Nerdopolis

‘The Evil Dead’ is a 4 part comic adaptation of the Sam Raimi film of the same name.

For those who haven’t seen the film, here is the low-down on the first quarter of the comic. Those who have seen it and don’t want the story spoiled could just probably skip this section.

Ash and 4 friends are on there way to an abandoned cabin for a break, or as the Ash and his only other male friend, Paul put it; to get laid. A few minor mishaps threaten their journey, but they get there safely.

It’s all downhill from there. Scotty finds a tape recorder of the professor who owned the place prior to the group, and plays it. It turns out that the professor was working on some ruins of a tribe called the ‘Kan-Daar’, who possessed a book called the ‘Nacheron De’Manto’ which translates into ‘The Book of the Dead’. The tape continues to play, and an incantation is said by the professor which unleashes the Demons around the cabin and in the forest. As this is going on we see the professors own struggle with his possesed wife after he said it, so that’s pretty cool.

After this, they go to sleep except one of the girls named Cheryl, who is drawn out of the cabin and promptly raped by a tree. Comes back and everyone is shocked as she is all cut up, so Ash says he’ll take her back to the city. The bridge they cross is mangled, obviously by the demons. Now trapped, they hole up in the cabin and play…cards. To which the cliff hanger of the comic comes, Cheryl is possessed and is now a demon.

Now most of you will be thinking “A comic based on film starring Bruce Campbell and with Dark Horse at the helm, how could it go wrong?”

It doesn’t, thankfully. The Evil Dead comic is most probably better than the film thus far, in terms of story telling. As in the comic we get a slightly more in depth view of what is actually going, missed from the film due to a low budget no doubt. We have everything from the film and more with one exception; the name of the book of the dead is different. I don’t know why, but they made it different. The old name sounded cooler but this one sounds more authentic as it were. Other than that it has everything, including the rape scene by the forest. The art style is one I’m not too hot on, but it works well in the comic, to give it a very dark edge.

Excellent adaptation and comic, I recommend it.

4.5/5