With all of your favorite horror heavyweights vying for your attention in the comics world, how do you know which are worth the bloody effort?



One of the most satisfying things about a horror franchise is the sheer excess of it. You can barrel through films at a time and still usually have a ton of content to get through. As lengthy as some horror series manage to be, all of these eventually hit an end point. While seeing some of your favorite series come to their conclusions can be a devastating blow, what if you found out that there was still a little life left in that corpse? With comics being such a breeding ground for underground tales of exploitation, it perhaps shouldn’t be that surprising to learn that the comics industry has had an interesting relationship with franchises from horror cinema.

You might have watched all of the A Nightmare on Elm Street films a dozen times over, or memorized all of Michael Myers’ murders from out of the Halloween movies, but still manage to have a huge blindspot towards all of the stories involving these horror titans from the comics world. A lot of horror fans are even ignorant to their existence at all, with their validity also being a topic of debate amongst purists. But with the quality of these horror comics being all over the map, and with legendary horror brands like Friday the 13th, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and even the Puppet Master series undergoing the treatment, unpacking the relationship between horror franchises and comics to see if this perversion of the source material is worth it is deserving of examination.

While the transition to the comics world might be a decision that some would meet with reservations, the serialized storytelling of comics lends itself to the format of these films where people are being picked off one by one. Even the pulpy nature of these cheap rags is reflective of the trashy nature of ‘80s slasher films. With this sort of symbiosis occurring between mediums, it was only natural to see the bulk of horror’s heavyweights heading to paper. Next, what was important was seeing if this leap in format was because the franchise actually had something to say in this new playground, or was just trying to cash in on a growing trend.

Arguably the most popular franchise to make the leap into comics, Friday the 13th has seen a rich life outside of the silver screen. With the backstory of Friday the 13th always being relatively simple with nothing too complicated to fall back on, various comic lines have taken the series’ simple premise, attempting to run with it. WildStorm’s six-issue series, Friday the 13th, presents an original—albeit all too familiar—story about a teenager, Sally, who’s being terrorized by our favorite machete wielding maniac. While presenting the routine bloodshed that the film series is known for, the comics here also spend a lot of time fleshing out the lore of Camp Crystal Lake itself.

A fascinating new element is added to the series in this sense (although it’s debatable if Camp Crystal Lake needs to imbued with some special power), and it’s a trend that continues through Avatar Press’ releases of Friday the 13th Special, Friday the 13th Fearbook, and Friday the 13th: Bloodbath. All of these stories delight in building upon the Camp Crystal Lake mythos and Jason’s inextricable connection to it, with their primary goal being to expand the framework built in the films. Friday the 13th: Pamela’s Tale from WildStorm has the same aim, but instead attempting to flesh out the backstory of Jason’s mother and the events right before the original film. They might have different focuses, but their goals remain to expand this universe. Even Topps’ three-issue adaptation of Friday the 13th: Jason Goes to Hell contains material that diverges from the film, adding to it accordingly.

WildStorm’s two-issue Friday the 13th: Bad Land attempts something a little different by simultaneously presenting an original story that runs parallel to another going on in 1750 that introduces a nice piece of origin, too. As the comic shifts back in forth in its timeline you learn more about Camp Crystal Lake’s sordid past and the hallowed legacy that’s been placed on these grounds, as well as a modern story involving Jason that relates to all of this history. While revelatory origin stories can be everything for some people, simply presenting new massacres that are faithful to the movies was all that others were craving. Bad Land was satisfying in this respect to some degree, but it’s an agenda that sees a more healthy embracing in Friday the 13th: Abuser and the Abused and Friday the 13th: How I Spent My Summer Vacation. Both of these stories from WildStorm saw Jason stepping in almost as a pseudo-hero to take down the bigger villains of bullying and domestic abuse. But don’t worry, there’s a lot more bloodletting than lesson learning in these comics.

