The Butcher’s Boy, written by Landry Walker (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Amazing Adventures) with artwork from Justin Greenwood (Torrent, Area 510) finds us deep within the backroads of the Pacific Northwest. More than 100 years ago an entire town fell victim to the brutal cleaver of the Butcher of La Perdita. Now, we the town has been reduced to morbid clickbait folklore for travelers to share online. Yet some believe the Butcher still haunts the streets.

In the debut issue of The Butcher’s Boy we meet the six friends who are on a journey that find themselves on a road trip exploring the town of La Perdita and things do not end up well.

The creative team does an outstanding job in the first few pages of the initial issue to give us one panel of the build up to the road trip and the remainder of the page’s panels what ends up happening. The juxtaposition between things won’t be that bad to shit hitting the fan is such a beautiful way of telling a story and feels almost cinematic. Hopes versus truth behind this chilling tale.

Greenwood holds no punches on the gruesome and brutal killings of The Butcher’s Boy which is perfect for a horror story such as this. He brings to life a world of dark alleys, abandon buildings and blood-drench scenes in an eerie way that stays with us long after we closed the final page.

While we see what will eventually happen at the end of this story with the unique storytelling on the first few pages, we still have a lot of questions unanswered and Walker has us guessing on what happens in-between. What crazy stuff will happen to our group of friends and why is this town cursed with such horrors.

The Butcher’s Boy is the horror story we were hoping it would be. Landry Walker’s writing combined with Justin Greenwood’s artwork creates a chilling atmosphere and works so well together. Fans of horror are in for a hell of a comic with this debut issue.

The Butcher’s Boy #1 hits local comic shops on May 22, 2024 from Dark Horse.