Friday the 13th: Bad Land was a limited run comic book miniseries of only two issues from 2008, written by Ron Marz, and assisted by Colorist Mike McKone and Mike Huddleston handled the duties of Inker and Penciller. It truly has all intentions directed to mature readers, with the graphics presented as gore-hounds crave to see in the films of this legendary franchise.
In the first issue, published in March of 2008 one learns that Camp Crystal Lake actually contains a curse upon the lands, long before Jason Voorhees, dating back to a vicious crime against a Native American family. The storyline itself switches back and forth between two stories, the first from 1750 of three trappers, Ethan, Joseph and Ben, spot the lodge once inside a woman breast-feeds her child. It doesn’t take long for Ben to assume possession of her, with rape and violence to her and the child, before having the husband return to see the barbarity of the act and run out cursing the gods. In the modern times the same area an old cabin, a group of hikers Diane, Jeremy and Philip lost in a similar blizzard as the first storyline, they force their entry, soon enough the sexual shenanigans begin this time Diane and Jeremy sneak off for fun, and even though Philip has feelings for Diane. During the throes of passion Jason appears and soon enough the bloodshed splatters everywhere once more.
The simplicity of the stories actually was enough for one issue perhaps a little thicker than the average comic at that point, but alas it made two, with enjoyable panels of gore and sex, and stir the mind for films to become this twisted and graphic. Best aspect a different backstory, which hinted to the area curse before Jason, made for an interesting new dimension of stories for it to explore ion the future. Everything hit its stride, nothing outrageous or incredibly fantastic, ideally for the fans of the franchise.
Back issues easily found, with low cost investment, even though the original publisher The Wildstorm went defunct in 2010. For the horror fans interested, this publisher had at least three other Friday the 13th stories as a one-off called Abuser and the Abused (2008) and How I Spent My Summer Vacation (2007) of a 2-issue run and lastly, Pamela’s Tale.