Lastly, the Friday the 13th line has seen itself turning over to comics for the purpose of indulging in bonkers crossovers that would otherwise be a nightmare to pull off on the movie screen. Jason has seen himself stepping in for crossover showdowns more than anyone else here, which is clearly a testament to the power of the character. A number of these crossovers will be looked at later due to who they involve, but one of the more ridiculous battles that Jason found himself in was in the pages of Friday the 13th: Jason Vs. Jason X by Avatar Press. This Jason Vs Jason battle is appropriately insane and certainly not the sort of thing you’d be seeing in the next movie any time soon. Rather than focusing on history or new material, delighting in spectacle is the aim here. All of these comics make for a reasonably entertaining time, but their preoccupation with trying to inject something fancy into this simple beast holds them back from the madness they could be doing.

Naturally going claw-in-claw with Friday the 13th is A Nightmare on Elm Street, and while this franchise might have a much simpler relationship with the medium, it still wasn’t afraid to embrace it. Innovation Publishing’s line of A Nightmare on Elm Street comics from the early ‘90s is likely the most well known. The books would span three series, doing a good job at becoming the definitive version of the franchise in the process. The six-issue first series, Nightmares on Elm Street spent time featuring Nancy Thompson and many protagonists from the first five films, largely taking place between the final two films in the franchise, filling in tremendous gaps along the way. The next series in the line, the three-part Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare saw the continuation of this story, as well as acting as a faithful adaptation of the film. The third issue of this is also done in 3-D, which is kind of amazing and the only instance where any of the comics here attempt to ape the dated technology that surrounded their films. The series is concluded with the three-issue, A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Beginning, which excitedly gets around to continuing this story past the events of the final film.

In what’s supposedly canon, Maggie Burrough, the daughter of Freddy, travels back to Springwood with the hopes of learning more about her father before his death. The Beginning acts as a very satisfying follow-up to Freddy’s Dead, with it treating the series with tremendous respect. Andy Mangels writes all of the issues of the series (not to mention the Jason Goes to Hell adaptation, too), and his love for this franchise is abundantly clear. The bittersweet conclusion here is that with the bankruptcy of Innovation happening, the final issue of The Beginning was never released, with fans perpetually waiting for the ending to this saga.

These books act as such a love letter to the films and their history, but the Nightmare comics also have plenty of fun telling random sordid tales of dream murder. Avatar Press (with Brian Pullido penning most of these stories, impressively along with Avatar’s Friday the 13th titles as well) would release a number of books like, A Nightmare on Elm Street Special, A Nightmare on Elm Street: Paranoid, A Nightmare on Elm Street Fearbook, and A Nightmare on Elm Street: Copycat, the majority of which were one-shots dealing with the horrors of Freddy and the novelty of his concept. All of these act as fun little diversions but understandably lack the gravitas of Mangels’ work. What is significant here though is that Freddy hadn’t been in comics for thirteen years before this point, with the success of New Line Cinema’s Freddy Vs. Jason and their Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, leading to them founding their “House of Horror” licensing division. This meant in so many words that Freddy, Jason, and Leatherface would all be returning to comics through Avatar, with New Line helping foot the bill. In Freddy’s case, that primarily meant these fun side stories.

When the A Nightmare on Elm Street license would shift over in 2006 to WildStorm, their implementation of the property would end up falling somewhere in between Mangels and Pullido’s visions. Here, in the eight-issue A Nightmare on Elm Street, the comics saw a whole new set of characters taking on the threat of Freddy and building its own mythology. WildStorm’s series has plenty of vintage nightmare carnage as well as threading something much larger involving ancient Aztec sleep demons and the like. The work done here is an interesting fresh take on the material that tries to provide something for everyone while not desecrating the memory of the original either.

