Broken Frontier

New Line Cinema’s trademark slasher characters continue to slice ‘n dice their way into mainstream culture with a brand new anthology from WildStorm.

I have often wondered what makes 80’s slasher characters endure throughout the years and remain appealing to younger generations of horror fans. Perhaps it just comes down to what these movie monsters represent, and in this case the rampant fears we all have concerning sex and death. I can’t say the stories in this issue truly reflect that observation, but they do demonstrate how kick ass they can be in this brand new anthology series.

New Line Cinema’s Tales of Horror begins with a brief tale chronicling the demented Hewitt clan. Now these Texans have demonstrated how unstable they can really be in a series of movies and comic books, but here they remain neutral as a pushy salesman attempts to sell the Hewitts a chainsaw with hilarious results. Now the second story concerns Freddy Krueger in a tale that proves the deadly slasher can be as crafty as he is devious, while matching wits with a fanatic follower of his work.

If anything, both these tales deviated slightly from the norm of what we have come to expect from these movie maniacs, and writers Peter Milligan and Christos Gage should be credited for a different approach in each story. Milligan’s take on the Hewitts was meant to be tongue in cheek mostly and the gag of a chainsaw salesman attempting to sell them a chainsaw was hilarious. The new wrinkle sown into the seed of the Elm St. mythos proves to be golden as Gage reveals a craftier villain than shown previously. I liked the elements interjected into the story and they worked like a charm in the case of Freddy battling an obsessive fan.

Of course these smartly written tales are accompanied by solid art from Tom Feister and Stefano Raffaele. I found Tom’s work for The Texas Chainsaw to be very reminiscent of artist Daniel Acuña’s given his penchant for relying upon digital coloring. But for me though I much preferred the stellar approach of Stefano Raffaelle’s turn at illustrating Freddy Krueger’s devious shenanigans. Several pages exhibited mind bending panels of a surrealist’s nightmare and I think his work here closely represented the spirit of the movies.

Perhaps it’s just me, but these cinematic stalkers need a fresh take in order to survive long term in the comics medium. I grew up in the 80’s enjoying the deviousness of Freddy Krueger and the carnivorous Hewitt clan, but what more can be said about these famous boogie men? In this case, the anthology attempts a different take and writers Milligan and Gage prove their scripting chops here. This new title is off to a good start, so I am looking forward to seeing how far this concept can be stretched from month to month. So let’s hope the slice ‘n dicing continues.