CULT CORNER // COMICS // The Humans

(Vol.1 - Humans for Life // Vol. 2 - Humans Till Deth)

The brain-damaged, drug-addled bastard offspring of Planet of the Apes, Psychomania and Mad Max, Tom Neely and Keenan Marshall Keller’s The Humans is the raucous tale of the titular ape biker gang, tearing up 70s Bakersfield, CA in a trail of blood, gasoline and dirty acid.

We follow Johnny, a Human who has just returned from a Vietnam-esque war racked with PTSD, reconnecting with the rest of the gang and attempting to keep a lid on the psychological demons he’s brought back with him. The Humans are all about cheap violence, easy sex and excessive drug intake, living fast and free as proud exiles from polite society; however, Johnny’s return stirs up old rivalries, opens old wounds… and may ultimately test the Humans motto: “Humans for life, Humans till deth”.

The Humans hits a lot of my personal happy spots, reading like an exploitation movie in comic book form. Biker gangs; psychedelic visuals; explicit sex and ultraviolence… it’s an unapologetically sleazy, anarchic celebration of its primate antiheroes, which is not to say that it isn’t cleverly and attractively put together. Neely’s art is fantastic, adhering nicely to the comic art maxim of ‘show, don’t tell’, conveying information about these characters and the world they inhabit without needing to be backed up by excessive dialogue. His clean lines and eye for portraying motion give the action scenes a kinetic, cinematic vibe, and he crams panels full of incidental detail. The character designs stay just the right side of cartoonish, giving everyone real personality (my personal favourite Human is the scarred, knife-wielding gorilla Karns, as seen on volume one’s front cover laying waste to a rival).

The art is beautifully complemented by Kristina Collantes’ colouring. She brings an invaluable vibrancy and ‘pop’ to everything, playing with colour palettes to continually eye-catching effect, and both volumes are a joy to look at. Just check this out:

While The Humans takes obvious joy in the high octane, no-fucks-given attitude of its title gang of psycho misfits, the fundamental through-line is that of Johnny’s mental unravelling, his increasingly erratic behaviour pushing the Humans into ever more violent confrontations. His wartime flashbacks and the twitchy, hair-trigger state of mind he has returned home with are treated with seriousness – even sensitivity – and underline the basic tragedy of the series as a whole: while it may ostensibly be about fast bikes, hard drugs and brawling, The Humans is really about the bonds between these freaks and outsiders, who would rather die together than live without each other. Things become progressively more unhinged as the Humans ride on, together, into fights they can barely scrape themselves out of, until the story culminates in an almost impressive amount of carnage and death.

Volume two, ‘Humans Till Deth’, is even heavier on the bloodshed and hyper-kinetic action sequences than volume one, and while it may become somewhat mean-spirited towards the end, it can’t be said that it doesn’t fully commit to the exploitation ideal of excess; by the final page, all is bloody mayhem… and yet, according to the tease at the back of the book, the Humans still aren’t done yet. It’s been two years since ‘Humans Till Deth’, but should they indeed return in the promised miniseries ‘The Jungle’, I for one will be ready to rev the engine once again and ride with what remains of the baddest, most uncompromising simian biker gang ever to hit asphalt.