First published back in October of 2015 ‘Slaughterhouse Farm: Issue 3’ was written by Matt Warner and AJ Ballard, with artwork by Arfon Jones. This third issue was subtitled ‘Son Of Pigfucker’.
DLS Synopsis:
Up in the mountain cabin, Frankie and the woman she found up there are feeling the pressure of the situation. The waiting is killing them. The feeling of being helplessness. Of awaiting the gut-churningly inevitable. Of being hunted. But there is no escape. It was only ever a matter of time before he showed up. And then it’s too late. Pigfucker’s smashing down the door and the bloodbath commences once again.
Meanwhile, back at the old Maddock Farm Stevie can’t believe his luck. He’s finally going to get his end away. For all of his young life he’d dreamed of having such a rendezvous, and now Vicky’s offering it to him on a plate. The only problem is, with every second that passes by, his sanity slips further away. Before long his mind’s fragile grasp on reality shatters. And what his eyes show him is enough to send him over the edge. It’s enough to drive him to kill.
Elsewhere Jamie’s enjoying a little sexual relief. A quick five-knuckle-shuffle in one of the farm’s pig shelters. But there are things far worse than pigs lurking in the shadows. And Maddock Farm is not the place where you want to be caught with your trousers down.
Let the bloodspill commence…
DLS Review:
Ladies and gentlemen, we’re well-and-truly back in the game. If we’re honest, ‘Slaughterhouse Farm: Issue 2’ (2015) was a bit of a disappointment. The issue seriously lacked what should be its most primary and essential ingredient – uncompromising horror and gore.
Luckily with issue three the blood-caked violence and gore are back in abundance. From early on we’ve got a thick metal radio aerial being shoved through someone’s skull, a face smashed to bits by a cuckoo-clock, a furnace-boiled head that’s snacked upon like a human doner kebab, and a veritable plethora of sexual oddness to keep the backwards yokel vibe throbbing away in the background.
The pacing is absolutely breakneck speed. There’s really no hanging around whatsoever here. From page one we’re thrust headfirst into the continuing madness that charges forth throughout the comic’s twenty-three pages. Each page offering violent death after violent death, with the young teens now all separated and meeting their individual demises in imaginatively gory ways.
But the real charm of the issue is undoubtedly in the messed-up sexual elements scattered throughout. They’re wonderfully sordid and deranged. The image of Vicky as a half-human half-pig is delightfully repugnant. Jamie having himself a quick Tommy-Tank over some jazz mags, screaming “Nan’s hairy lip” at the spunk-splatting crescendo is bad taste genius.
Like with the previous two issues, the artwork is a tad hit and miss. Some frames are spot on – such as ‘Vicky the pig’, or the first glimpse of Pigfucker’s blood-spattered bare breasted bride, or the jazz mag ‘shots’ followed by Jamie’s bare breasted bacon dreams. The other artwork meanders between sketchiness, with clumsy thick lines used far too frequently, and just plain old badly drawn faces, hands and human forms. Furthermore, a little more attention to detail would have enhanced the overall appeal and impact of the story considerably. That said, the cover art (and in particular the colouring of this artwork) is absolutely superb.
In a nutshell with issue three we’re treated to a real return to form. The artwork - to be brutally honest - in the main part is relatively amateurish. But the storyline that pulls us along is frantically fast-paced, with plenty of horror, violence and gore bundled into its maniacal pages. And at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about – flinging the hapless teens to the inbred yokels and then shovelling in all that wonderful gory goodness.
The comic runs for a total of 23 pages.
© DLS Reviews
Other ‘Slaughterhouse Farm’ instalments:
- ‘Slaughterhouse Farm: Issue 1’ (2013)
- ‘Slaughterhouse Farm: Issue 2’ (2014)
- ‘Slaughterhouse Farm: Issue 4’ (2017)
