‘North Border’ by Benjamin Percy—he has to become the monster to fight the monsters all around him
“Fantastically depraved...”—Steve Stred, author
A spine-chilling novella from acclaimed author Benjamin Percy, with illustrations by superstar artist Francesco Francavilla.
The northern border of Minnesota is wooded and laked, porous and largely unguarded, a gateway for drugs and human trafficking. Crossers are considered a problem, especially lately, when a series of violent, unsettling murders sets the town of Witch River Falls on edge. Daniel Bridgewater just lost his job at the mine, so he has a mortgage to pay, a baby on the way, and not a lot of options.
When the Border Patrol announces a hiring initiative, sending in an application might seem like a no-brainer, but Daniel is half-white, half-Chippewa, and he feels all kinds of mixed-up about policing a border he doesn’t fully believe in. But he has to support his family, so he resigns himself to the job, a divided self in a divided country.
He soon finds himself torn between the conflicting forces of a local cartel and his fellow agents. Everyone seems to want to use Daniel, and when his family is kidnapped, he’ll have to become the monster to fight the monsters all around him in this story of geographic, cultural, and political division.
Percy uses lean prose and nail-biting passages to move the story along and as more and more people and animals are discovered eviscerated, we know something has to give and give it does. The ending of this was fantastically depraved and the way it came together worked so well for how the story had evolved up to that point. (Steve Stred Author)
North Border
by Benjamin Percy (Author), Francesco Francavilla (Illustrator)
NeoText
Category: Occult Horror
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About the author
Benjamin Percy is the author of six novels—most recently The Unfamiliar Garden (William Morrow)—three story collections, and a book of essays. He writes Wolverine, X-Force, and Ghost Rider for Marvel Comics. He is currently adapting Urban Cowboy into a series for Paramount Plus and he co-wrote the film Summering (a selection of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival). His fiction and nonfiction have been published in Esquire (where he is a contributing editor), GQ, Time, Outside, Men’s Journal, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Paris Review. His honors include the Whiting Award, the Plimpton Prize, two Pushcart Prizes, an NEA fellowship, the iHeartRadio Award for Best Scripted Podcast, and inclusion in Best American Short Stories and Best American Comics.
About the illustrator
Francesco Francavilla, an Eisner and Eagle Award winner and New York Times bestselling creator, is best known for bringing his signature neo-pulp style to the comics industry, from horror to superheroes and sci-fi. Francesco has worked on the acclaimed horror series Night of the Ghoul, Afterlife with Archie, and Batman: The Black Mirror. He wrote and illustrated Will Eisner’s The Spirit, and is currently illustrating his own creator-owned The Black Beetle. In addition he works on movie poster art, cover art for movie and music albums, concept art and storyboards for film and TV, and editorial illustrations for a variety of books and magazines.
Sample illustrations by Francesco Francavilla