Much like how Friday the 13th comics would indulge in juicy crossover death matches, Jason and Freddy would see themselves uniting together (so to speak) in the insane, Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Ash and its sequel, Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Ash: Nightmare Warriors. The prospect of just two of these titans going head-to-head in a movie was almost too much for audiences to handle, and while trying to add Evil Dead’s Ash to the equation was something the cinema was negotiating, it never came to be. Thankfully that’s where comics can excel where films cannot and finally this legendary showdown was allowed to go down. The comics are pure fan service through and through, but they’re a deeply enjoyable time all the same. They certainly have one of the most unique tones out of any of the rest of these comics.

While never quite gaining the same notoriety as Jason or Freddy, Leatherface and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre are still a terrifying playground that have made ample comics fodder through the years. Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s earliest experimentation with comics came in 1991 through Northstar Comics. The company released a four-part series titled Leatherface, which largely acted as a loose adaptation of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III. Leatherface would continue the tradition of comics simply adapting their film counterparts occasionally, but this series would end up going beyond that, working from the film’s original script. While the comic adaptations looked at here have helped fill in gaps and expand upon material other cases, Leatherface truly goes beyond by telling the story how it was meant to be—and unallowed to be—told. Leatherface uniquely uses comics and canon in a new way to correct production problems from the film franchise, which is a fascinating idea that hasn’t been explored enough in comics. It shows you the degree of power that comics have, and a series that was focusing purely on all of the unproduced Friday the 13th and Halloween films through the years could yield some amazing results (especially with the right artists on board).

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was also instrumental in New Line’s “House of Horrors” division that came out of Avatar Press. With the 2003 remake as the inspiration here, Avatar saw the release of a number of books, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Special, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Grind, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Fearbook, all of which would provide a canonical take on the film and ancillary material filling in the Hewitt family’s twisted backstory.

Avatar’s comics did well to honor its source material and when the property’s license shifted over to WildStorm a few years later the 2003 remake was still its target. Rather than pulling back the curtains on the past, these comics would continue the story from the remake, almost acting as a sequel. Series like the six-issue The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Cut!, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: About a Boy, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Raising Cain still went about respecting the canon that the films had been establishing, but instead using the newer pictures and their story as the groundwork rather than the original films.

Finally, in what might be one of the most interesting crossovers to ever be explored, Leatherface and his whole mad family meet Jason Voorhes in Topps’ three-issue, Jason Vs. Leatherface. While not as ridiculous and indulgent as Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Ash, this crossover surprisingly delves into the emotional side of both of these stoic giants, exploring how they’re almost more victims of circumstance than anything else. Seeing Jason get inducted into Leatherface’s family is bizarre as anything, and their fight is certainly one to remember, but the real gem here is in realizing how similar these two monsters are and playing with that premise.

Another stoic nightmare who doesn’t nearly get enough love is Halloween’s Michael Myers, and while he might not get any tantalizing crossovers to shake his knife at, he still manages to make his voice heard in the comics world. With Halloween actually having a rather deep canon to pull from, it shouldn’t be surprising to see a number of comics here simply re-telling events from the films and filling in gaps in from the franchise. Perhaps the pinnacle of Halloween comics, Chaos Comics’ three-part series, Halloween, Halloween II: The Blackest Eyes, and Halloween III: The Devil’s Eyes, does a great job covering the bulk of the movies and trying its best to connect them together. Primarily set after Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, the three-part series works awfully hard to try to tie together films 4-6 with the events of H20: Halloween Twenty Years Later.

There’s a lot to love about these books, and they do a great job at connecting the dots and featuring some deep cuts from the Halloween universe to return (seriously, who expected Richie from the first Halloween to come back?). These books do manage to feature the pivotal Laurie Strode as well, but Halloween: The First Death of Laurie Strode, a three-issue series by Devil’s Due Publishing does a much better job with her. The First Death of Laurie Strode still has backstory as its main goal, but instead funnels it all through Laurie, the franchise’s biggest cipher. This series doesn’t pack the same emphasis as the previous one does, but it still does a good job at understanding Laurie’s character and letting us know more about her.

