What makes a great horror story? Is it a solid villain? Ample blood and guts? A proper mood? The right kind of violence? A little bit of hilarity? Oh, and what about hormonal teenagers in divisive love/lust?
To be safe, The Butcher’s Boy has gone ahead and checked all of the boxes with a rusty chainsaw.
Across the first two issues, writer Landry Q. Walker and artist Justin Greenwood have used the confines of comics to mess with readers in some devious ways. Because beyond the “obvious” aforementioned tropes — blood, a potentially great villain, the teens — the defining trait of The Butcher’s Boy has been the so-called “time hopping.” The way the story expertly leaps between past and present to reveal important story bits (like the sordid Chris-Frankie situationship) and to generally make us feel uncertain and unnerved.
That very much continues in this issue, as we get some important pieces about Hans and Emma’s relationship as well some more important stuff with Frankie. But it goes even deeper still, to a moment from Shyla’s past several years prior. That doesn’t just instantly connect us to Shyla (and perhaps influence our perceptions), but it’s another layer to how the creative team are messing with us. There’s more terrain for them to play with, and that kept things moving in a way that only made our immersion (and occasional agony) all the more delicious.
Courtesy of Dark Horse Comics.
But this issue of The Butcher’s Boy wasn’t happy just messing around with time. After the whole meat-eating in issue #1, and the subsequent extreme violence in issue #2 (mostly surrounding Frankie), the third issue sinks its claws deeper into our brains as the crew finding themselves tumbling directly into the bloody legends of The Butcher’s Boy and La Perdita in general. Here, it’s really hard to tell who is infected, who is a pawn, and just how much blood is being shed if a any. And thanks to the art team (which includes colorist Brad Simpson and letterer Pat Brosseau), we’re getting some of the most violent and depraved acts I’ve seen on a comics page in some time. That includes a gory but oddly beautiful sex scene (which really humanizes the violence in an interesting way) and also lots of beheaded ghouls spewing demonic Latin verses.
The sheer intensity of these images, and how they seem to move between people and also how they’re presented contextually, should leave you feeling both unprepared and wholly unsure. How much is real, how much is it happening to just one person, and what exactly does the meat have to do with it — these simple but burning questions leave you fearful like the Final Girl stumbling across a darkened summer camp. It’s a way that’s connected to the time hopping stuff but also a massive step up, and a great way to show how this book is really evolving in a way that keeps our immersion front and center as we’re gripped by the jaws and shaken about like a chew toy.
Courtesy of Dark Horse Comics.
The book continues to confront us with blood and emotion galore, showing us both things in a way to conflate the two and to really make us feel that thing all great horror stories do (that’d be screaming anxiety about the real scope of the world). All this bright, vibrant murder and chaos is like a proper haunted house: it might seem like razzle dazzle, as it were, but it’s a way to keep us guessing and flailing at every turn. And through that process the story can unfold in the way a knife might be slipped between your ribs.
Because this issue of The Butcher’s Boy didn’t just give us extreme violence (even as it clearly gave us dark, rust-tinged blood by the bathtub full). It also did something quiet amid all that noise and chaos: reveal perhaps the true heart of this story.
The ending itself isn’t really that subtle, as we get a kind of “monologue” — albeit via journal entries — from the actual Butcher’s Boy. (I love Brosseau’s lettering here, and it really captures the drama and poetry of Walker’s extra sharp writing.) I don’t want to reveal too much of the Butcher Boy’s big “news,” but it involves some stuff with an elder god type named Kilioth and just what all of this cannibalism and butchering may actually involve. And from a visual perspective, it just looks amazing, as we get a proper reveal of The Butcher Boy’s “form” in a way that really draws out the old-school horror vibes.
Courtesy of Dark Horse Comics.
There’s even more lore revealed visually, with these kind of bloody henchmen types. That perfectly rounds out the book’s world — we have a visual clue as to the scope and feel of the story in a way that’s sharper than ever, and that understanding coalesces everything toward the meat of this story without diminishing the importance of that slower burn. It makes all the hype and mystery (and slight shell game?!) feel important as a way to respect the story and what it was trying to do in regards to a properly layered horror story.
But there was a connection that I saw with regards to the actual Butcher’s Boy that did feel wonderfully subtle/understated. It has to do with the aforementioned reveal with Shayla, and how I think the creative team are trying to tee her up as a potential standout in battling the Butcher’s Boy. It makes the most sense — there’s a kind of loss and violence shared between the pair, and it’d be interesting to see how Shayla develops as one of the few members of the crew not (seemingly) affected by the meat/curse of La Perdita/etc. She’s certainly the character with the most to reveal as well as feeling central to the story (she’s the emotional lynchpin of this group, really) as well as coming off more robust than some others (which is saying a lot considering how real/organic everyone in this book is so far).
It could all be conjecture on my part, but at least one thing’s clear: I’m very much on board and ready to continue this story like I’m right in the middle of the bloody mayhem. And that level of robust immersion is why The Butcher’s Boy is truly great horror: it gives you all the things you think you want, hints at so much more, and almost forces you to play along right until the final axe drops. If you want to get good and scared in the very best way, cram this extra bloody burger down pronto.
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