weird and a little bit magical. Rather like you, I suspect.
Check out the video here.
Cheers
Monty
Monty Nero 
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