Psychopathic murderers may be good at killing, but Wilmhurst helps them take care of the more mundane aspects of life. But what happens when some kids get a little too close, and a slasher does not follow the HOA rules? Find out in Where Monsters Lie #1 from Dark Horse Comics!

WHERE MONSTERS LIE #1

Writer: Kyle Starks
Artist: Piotr Kowalski
Colorist: Vladimir Popov
Letterer: Joshua Reed
Editor: Daniel Chabon
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: February 1, 2023

Previously in Where Monsters Lie: Even serial killers need a place to stay when they have some downtime. Welcome to Wilmhurst, a gated community just for them. It’s calm, it’s peaceful, and the HOA has strict rules to follow. But things get shaken up when a group of kids climbs over the fence to look around.

A GATED COMMUNITY…OF MURDER

Where Monsters Lie #1 is an odd book, but there is also something engaging about it. Truth be told, I am not a fan of slasher movies, but this take on the genre is entertaining in addition to being bloody. It opens with a group of kids fleeing a house where there are gunshots. The lone Black kid, Linus, runs off on his own while three others go to a nearby house. An old lady answers the door. The kids explain they barely escaped from the psycho next door. She listens to them calmly and then stabs one to death with a knitting needle. A weird ventriloquist and a big, scary guy dispatch the other two kids. Linus sees it all.

The old woman is named Zel, and she is the head of the HOA. She is annoyed with Professor Puzzleman, who runs up brandishing a pistol. He killed the other kids (who could not solve his pistol puzzle) but he wants to know if the others are also dead. Zel turns on him. They are not supposed to do their serial killing in their own gated neighborhood. And he had better be sure that no one survived.

Zel calls an HOA meeting where we get to see the rest of the neighbors, who look exactly like a group of stereotypical slashers. This is no ordinary meeting, and it is kind of funny to have the killer clown complaining that the tattooed guy wearing a teddy bear as a hat is weirding him out. Zel explains to them that Wilmhurst is a sanctuary for all of them. They break them out of jail, drag them away when they look like they’re dead, do all the grocery shopping so they don’t frighten the locals, and help install their death traps. All they need to do is lie low for a while in between murders until it’s time for a slasher to show up somewhere again.

Speaking of which, Friday the 13th is coming around again, and it is the 20th anniversary of the Spirit County Fair. The last time around, Daniel Dawson killed 50 people, so he’s on duty again this year, what with tradition and all. Naturally, there is some grumbling.

After the meeting, Zel walks around the neighborhood with Wyatt. The general gist of their conversation is how slashers just are not like they used to be, back in the day. This batch of killers is so immature. In fact, one of them, the guy wearing the teddy bear, has seriously taken up gardening and seems to be stepping away from the killing. What is this world coming to?

A moving truck arrives. Grandpa Murder has arrived early. He also brought his nephew, a chainsaw killer. Zel reminds him that the nephew cannot be here while Daniel still is – they are too similar.

The scene changes to the police station where special agent Connor Hayes arrives to talk to Linus. He has been called in due to some of the details in Linus’ report. He thinks he may have had a run-in with the Puzzle Man Murderer. Linus corrects him, saying he insisted his name was “Puzzleman.” Hayes reassures him that the murderer has probably fled by now. Then Linus asks if he wants to see where the others were, the old lady, the lady with the doll, and the big dude. Hayes’ eyes widen. Has he heard about the big guy before?

A THREAD OF DARK HUMOR

The art of Where Monsters Lie #1 is gory at times as one might expect around a neighborhood of murderers. That said, it is not an outright gross-out fest. There are horrifying moments, but some of the bigger eviscerations so far are also visually blocked, probably a good thing since this book starts out with a bunch of kids being killed. We start meeting the slashers, and I like how they first come across as just being weird. Pearl, the ventriloquist, is a young blonde woman in a nightgown. The big guy with long hair has a skull face. When Zel is joined by Professor Puzzleman (in a skull mask), we see Wyatt and the big guy in the background dragging bodies away like this is something that happens every day.

This is a dark book with an odd thread of humor that runs through it. The HOA meeting scene capitalizes on this. Zel’s house looks like that of an old lady. The walls are crowded with pictures, tables are full of knick-knacks, and the furniture is overstuffed. I like that her drapes are made out of a skull and crossbones pattern, and that the plants in her window are cacti. In this setting, the murderers all sit quite primly which is at odds with their outrageous looks.

BOTTOM LINE: MAY NOT BE FOR EVERYONE

Where Monsters Lie #1 may not be for everyone, but if you are a fan of slashers and you want a glimpse of what their lives are like when they are not actively killing a bunch of curious teens, this is probably worth a read. It is entertaining, and it is not quite like anything I have read before.

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