Leroy Douresseaux on Abattoir #2

ABATTOIR #2 (OF 6)

RADICAL PUBLISHING

CREATOR: Darren Lynn Bousman

CONCEPT: Michael Peterson
WRITERS: Rob Levin and Troy Peteri
ARTIST: Bing Cansino and Rodell Noora
COLORS: Andrei Pervukhin and Drazenka Kimpel
LETTERS: Troy Peteri
COVER: Tae Young Choi
28pp, Color, $3.50 U.S.

Like quite a few Radical Publishing titles, the new horror comic book miniseries, Abattoir, is the creation of someone involved in the filmmaking industry.  Abattoir is the creation of screenwriter and movie director, Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II-IV).

Set in the late 1980s, Abbatoir takes place in a sunny Middle America that is also home to hidden darkness and brutal murder.  The lead character is cop turned real estate agent, Richard Ashwalt. Struggling to sell the Mitchell house where a brutal massacre took place, Richard meets a very strange old man, Jebediah Crone, who wants to buy the house before even before it is finished being cleaned. Richard’s problems mount when he learns that he is the subject of a homicide investigation.

In Abattoir #2, Jebediah Crone continues to push Richard into selling him the Mitchell house by visiting Richard’s own home for dinner. Richard also learns that he is definitely tied to a brutal murder by physical evidence. He comes to believe that Crone is the reason for the strange turn his life has taken and begins an investigation of the old man.

Although it is as ghoulish, if not as brutal, as Bousman’s Saw films, Abattoir is turning out to be an exceptional horror comic book. As the American comic book market needs some diversity in genre, Abattoir is perfect for readers looking for something different in comic books. Gothic, macabre, and mysterious, Abattoir, with this issue, slowly creeps into Lovecraft territory, with its ghastly dreamscapes and a sense of an overwhelming, but mysterious supernatural.

While the writers get all the genre bits right, they don’t seem to be as committed to the characters, all of whom are either shallow or just types. Still, the writers and artists have come together as one twisted creative unit and have presented a horror mystery that is a dark and tasty spin on the whodunit while staying true to the scary.

It seems from the get-go that Abattoir is determined to give its characters and readers scary story fun. Fans of horror comics will love this kind of hell.  I like this second issue more than I liked the first, and I'm certainly looking forward to the next issue, which is scheduled to ship in February.

B+