Written by Allen Dunford and Will Radford
Art by Brian Balondo
Colors by Jasen Smith
Letters and Design by Dave Lentz
Published via Kickstarter/Source Point Press

“Four friends get lost on vacation. They end up at Grandma Hazel’s doorstep. Hazel seems innocent enough but the group will soon that…EVIL HAS A PERM!”

Reading Grandma Chainsaw is like watching a slasher movie but with the humor turned up. Allen and Will’s writing shows their understanding of the slasher genre and utilizes some very important horror tropes, but has this underlying absurdity given who our killer is. After just one issue Grandma Hazel is showing that she deserves a spot next to Freddy and Jason and all of our other favorite slasher villains.

Brian Balondo’s lines with Jasen Smith’s colors just ooze horror as Grandma Hazel’s house and the surrounding woods are depicted in such a creepy way. I am such a fan of the gore and blood spatter that occurs in the intro of the issue to establish the danger our group of friends is in as they become stranded at Hazel’s house. Dave Lentz does a creepily good job on the letters as we get not only Hazel’s creepy voice coming out of the word ballons, but countless sound effects and words written in blood.

This issue not only establishes grandma chainsaw, but also established an amazing twist that will likely be driving the plot forward from here. I am going to briefly talk about this twist so skip the next paragraph if you don’t want to be spoiled.

The twist that the creative team brings in toward the end of the story as our survivors are trying to escape the grasp of Hazel, is so brilliant and adds to the humor of this comic. The Dead Squad (who have a lettering logo very much like the Suicide Squad – foreshadowing? hmm) are a quirky group of people that hunt evil beings, demons, faeries, monsters…and now grandmas. I did not see this twist to the plot coming, but we all know every good horror story needs that twist to keep the reader on their toes and on the edge of their seat. Allen and Will deliver on a fantastic and amusing twist.

Rating: 9/10

Issue 2 is funding soon on Kickstarter. The pre-launch page can be found here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/allenandwill/grandma-chainsaw-1-2-a-slasher-horror-comedy-series