The multimedia iterations of Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham’s “Feeders and Eaters”
In the 2018 Dark Horse Comics hardcover anthology Likely Stories, four short prose stories written by Neil Gaiman are adapted to comics by artist Mark Buckingham. Among these stories is “Feeders and Eaters”; this story has an interesting evolutionary history across various media — it originated as a comic strip written by Gaiman and illustrated by Buckingham, but Gaiman later adapted the comic to prose, and this prose story was eventually adapted as a television episode before Buckingham’s adaptation in Likely Stories.
“Feeders and Eaters” first appeared in the 1990 publication Revolver: The Horror Special. Revolver was a monthly British anthology comics magazine marketed towards adult comics readers — its title was inspired by The Beatles’ album of the same name, and the magazine featured a variety of strips, such as a biographical Jimi Hendrix comic and a bleak revisionist take on iconic British science fiction character Dan Dare. Revolver was short-lived, lasting just seven issues and two special editions, including the Horror Special.
The Horror Special features twelve horror-themed strips from a variety of creators, such as Garth Ennis, Mark Millar, Si Spencer, Warren Pleece, and David Hine, among others. In Gaiman and Buckingham’s “Feeders and Eaters,” an unnamed narrator stops at an all-night café to pass the hours until he can catch the next train back home. There, the narrator encounters his old acquaintance Eddie Barrow; the narrator and Barrow worked together years ago, and the narrator is shocked at the present sickly appearance of the once handsome Barrow.
Barrow recounts the experiences that led to his present condition; he had moved to the city seeking work, and found lodging at a family’s boardinghouse in one of two attic apartments. Barrow’s neighbor is Effi Corvier, an elderly woman who strikes up a friendship with Barrow. When Corvier becomes ill, she asks Barrow to bring her raw meat for her meal; Barrow does so, and Corvier appears to recover.
The landlord family’s cat goes missing; a few nights later, Barrow hears the cat’s mewing coming from Corvier’s apartment. Barrow enters, and discovers the cat’s strange, gruesome condition — Barrow takes action to end the cat’s suffering, which leads to a confrontation with Corvier. Barrow’s story is interrupted by a woman tapping at the café’s window; as Barrow leaves to join the mysterious woman outside, the narrator notices the horrific condition of Barrow’s right hand, which is in a similar state to Barrow’s description of the cat.
The strip never explicitly identifies the nature of the story’s strange dynamics, although Corvier’s desire for raw meat, the nighttime setting, and the wasting depictions of the cat and Barrow are reminiscent of vampire horror fiction; the crone Corvier seems to regain vitality by consuming it from others.
The narrator is an intriguing, mysterious character in his own right. In sharing his experience, he is guarded, and his tale suggests some embellishment: “This is a true story. Pretty much. It was late one night, in a city where I had no right to be — not at that time of night anyway. I won’t tell you which one.”
The narrator is reluctant to engage with Eddie. The narrator states that when Barrow first called out to him in the café, he initially ignored him until Barrow said his name. The narrator seems heartlessly indifferent to the present circumstances of his former acquaintance: “I sipped my tea. I didn’t say anything, and maybe he thought I wanted to know more, that I cared. To be honest, I had enough problems of my own. I didn’t want to hear about his problems with whatever-it-was. Drink. Or drugs. Or disease. Or madness.”
The strip’s last panel also suggests that the narrator is prone to encounters with the uncanny; the panel merely features a nighttime street scene, but its captions hint at another interesting experience: “On the train home I encountered a woman carrying a baby. It was floating in formaldehyde, in a heavy glass container. She needed to sell it, and we talked for a while, about her reasons, and about other things. But it is not necessary to speak further of that here.”
The narrator resembles Gaiman, with Buckingham apparently basing the character’s appearance on Gaiman’s contemporary likeness. In rendering the story, Buckingham provides seemingly painted, lush artwork, with a dark palette and plentiful shadows that establish a surreal visual mood that is perfect for the grim story. Barrow’s blood-red eyes and gaunt appearance are chilling, as are Buckingham’s depictions of Corvier.
For the nine-page strip, Buckingham primarily utilizes an eight-panel grid, varying on some pages to nine or ten panels, using these panels to focus on gruesome details, emotional character moments, and other key story elements. The artwork has an unnerving effect, and the work of the strip’s letterer, Annie Parkhouse, complements the art and story, highlighting key words in bold that strike the reader’s attention.
“Feeders and Eaters” was reprinted in 1993, in the second issue of the comics anthology Asylum, from publisher Millennium. In 2002, Gaiman adapted the strip into a prose story with the same title. In Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman, the authors note that Gaiman had first considered adapting the strip into a “pornographic horror film”:
Gaiman writes, “This story was a nightmare I had in my twenties.” First written as a comic (published in Revolver Horror Special), Gaiman later tried re-imagining it as an outline for a pornographic horror film he’d never make (working title: Eaten: Scenes From a Moving Picture). Then Stephen Jones asked Gaiman if he had a story for his Keep Out the Night anthology; Gaiman remembered this piece and “rolled up my sleeves and began to type.”
