A Review: SAMURAI SLASHER: LATE FEES

The Fellowship was fortunate enough to obtain a copy of SAMURAI SLASHER: LATE FEES from Mike Garley. Mike Garley writes, Lukasz Kowalczuk draws, and Lukasz Mazur colors and letters.

The kid spent the weekends with his dad, and one of the ways they bonded was renting horror movies. That was how the kid discovered the Samurai Slasher, and that helped him learn to fight the monsters. That Dad couldn’t always fight the monsters was a tough lesson, but the kid picked up the best he could. Years later, after letting the Slasher go, the grown-up kid finally learns that his dad’s old maxim is a hard truth.

This is a tough story for a kid to have to face, but it’s told with a lot of courage. It’s the story of a kid in a broken home and a father with problems who’s trying hard to connect with his son. There’s a bittersweet feeling throughout, but the sense that the kid has come to terms with his own story in the end. And the art does a nice job with both the nostalgia of childhood and the horror of the monsters made real.

I love how this story takes us on a major divergence into real life through the use of a horror story. There’s a lot of heart in this book, in the midst of all the blood and gore.

SAMURAI SLASHER: LATE FEES is available now online at mikegarley.com.

~Mike ( @MikeyGeek )