When it wasn’t dissecting its storied history and trying to refit canon to its own will, Devil’s Due Publishing would turn out some outstanding Halloween entries, all with a smaller focus in mind. Halloween: One Good Scare, Halloween: Autopsies, Halloween: 30 Years of Terror, and Halloween: Nightdance (a multi-part story), and all pretty much written by Stefan Hutchinson, took more ancillary takes on the Halloween material. All of these stories play with the legend of Michael Myers in particular ways rather than the specifics of the franchise as a whole. By breaking the series down to purely its antagonist, the stories are able to have a lot of fun without overthinking things. All of these comics (particularly Nightdance) work really well for whatever reason. In fact, I’d go as far as saying they’re the most effective standalone stories looked at here. Perhaps it’s their more isolated nature and how they almost feel like fables, as they attempt to disconnect themselves from the series.

The Puppet Master franchise may not have the same degree of pomp and celebration around it as the rest of the titles being looked at here, but the quirky horror films have slowly chiseled a name and filmography for themselves through the years. Perhaps it’s because of the low-key nature of the franchise and the lack of expectations that come along with it unlike some of the other titles here, but on the whole Puppet Master ends up making the smoothest transition of the lot to comics. Not only does it confidently tell new stories within the medium, but it also figures out how to have fun with its canon and take advantage of its new storytelling limitations. Full Moon Entertainment, the production company for the Puppet Master films, would eventually extend their hand into the comics scene and partnering up with Eternity Comics, in the process. Full Moon’s beloved horror property was of course the first name to be thought of when comics began seeing release in 1991.

The six-issue Puppet Master series, followed by the two-issue Children of the Puppet Master, worked especially hard to maintain the continuity of the films. The comics follow the events of the first three movies rather closely, even working in deleted scenes and aborted production pieces into these new stories, too. It’s clear that there’s a deep amount of respect for the lore that the films have established, as well as finding ways to contribute to them intelligently. Surely working so closely alongside the films’ production company would allow such synergy to happen in the storytelling.

Eternity Comics told the story that they set out to, but in 2015 Action Labs would reacquire the Puppet Master property, setting its sight on an expansive thirty-issue series (with nine seeing release so far, along with a Puppet Master Halloween Special). Here a similar sort of approach is being taken where these are new stories, but they’re deeply interwoven into the Puppet Master canon. The comics are even pulling obscure franchise characters to the forefront and attempting to connect the whole series together. All of this has been deeply ambitious so far, but the comics’ ability to tell new standalone-ish entries while still complimenting the greater work at hand is perhaps why Puppet Master works the best here. Besides, a bunch of renegade killer puppets is a pulpy concept that’s tailor-made for the pages of a comic book.

What this trend towards comic adaptations essentially boils down to is why you are reading these books in the first place. If you are indulging in these supplemental stories for exactly that—extra offerings of the franchise’s boogeyman—or if you’re reading these extra installments for new stories from these sagas that canonically continue these series. Neither approach is right or wrong, with each franchise seeing itself better suited to one of these sensibilities in various ways based on the makeup of their respective franchise’s filmography. These comic lines are catering to both of these extremes in approach, it’s just a matter of what your preference for storytelling comes down to, and what your opinion on these franchises is that’s ultimately going to inform your enjoyment here.

Although not the point of this feature, there are also a wealth of original horror comics that are doing fantastic things with the medium (Clive Barker’s Next Testament still has images that I haven’t been able to get out of my head). If you find yourself not loving the antics of illustrated Jason Voorhes or Freddy Kreuger, then perhaps your issue is just with the adaptation process itself. There’s still more than likely some dreadful horror comic that’s capable of getting under your skin and freaking you out.

Nothing here is looking to take away your love for these iconic horror movie franchises, but maybe now you’ll appreciate an aspect of them that never made it through in the films. These series are endlessly fun to debate and argue over, so why not add some more ammunition to your arsenal and check out some of these other killtastic aventures with your favorite serial killers? Don’t you want to see the look on your friends’ faces when they look at you cluelessly as you get into Maggie’s exploits post-Freddy’s Dead?

Of course you do. Everyone does.