Broken Frontier

Pitting their two cult horror franchises against each other, fans of both Ash and Herbert West will have to decide which they like the best.

As the story opens, the reader sees the repercussions of what happens when Ash Williams, famed hero of the Evil Dead movies played by Bruce Campbell and directed by Sam Raimi, returns to his own time from the time of Arthurian legend. Ash ended up in an "S-Smart" superstore; and sadly for the poor souls who were already there, the deadites came back with him. Amazingly, that’s just the set-up to the story in the book, as this book is much more about what happens next. That is: a trial, an obvious decision, and the connecting of Ash with the other cult favorite named in the title, The Re-Animator.

It looks like James Kuhoric is going to be the go-to guy for Dynamite Entertainment and their horror line of books. This is good for two reasons. Firstly, it maintains a sense of continuity, he knows what’s going on in both books and can easily tie them together. Secondly, he’s actually a good writer of these stories. Kuhoric doesn’t waste any time with his books. The book’s set-up is simple and Kuhoric moves through it quickly. He knows that readers want to see the two stars do what they do (one who brings back people from the dead and, of course, the other one who kills them). The dialogue serves its purpose of moving the plot along, and adds some good humor to it along the way. Kuhoric doesn’t have the most complex characters to work with and uses that to every advantage.

Even though Sanford Greene hasn’t illustrated all the books like James Kuhoric has written them, he maintains a style similar to the look of all the other Dynamite horror books. It stresses the cartoony, going almost into "bravura" artwork (the description, not the defunct comic company), where everything is a bit larger than life. Greene’s character designs are simple, but he still manages to do a great close up. The book works in extreme emotions like shock and anger, and Greene captures them all. He doesn’t get too inventive with his panel design, but doesn’t keep a standard style either, which is nice and helps with the pacing of the book. And Scott Kester continues with the great coloring that Dynamite Entertainment has shown on all the books. Yet again the coloring becomes a part of the artwork, working to set the mood and tone of what is to come.

Not just for fans of either series, this book promises only a few things. One is crazy situations. Another is even crazier characters. It’s got a fair amount of humor and there is sure to be a lot of gore. I’d say that covers all the bases.