THE CURSE OF CLEAVER COUNTY (DOUBLE-FEATURE), from Source Point Press on December 21st, 2022, delivers two spine-tingling tales of terror when a lowly fisherman runs afoul of a jealous father and a serial killer makes a deal with the devil to carry out his loathsome mission.
The Details
- Written by: Garrett Gunn, Joshua Werner
- Art by: Kit Wallis, Keyla Valerio
- Colors by: Kit Wallis, Keyla Valerio
- Letters by: Dave Lentz (cover A)
- Cover art by: XXXX
- Cover price: $3.99
- Release date: December 21, 2022
Is It Good?
After reading THE CURSE OF CLEAVER COUNTY (DOUBLE-FEATURE), one thing is abundantly clear – stay out of Cleaver County. Therefore, this is a fun horror comic sure to make you think twice about mocking urban legends of the psycho-killer variety.
That said, some readers may be perplexed by the way this comic is set up. Each short has a unique tone, a central villain worthy of several stories, and plenty of gruesome kills, but neither story has an ending. Both shorts are effectively setups to introduce the monstrous killers, but that’s all they are – introductions or the first act of a larger story. So what you get is satisfying in the introduction department, but the lack of endings leaves you wanting more. In short, the pieces you get are satisfying, but the overall experience isn’t.
Wait a second there, my friend. That doesn’t mean the shorts you get aren’t thoroughly entertaining, even in their incomplete state. They are. Of the two shorts, The Hooked Horror of Harlow has a slight edge in pure entertainment, but they’re both solid. If, as we suspect, they’re intended to generate curiosity for future stories, this comic is a full success.
Keep scrolling for a closer look at the covers, or Click Here to jump right to the story description with some spoilers.
What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
As with all our anthology reviews, we’ll cover each short briefly and highlight what worked or didn’t.
The Hooked Horror of Harlow
Chad and Tiffany enjoy a quiet night down by the docks when Chad decides to give his girlfriend a good scare by recounting the legend of The Hooked Horror of Harlow. As the story goes, fisherman Harold Winslow was a simple man who made the mistake of falling in love with the Governor’s daughter. When the Governor found out, he made sure the lowly fisherman would never see his daughter again. Every year, on the anniversary of the fisherman’s demise, he rises from his watery grave to exact bloody revenge on the Governor’s descendants.
As urban legends go, the story is all-too-familiar, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still entertaining. Elevated by Kit Wallis’s trademark mastery of facial acting and killer action, this urban legend is ripe for more stories in the future.
The Dyerville Devil
A trio of robbers hides in the woods until the police searches pass them by. While they wait, one of the robbers explains their current hiding spot is very close to the house of the famed serial killer, Ransom Sullivan. Unfortunately for the robbers, Sullivan’s body was never found because a dark force gave him the power to live and kill well beyond mortal years.
Solid, creepy, serial killer scares with a supernatural twist give this short a heftier backstory, with decent art.
Keep scrolling for a closer look at preview images of the internal pages, or Click Here to jump right to the score.
Final Thoughts
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THE CURSE OF CLEAVER COUNTY (DOUBLE-FEATURE) delivers urban legend scares and the introduction of two killers for the price of one. Both shorts bring two killers to life with intriguing origins and excellent art. Some readers may be dissatisfied with the lack of endings in each short, but the killers are interesting enough to want more.
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