Graveyard Slaughter #1 Advance Review
Graveyard Slaughter #1 Advance Review Lunchbox Press 2019 Written by Cullen Bunn & Kevin Watkins Illustrated by Javier Saltares, Blacky Shepherd, Adam McLaughlin & Gary Bedell Lettered by A Larger World Studio About If you’re old enough...or hip to awesome cinematic lore, you remember the joy of wandering the blissfully bloody aisles of the horror section of your local video store. We're not talking about the big, brightly-lit stores like Blockbuster, either. We mean the hole-in-the-wall shops, where you could find some deep dive horror films. Well, welcome to Video Hell. While this is still live on Kickstarter there’s still time to get in on the ground floor before it is released or available through their website. Any fan of the 80’s will want to have this in their life the same goes for any fans of the horror genre. The way that this is set up is very much akin to say Tales of the Crypt and the like. You have this central location which kind of serves as the base of operations if you would that keeps the book grounded. Before and after each segment we are there and while it isn’t a traditional place like we’d be used to it is different and handled extremely well. It keeps the entire structure and ebb & flow feel like the pacing is excellent. Oh I am here to tell you that these are a variety of different takes on familiar themes here and I love that. Familiar is comfortable right but these are straight up takes on they’ve got their own unique twists to them that make them more shocking. There is a lot of wow factor moments as well as a lot of times when you want to do the whole, scream at the character not to do it, going on as well. It isn’t an 80’s inspired horror story if you aren’t screaming at the film with those familiar phrases that both make you smile and tense up in anticipation of how someone’s going to die. The guys capture that beautifully here with each story of which there are three full tales of terror with at least one moving through the centre so there’s a lot of storytelling going on here in such a short place. Each segment has a completely different tone, feel and mood to it. It is as if each one is done in a style that matches the story perfectly. The teenage camping story wouldn’t have the same feel as say Bloody Mary or a pseudo Hellraiser type story ya know. Each one has some exceptional linework attached to it, this gives us a sensational look at the attention to detail as well. Plus that it is all in black and white, which we all know is unforgiving and shows every mistake, adds another nice touch to the scare factor. With the reader having to paint the colour in their minds it makes what you see that more horrific and the reader involved in unexpected ways. The creativity and imagination that we see throughout is off the charts fantastic and it’s great to see such throwback imagery in these pages. I loved every moment of this book. There is so much story going on, all them feeling completely told so that we don’t have that feeling anything’s missing. The only place we want to go back to is the video store as it is the place everything converges. There is one exception and that’s the graveyard in the last story, the way that is done visually is exceptional and a very strong, powerful creep you the ff out moment that you’ll never forget and that setting could just be without any characters just kind of meandering tour and I'd be thrilled and terrified at the same time. I am not entirely sure how this was accomplished but there is kitsch and horror and this awesome sense of hope that turns to blind fear all wrapped up in these pages. This is an brilliant and amazing read that you don’t want to miss out on!