31 Days of Horror Halloween Night Extra 01 Texas Chainsaw Massacre the comics

To anyone that reads this blog or knows me fairly well it is no secret that my favorite film,not just horror film,is the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I have told the story here at my blog and on my podcast about how when I was 3 my father took me and my 13 year old cousin to see TCM at the drive in that was in Gautier Mississippi.

By the summer of 92 I was almost out of comics. Sure I was still reading maybe 5 titles. But I wasn't going to the comic shop that often and when I did go I would just go in and get the stuff off my pull list. During the summer of that year I was at the Singing River Mall. They had a collectibles show going on. One dealer had lots of comics. Besides the normal hot comics of the time he had almost 10 longboxes filled with cheap comics. It was all overstock he wanted to get rid of,so he was selling them for 50 cents each or 10 cents each if you spent at least 10 bucks. I was digging through the boxes,determined to find at least 10 bucks worth of comics  I was willing to pay a dime each for. It was in the 3rd or 4th box when I found a comic series I had no idea was coming out.

From Northstar comics,who in the early 90s were shaping up to be a great horror comic publisher,I found issues 2 and 4 of their 4 issue Leatherface TCM 3 comic adaptation.Based on the first draft of the David J Schrow script,the 4 issue mini series was plagued with delays and low distribution.I liked the painted look to the covers and art on the inside. And since this was before I got a copy of the Leatherface workprint ,these 2 comics were the only way for me to "see" all the stuff that got cut out thanks to the asshats at the MPAA.

Fast forward to 1998,I had moved near Houston TX. And the owner of my local comic shop was gearing up to goto a convention in Austin. He was asking me if there was any comics I was looking for. I mentioned that I needed issues 1 and 3 of the Leatherface mini. And since in issue 4 there was an ad for a upcoming comic adaptation of the original TCM I asked him to look for those also. The next week when I stopped by the shop for my weekly dosage of comics he said he had something for me. He had found a dealer with issues 1 and 3. "Now Newt I understand if you don't want to pay what I have to ask for these issues. Turns out they are kind of hard to find. The guy charged me $20 for the two of them. Do you mind giving me $25 for them? Also found out that the TCM series was never published." I gladly handed him $25 bucks and rushed home to read the entire mini series for the first time.

I wish some company would get the rights to this mini and put it out as a trade.Because since I got my set it has become even harder to find these issues for under 10 bucks each. The covers all got great art. The interior art is overall decent. Leatherface TCM 3 comic gets a B.

In 2007,around the same time Wildstorm published their first Friday the 13th comics,put out a six issue Texas Chainsaw Massacre mini series Titled Americarnivore,the 6 issues are written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. With Wes Craig doing the pencils and inks.

This is a direct sequel to the TCM remake that starred Jessica Biel. It wasn't until early this month that I got all 6 issues. With TCM being my favorite horror franchise I sat right down,poured myself a big glass of drink and started reading them. What a horrible comic. It sadly falls into a trap lots of comics from 2000 to present do. There is enough story for 2 or 3 issues,but it is padded out to 6 issues so it would make a nice trade. The art is nice,with the covers being better than anything on the inside. The best part of the series is the various characters are named stuff like Hooper,Henkel,Burns and other names of cast and crew from the 1974 cinema masterpiece.

We get a group of FBI agents that come to the town the Hewitt family lives in, have I ever mentioned how much I hate that they changed the family name from Sawyer to Hewitt? Where they quickly learn that the entire town is nuts. Throw in a airhead "Inside Edition" like "reporter". And you get a story that is not only boring but drags in so many places. Texas Chainsaw Massacre Americarivore gets a D-.