The prose story is similar to the strip, although Gaiman adds additional details that arguably enhance the narrative. For example, although the cat is identified in the strip by name as “Thompson,” in the prose story Barrow relates that there used to be two cats, both named Thompson:
“The cat. Somebody said there used to be two of them, and they called them Thompson and Thompson. I don’t know why. Stupid, giving them both the same name.”
(This is an apparent reference to the identical detective characters Thomson and Thompson from the Belgian comic strip The Adventures of Tintin, and a fun joke for knowledgeable readers.)
Readers also learn more about the narrator; when Barrow asks the narrator if he has ever eaten raw meat, the narrator provides details about his past:
“Yes. A little. When I was a small boy — four, five years old — my grandmother would take me to the butcher’s with her, and he’d give me slices of raw liver, and I’d just eat them, there in the shop, like that. And everyone would laugh.”
I hadn’t thought of that in twenty years. But it was true.
I still like my liver rare, and sometimes, if I’m cooking and if nobody else is around, I’ll cut a thin slice of raw liver before I season it, and I’ll eat it, relishing the texture and the naked, iron taste.
Another significant addition to the prose narrative is Barrow’s poignant recollection of how he dealt with the cat after discovering it in Corvier’s room:
“It may have been a cat, but I knew what it wanted. It was in its eyes. I mean.” He stopped. “Well, I just knew. I’d never seen eyes like that. You would have known what it wanted, all it wanted, if you’d seen those eyes. I did what it wanted. You’d have to be a monster not to.”
In the context of the story, this commentary is chilling, particularly as it suggests that Barrow is seeking similar aid from the narrator, although Barrow is interrupted before he can make a direct appeal and no such aid is given.
In 2016, “Feeders and Eaters” was one of four prose stories adapted to television for Neil Gaiman’s Likely Stories, originally airing in the United Kingdom on Sky TV, and later offered on the American streaming service Shudder. In the television adaptation, the unnamed male narrator is replaced by a female waitress named Joyce (played by Montserrat Lombard); Barrow is played by Tom Hughes, and Corvier played by Rita Tushingham.
In 2018, Buckingham adapted Gaiman’s prose story to comics in the Dark Horse anthology Likely Stories, along with the three other stories featured in the television series. In the press release for the anthology, Buckingham notes his previous work on “Feeders and Eaters”:
“Not all of these stories were new to me. Feeders and Eaters started life as a comic strip Neil and I created for a UK publisher way back in 1990. When Neil revisited it as a prose story a few years later he added a lot of depth and richness, which opened up new narrative possibilities. Ever since then I have been eager to take another shot at it myself.”
The original strip was produced early in the careers of both Gaiman and Buckingham, and Buckingham’s art style has evolved over the years. In the new comics adaptation, the dark, moody atmosphere of the original strip is gone; the panels are well-lit, and the gritty surrealism is replaced by a clear-line cartoonish style that is similar to Buckingham’s long-running work on the acclaimed fantasy comics series Fables.
In ten pages, Buckingham uses a 16-panel grid to render the rich details of the prose story. These panels are smaller and more text-heavy than those in the original strip. Chris Blythe provides the adaptation’s colors, and Nate Piekos letters the story.
A significant difference in Buckingham’s adaptation is that he links the strip to the other stories in the Dark Horse anthology; instead of taking place in an unnamed seedy café — the setting of both the original strip and the prose story — Buckingham has the narrator meeting Barrow at the more posh Diogenes Club. This club features in another prose story adapted in Likely Stories, “Closing Time,” and Buckingham uses this setting to connect the other stories in the anthology.
In the anthology’s press release, Buckingham acknowledges this intention:
“This will be quite a different experience to people’s previous encounters with these tales,” said Buckingham. “I knew I wanted this to read as a cohesive whole, rather than a set of short stories, so I have woven them together, into a single narrative, linking them all to the Diogenes late night drinking club that plays such an important role in the Closing Time story.”
“Feeders and Eaters” is a short story with an interesting evolutionary history across various media. Although originally a strip in an obscure comics anthology, the story has endured and transitioned to other media, with each iteration adding something distinctive to the core horror narrative.
NOTES AND FURTHER READING:
Revolver: The Horror Special (edited by Peter K. Hogan; Fleetway Publications, 1990)
Asylum #2 (Neil Gaiman, Mark Buckingham, et al.; Millennium, 1993)
Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman (Hank Wagner, Christopher Golden, and Stephen R. Bissette; St. Martin’s Griffin, 2009)
British Comics: A Cultural History (James Chapman; Reaktion Books, 2011)
The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories (edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer; Tor Books, 2012) [reprints the 2008 prose story “Feeders and Eaters” by Neil Gaiman]
Neil Gaiman’s Likely Stories: Feeders and Eaters, Full Cast and Crew (imdb.com, 2016)
“Mark Buckingham to adapt Neil Gaiman’s Likely Stories for Dark Horse” (Dark Horse Comics press release published by majorspoilers.com; March 6, 2018)
Likely Stories (Neil Gaiman, Mark Buckingham, et al.; Dark Horse Comics, 2018)
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