Pumpkinhead #1 Review

Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artists: Blacky Shepherd and Kyle Strahm
Colorist: Thiago Ribeiro
Letterer: Troy Peteri
Publisher: Dynamite

I am very glad to see that Pumpkinhead is back in any form of media. As a horror fan and a fan of the Pumpkinhead series in particular, I was very excited about this comic book series. I will also admit, I had slightly high expectations before attacking this first issue.

In my opinion, what made the film series so great is both the campiness and the violent hillbilly witchcraft. This first issue definitely promises us that we will see a lot of violent hillbilly witchcraft, but they went a much more serious route than the campy one. The lack of camp isn’t a total dealbreaker for me personally, but it is kind of a let down.

This first issue gives us an intro to this story and this story has more layers than I was expecting. We see that we will be following the sheriff in search of leads in a hit and run case that left children dead. We are also following the hillbilly family whose children are dead in the hit and run in which a car hit their horse buggy. Then lastly, it seems that we are following an older couple who are keeping watch over some hillbilly’s adult son, while their house is being guarded with men who are armed, yet we have no idea who they are yet.

The story is pretty interesting but not enough that I was enthralled while reading it. The story is similar to the storyline from the first Pumpkinhead movie, which I enjoyed seeing, but they added some layers and some differences. Ultimately, the dialogue and unfolding of all these characters did not blow me away in the slightest. I finished the issue slightly disappointed, but not completely let down. It has potential to blow me away in later issues, especially when we start to see Pumpkinhead, but I personally am not totally engaged with these characters.

I am also interested to see what the artwork will look like when we start to see some violence and gore in later issues. This issue however, the artwork was similar to the writing and was pretty good, but didn’t really impress me.

Overall, my high expectations were not met, but I’m not completely deflated. I have hope that even starting in the next issue, that I will be much more engaged and entertained. Pumpkinhead has a lot of potential, so I would love to see this team take this legend and make the comic book tie-in that this franchise deserves.