RUMBLE 7 COVER BY JAMES HARREN

Here we have a fun cover from John Arcudi and James Harren’s Rumble series featuring what was for me the best character in the book.

Lerna was a six-headed Lernaean Hydra/reptile monster-pet, known in the comic for being frisky, football-fetching and the companion to a six-armed guy.

She has obviously seen better days on this cover as her head count has been diminished by a third by Rathraq, our sword wielding hero.

On top of the usual fantastic Harren technique (the scratchiness, the savage inks, the whiteout for respiration and saliva spits, the blue pencils and zipatone), it the reaction of the surviving heads and the questions the situation raises that make the piece for me.

One head seems sad or a bit curious while looking at the stumps (or the 6 bowls?), another is looking raving mad by looking at her lost sisters, fully drenched in shadows to enhance that feeling, the last two are looking off camera and one seems curious or afraid while the last one seems ready for battle. In any case, there is a nervousness and anxiety, one could say uneasiness even, radiating from this scene.

Because if you think about it from an ethological and physiological point of view, how exactly does it work for a 6 headed hydra when a head is cut? How does an animal like this function? Are all 6 heads independent from the other with each a brain of their own? Do the surviving four feel the pain of the decapitated 2? Did they feel the other die? How and why are the 2 necks without a head still active? That would imply a central nervous system. Or a central one and 6 semi-independent ones?

Lots of needless questions to ponder for this animal enthusiast despite the gory situation (which usually would have meant I’d stay away from a piece like this. The exception to the rule apparently).