Dynamite Entertainment 2018
Written by Cullen Bunn
Illustrated by Blacky Shepherd
Coloured by Thiago Ribeiro
Lettered by Tory Peteri
Back-Up Illustrated by Kyle Strahm
The demon of vengeance has been awakened, and the creature is stalking a group of backwoods drug kingpins responsible for the deaths of two children. Sheriff Andi Ferris is caught between an unstoppable killer and those marked for an agonizing end. But the would-be victims have some supernatural tricks of their own up their sleeves, and in their desperation to survive, they may unleash more pure evil into the world. Plus: More of the continuing Haggis serial!
I am a huge fan of this because let’s face it there aren’t that many franchises out there that have made an honest to goodness successful transition to full fledged A-List horror spectacular. Cullen does this amazing job here with the last issue and showing up how Pumpkinhead was bonded to who now has the ability to call him forth. To also speed things along a bit and see the now and why about his comeback which leads us to this where we are now has some great pacing.
There are some writers who when you see their named attached to a project you already know it’s going to be something interesting. Cullen does some great work here with how the book is structured and creating an ebb & flow that easily allows for the reader to see the story development, how it unfolds and weaves the reveal of information around the action. The opening is intense and eye catching as usual and leads directly into the action that follows and characterisation this all gives us is amazing to see.
Oh Bedelia hoid delightful. This encounter with her and Pumpkinhead which was preordained from last issue is an excellent example of Cullen’s writing skills/ability. The whole encounter has a certain kind of electricity to it that excites me as a reader and makes me look forward to what’s next. Where they delve into that which I think is more background on the girls who grew up to be women after the start of the first issue. How everything that we see connects with the other parts along with something so much larger is so well done.
I think that the way Cullen manages to take a fairly good late 80’s horror film, side not it was out my senior year of high school, and turn it into something now only true to the film but at the same time pushes it to new heights of both entertainment and horror. Then there is the characterisation that we see which is not always from the dialogue alone and how we are getting to know these people is as much fun as it is creepy. That these folks find a way to keep the whole air around the book as creepy as possible amazes me because you don’t lose the tension in your shoulders until the issue is done. There is no discounting how important that is when dealing of a book of this nature.
Blacky and Thiago do some excellent work on the interiors here. I am enjoying how they are bringing Pumpkinhead to life and the attention to detail they put into him. The varying weights of the linework that we see allow for some excellent subtle moments alongside the bolder more attention grabbing stuff. Also while I want to see more utilisation of backgrounds what we see is amazingly well done and that it’s got more of that subtlety to it makes it that much more effective. The way that page layouts are used and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows off a strong solid eye for storytelling. Overall they manage to keep that tension the story needs beautifully.
The sheriff and her deputy are hot on the trail of what is going on around here but are still pretty darn clueless. The locals know the legends and they know what’s now out there and until they come face to face with it they won’t believe, perhaps not even then but I am looking forward to finding out. Then of course the last page here yeah that’s the kicker isn’t it and wow talk about your cliffhangers because hell if don’t want to read next issue right now.
With a backup that continues to explore the girls and the relationship to their demons there really is a whole lot of bang for you buck happening here.
Dynamite has an excellent range of books to read that spread across genre’s and franchises and it’s incredible to see that they always are able to push the boundaries of what we see.