Abattoir #1 cover image

Abattoir is a new horror comic book from Radical Publishing.  Abattoir is created by screenwriter and movie director, Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II-IV), with concept work by Michael Peterson.  This six-issue miniseries takes place in the late 1980s and has a sunny Middle America that is home to darkness.

Abattoir #1 finds cop turned real estate agent, Richard Ashwalt, struggling to sell a gorgeous house in which a brutal massacre took place.  That is practically an impossible task, or so it seems.  While inspecting the still-blood-soaked home, Richard meets a very strange old man, Jebediah Crone, who demands that Richard sell him the house, although it isn’t technically on the market yet.  Later, Richard hears disturbing rumors about Crone, and whatever Crone is up to, Richard is about to be drawn into it.

Considering the ghoulish, brutal nature of Bousman’s Saw films, I have high (or low expectations) for Abattoir.  Issue #1, written by Rob Levin and Troy Peteri, opens with a bang – a massacre at a kid’s birthday party, which sets a gruesome, chilling tone for the rest of this story.  The best thing that artist Bing Cansino and colorist Andrei Pervukhin do in this book is unleash the scary Jebediah Crone.  Overall, the art in this issue is good, but in depicting Crone, Cansino and Pervukhin hit a new high (or low) in creepy old bastard.

It seems from the get-go that Abattoir is determined to give its characters and readers pure bloody hell.  Fans of horror comics will love this kind of hell.

B+