Landry Q. Walker, Pannel Vaughn and Justin Greenwood will hit the backroads of the Pacific Northwest for a folk horror tale in The Butcher’s Boy, a new miniseries coming from Dark Horse Comics later this year.
Walker, known for the excellent Danger Club, will co-write the series with Vaughn. Greenwood, who worked with Walker on The Last Siege, is the artist, along with colorist Bard Simpson. Letterer Pat Brosseau rounds out the team.
“Appetite – whether it be desire for food, affection, or power – and the ability that hunger has to drive you to become unrecognizable – even to yourself – has always sat at the heart of my favorite horror stories,” Walker said. “Writing this book has led me down some dark psychological pathways that border somewhere between healthy obsession and self-destructive spirals. On some level, you need to feel what you write. The goal of this story is to take that discomfort, that yearning appetite (in all its myriad forms) and contextualize it as a malignant and conscious force. As a story, one that is finally ready for consumption.”
The story explores a tale of gruesome folklore:
Tucked away far down the backroads of the Pacific Northwest countryside, an entire town fell victim to the brutal cleaver of the Butcher of La Perdita. But that was more than a hundred years ago, and since that time the generational nightmare of murder and meat has been reduced to morbid clickbait folklore for bored travelers to share online.
Yet some say the Butcher still haunts the streets at night, seeking fresh meat for his larder. Is this a true Lovecraftian horror? Or just the feverish dreams of a mentally unstable serial killer? Six friends on a road trip are about to find out…
“My favorite horror stories have always left me feeling unsettled and this one is no exception,” Greenwood said. “I’ve been DYING to draw a horror comic, something dark enough to make you feel guilty for grinning ear to ear as you ruin your favorite character’s life between panels. Landry and Pannel came to me with just that, an idea that allows reality to become pliable and makes good kids do really bad things. I’m having a blast drawing this book.”
Look for the first issue on May 22.