45 Days Of CCS, #37: Fernanda Nocedal

Fernanda Nocedal is clearly working through a lot of things with body horror-tinged fiction. In a short, untitled minicomic, they evocatively use a lot of shapes and colors to depict the horrific sexual assault of what appears to be a child. Working wordlessly, the visual wolf & rabbit metaphor is clear and unsettling. This is a really well-designed and effective comic that uses its sparse economy of colors and images for maximum impact. 

Their other comics aren't quite as clearly designed. Darling Angel Flesh is a visceral story that seems highly influenced by Japanese horror. It's about a girl named Lilith (a bit of a giveaway) who finds herself transforming into her true, winged demonic form in the middle of a high school bathroom. This is less a story than it is a mood, as it touches upon the cursed feminine form and other gender ideas and dives deep into their guts. Nocedal's drawing isn't quite assured enough to pull of what they were attempting here, but the overall impact was still effective. 

Grieving Hearts is the longest of Nocedal's comics, and I suspect it was their first-year final project. The story follows a young woman named Elizabeth living in a small town with her grieving and dissociating mother Carmen. She soon learns that the utter weirdos in the town aren't just taking a bizarre and inappropriate interest in their grieving over the death of Elizabeth's father--they are a cult planning to sacrifice them in order to summon some kind of demon! Nocedal's cartooning is much more effective here, and there's a delightful glee to be found amidst the gore, violence, and creepiness. The final panel, implying that Elizabeth may have been transformed against her will anyway, is classic horror storytelling. Nocedal uses a dense and inky style in support of clear and unnerving character design, with big expressions and lots of highly effective exaggeration. You can see how Nocedal is using their time at CCS to really hone their craft.