Welcome to Site C! Home of hillbilly slashers, backwoods cannibals, and all the rural killers. I’m sure everything will be perfectly fine here. Oh, and the other monsters send Final Girl turned Special Agent, Connor Hayes out to kill a babysitter to prove his loyalty to them. I’m sure that also will turn out absolutely fine. The monstrous terrors increase in Where Monsters Lie: Cull-de-sac #2!

Written by Kyle Starks, Where Monsters Lie has been twisted fun. The basic concept is it takes place in the community that serial killers go when they’re not terrorizing communities. Not real world type killers, think more like Jason or Freddie. The “gimmick killers” from classic slasher films. With that, Starks has crafted characters that feel like both a spoof and homage to all of those classics.

The issue introduces us to Site C, another home to killers, this one playing off the “Southern” stereotype. Fuckmaster is the focus here where we learn he’s one of the top five slashers out there but is now looked upon as a traitor to the cause. This part of the comic delivers the slashing gore that’s so over the top it turns into comedy. Subtlety is not this series forte and it holds nothing back delivering a bloody symphony of carnage.

But the main story is really about Agent Hayes who has been turned by the killers and has learned his wife is the daughter of one. Sent on a mission to prove his loyalty the comic takes an expected route but still an entertaining one as logic is dropped by Agent Hayes that makes every decision seem logical and well thought out. It’s a solid part of the comic that keeps things focused and more grounded, in a way, than the outright senseless carnage we’ve seen so often.

The splattering of blood is brought to the page by Piotr Kowalski whose art enhances the glee of destruction. With color by Vladimir Popov and lettering by Joshua Reed the comic has fun with its blood bath and doesn’t take itself seriously. It purposely goes big and drags the comic into comedy instead of slasher gore porn. It’s hard not to laugh at how exaggerated everything is, clearly done on purpose. The series could easily play it all as straight but instead chooses to have fun with winks as nods as the blood flows.

Where Monsters Lie: Cull-de-sac #2 is another fantastic issue that takes classic ideas and gives them whole new spins. It both loves and mocks the slasher genre, leaning more towards the love. It exaggerates what has come before and takes things to extremes doing things on the page that can only really be done on the comic page. It’s a cathartic comic of destruction and bloody glee and is a hell of a good time to read.

Story: Kyle Starks Art: Piotr Kowalski
Color: Vladimir Popov Letterer: Joshua Reed
Story: 8.4 Art: 8.4 Overall: 8.4 Recommendation: Buy

Dark Horse provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

---

Purchase: TFAW – Zeus Comics – Kindle