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Blood & Gourd #3
Publisher: Dead Peasant
Story: Jenz K. Lund
Pencils: Jonas Scharf
Colors: Fran Gamboa
Letters: DC Hopkins
Cover: Jonas Scharf

Some time has passed since we’ve been privy to the carnage and bloodshed at Henderson Farms but now Dead Peasant is back with Blood & Gourd #3 and things have gone from bad to extremely bad. The townspeople who haven’t been turned into pumpkin headed ghouls are running for their lives and the ones that have been transformed are spilling blood all over the place. At the heart of all of this is the demonic towering Gourdfather and a bloody ceremony taking place that hints at more horror to come.

Where Blood & Gourd 1 & 2 reveled in it’s campy horror tropes while giving you room to laugh at some of the insanity in it’s pages, this issue has a tonal shift that feels darker than the previous issues. Lund still drops in a laugh or two thanks to Vern’s encounter but overall there’s not much to chuckle about here. This issue seems to be setting the stage for something much darker to come. Lund has several sequences here that hint at “lost hope” and the entire ceremony with Pleasant is just pure horror suspense with the right amount of gore that doesn’t hinder the narrative. The flashback scene is another moment where Lund builds suspense well which leads to the ending which is just straight up dark!

The art by Scharf and Gamboa syncs perfectly with this narrative from beginning to end. From the infected crows descending on the fallen residents to the fear and terror in the faces of the characters throughout it’s just a great looking book. The design of the Gourdfather is still one of my favorites here and I wish he appeared more often. Though I’ll admit that the “less is more” aesthetic works perfectly with this character. The art team captures what’s necessary to keep the tonal shift of the story and make it stand out from the first two. Especially as the story winds down and we see the moments that lead up to Vern’s encounter. It’s a bit of a gut punch but in a way that can only be expressed with solid artwork that took the narrative to the next level.

With the amount of time between issues Blood & Gourd could do with a small recap to get readers back on track but otherwise this is another solid entry from the creative team! So if campy 80s style horror is your thing then I’d suggest heading to www.webleedhalloween.com to get these issues!

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