New Line Cinema’s Tales of Horror #1

September 7, 2007

New Line Cinema’s Tales of Horror #1 (DC Comics/Wildstorm)
By Peter Milligan, Tom Feister, Christos N. Gage, Stefano Raffaele, Darick Robertson

After the demise of the New Line horror titles as regular ongoing comics, I rather like the idea of putting them together in an anthology book like this one. I have no idea how many issues of this title are planned, but I think it’s something that could sustain where the ongoings couldn’t. The book opens with a quick Texas Chainsaw Massacre tale by Milligan and Feister. A traveling chainsaw salesmen peeks into a home that looks promising, only to find the inhabitants a harder sell than he expected. Not a bad story, if you can get past the somewhat bizarre premise of there being such a thing as a traveling chainsaw salesman. The Nightmare on Elm Street story, by Christos Gage and Stefano Raffaele, is considerably better. Freddy Krueger is dismayed to find another murderer in Springwood stealing his gimmick, and is even more upset when he finds out the copycat fancies himself a fan. It’s interesting to see a story where Freddy is placed in more of a defensive position, and where he has to use his brains as much as his ability to terrify. I enjoyed this little book, and I hope we get more from Wildstorm.
Rating: 8/10