Lip Hook

LIP HOOK

A Tale of Rural Unease
  • Publishing Company:

    SELFMADEHERO

  • Imprint:

  • Format:

    ONE SHOT

  • Creator(s):

    DAVID HINE (WRITER)

    MARK STAFFORD (ARTIST)

  • Number of Pages:

    160

  • Cover price:

    Pounds sterling 14.99

  • Publication Date:

    2018

  • Age:

    YOUNG ADULT, ADULT

  • Fiction/Non-Fiction

    FICTION

  • Key words:

    WITCHES, WOMEN'S ISSUES, SUPERNATURAL, SATIRE, SEX, OCCULT, HORROR, FOLKLORE, CULT, SEXUALITY, MYTHOLOGY, CRIME, CLASS STUGGLE, GHOSTS,

  • Summary:

    EPSON MFP image

    Somewhere in the British Isles, at the end of a neglected road, there is a village called Lip Hook. For its inhabitants, the village is more than the end of the road―it’s the end of the world.

    Beyond it, there is nothing but mist-shrouded marshland. Few travelers take the road to Lip Hook, but one foggy night, a car speeds perilously toward the village. The driver is a dangerously beautiful woman, the passenger a man with a gunshot wound and a suitcase containing a treasure he has risked his life for. Cash-strapped but in need of a place to hide, the two fugitives seek shelter at the Hanged Man Inn, where the woman persuades the innkeeper to accept payment in kind. As days pass and the woman extends her services to more of Lip Hook’s men, among them the village priest, a false faith grips the community―and reason, logic, and humanity begin to disappear.

    Artist Stafford excels himself with disturbing imagery that complements Hine’s unsettling script, using an earthy palette to illustrate his grotesque characters and landscape which adds to the murk surrounding the village itself.
    Herts advertiser

    TThroughout its 160 plus pages of tense storytelling by David Hine and its beautiful but Throughout its 160 plus pages of tense storytelling by David Hine and its beautiful but dark art by Mark Stafford, you will find yourself drawn into the life of the village folk of Lip Hook. When the mist rolls in be wary of what lies within. dark art by Mark Stafford, you will find yourself drawn into the life of the village folk of Lip Hook. When the mist rolls in be wary of what lies within.
    Horror screams

    David Hine’s script presents all these dark themes and events and manages to inject some humor into it, but Mark Stafford’s artwork really makes the difference in balancing that thin and difficult line where the narrative draws you in with its urgency but also keeps you at enough distance that the satire remains apparent. His drawing are alternately cartoonish and darkly rich, and work to create a tone that is singular to this work, which is ultimately about moving beyond the past, beyond traditions, about understanding that clinging to what was because it always was and therefore should always be is an action that leads to degradation, decay, and disintegration.
    In its critique of our insistence on clinging to the old — old ideas of what makes a society prosperous, old ideas of what brings a society in touch with the universe — Lip Hook also takes the traditional ideas behind the folk horror genre and turns them in on themselves for a more modern purpose.
    The Beat
    A graphic novel of pure ecstasy, one that holds true to the fans of Horror and will cause a revolutionary surprise to those willing to suspend their fear in the search for new knowledge. Lip Hook hits the nail on the head with precision.
    Liverpool Sound and vision