HorrorTalk Gives Chopper 4 Stars

Horror reviewer James Ferguson shares his thoughts on Chopper #1.

Review by James "Spez" Ferguson at HorrorTalk

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is one that most people know by now. At the very least you've probably seen the Tim Burton movie. You know, the one that stars Johnny Depp... Oh, right, they all do. Anyway, the basics boil down to the iconic image of the Headless Horseman. Asylum Press and Night Owl Productions have decided to modernize this story and put their own spin on it with Chopper.

Chopper starts in beautiful Daytona Beach, which I can tell you first hand is definitely NOT Sleepy Hollow. Christina, a cop's daughter and resident drug dealer/cheerleader, is hating everybody and getting drunk at football games. She takes a break to make a new sale with the good stuff. “Stairway to Heaven” is described as being five times stronger than ecstasy. Unfortunately for the buyer, he's never seen alive again. He gets chased down by the Reaper, a headless Hell's Angel.

The comic itself is pretty high quality. Asylum Press has really stepped up their game with this release. There's a beautiful cover drawn by Cris Ortega that gives us a brief glimpse of what the book has in store. The interior art is done by Juan Ferreyra and aside from a few uneven facial expressions, is stellar all the way through with more detail than you usually see from books released by the Big Two.

The first book from this five issue series does what you'd expect. We get a brief introduction to the characters and several questions are brought up to set the stage for the rest of the story. Who is the Reaper? Where did he come from? What exactly is “Stairway to Heaven” and how did Christina get into selling it? What's up with her tattoo? There's a lot going on and I was left wanting more by the end of the issue. Of course, that's what good comics are supposed to do.

Here's the deal if you want to check out Chopper #1, which you should: Since Asylum Press is a relatively small publisher, there's a good chance your local comic shop might not have this in stock when it comes out October 5th. If you're interested in the book, ask your shop to order you a copy. The sooner the better with books like this as they can live or die on pre-orders. You're getting 24 pages of story for $2.99 which is more than you're getting from Marvel or DC lately. The only ads here are at the back of the issue and they're just for other books from Asylum. Plus there are boobs in this book!

Grades:

Story:  4 stars
Art:  4 stars
Overall:  4 stars

Click here to read the full article at HorrorTalk or click here to learn more about Chopper.