Freddy Krueger's A Nightmare on Elm Street

by Steve Gerber, Joe Jusko (Illustrator)

Two issue mini-series published by Marvel in 1989. All new Freddy Krueger stories featuring the amazing artwork from Joe Jusko.

Genres: Comics, Horror

92 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 1989

About the author

Steve Gerber graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in communications and took a job in advertising. To keep himself sane, he wrote bizarre short stories such as "Elves Against Hitler," "Conversion in a Terminal Subway," and "...And the Birds Hummed Dirges!" He noticed acquaintance Roy Thomas working at Marvel, and Thomas sent him Marvel's standard writing test, dialoguing Daredevil art. He was soon made a regular on Daredevil and Sub-Mariner, and the newly created Man-Thing, the latter of which pegged him as having a strong personal style--intellectual, introspective, and literary. In one issue, he introduced an anthropomorphic duck into a horror fantasy, because he wanted something weird and incongruous, and Thomas made the character, named for Gerber's childhood friend Howard, fall to his apparent death in the following issue. Fans were outraged, and the character was revived in a new and deeply personal series. Gerber said in interview that the joke of Howard the Duck is that "there is no joke." The series was existential and dealt with the necessities of life, such as finding employment to pay the rent. Such unusual fare for comicbooks also informed his writing on The Defenders. Other works included Morbius, the Lving Vampire, The Son of Satan, Tales of the Zombie, The Living Mummy, Marvel Two-in-One, Guardians of the Galaxy, Shanna the She-Devil, and Crazy Magazine for Marvel, and Mister Miracle, Metal Men, The Phantom Zone , and The Immortal Doctor Fate for DC. Gerber eventually lost a lawsuit for control of Howard the Duck when he was defending artist Gene Colan's claim of delayed paychecks for the series, which was less important to him personally because he had a staff job and Colan did not.

He left comics for animation in the early 1980s, working mainly with Ruby-Spears, creating Thundarr the Barbarian with Alex Toth and Jack Kirby and episodes of The Puppy's Further Adventures, and Marvel Productions, where he was story editor on multiple Marvel series including Dungeons & Dragons, G.I. Joe, and The Transformers. He continued to dabble in comics, mainly for Eclipse, including the graphic novel Stewart the Rat, the two-part horror story "Role Model: Caring, Sharing, and Helping Others," and the seven-issue Destroyer Duck with Jack Kirby, which began as a fundraiser for Gerber's lawsuit.

In the early 1990s, he returned to Marvel with Foolkiller, a ten-issue limited series featuring a new version of a villain he had used in The Man-Thing and Omega the Unknown, who communicated with a previous version of the character through internet bulletin boards. An early internet adopter himself, he wrote two chapters of BBSs for Dummies with Beth Woods Slick, with whom he also wrote the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "Contagion." During this period, he also wrote The Sensational She-Hulk and Cloak and Dagger for Marvel, Cybernary and WildC.A.T.s for Image, and Sludge and Exiles for the writer-driven Malibu Ultraverse, and Nevada for DC's mature readers Vertigo line.

In 2002, he returned to the Howard the Duck character for Marvel's mature readers MAX line, and for DC created Hard Time with Mary Skrenes, with whom he had co-created the cult hit Omega the Unknown for Marvel. Their ending for Omega the Unknown remains a secret that Skrenes plans to take to the grave if Marvel refuses to publish it. Suffering from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis ("idiopathic" meaning of unknown origin despite having been a heavy smoker much of his life), he was on a waiting list for a double lung transplant. His final work was the Doctor Fate story arc, "More Pain Comics," for DC Comics'

Reviews

[Vanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5

As someone who used to love the Nightmare films, this was so up my alley. I really liked how they didn't follow the same old story of Nancy and her friends, but rather I saw similarities between these two issues and the third movie: Dream Warriors. We have different characters other than Freddy Kreuger but it somehow worked out well. The biggest thing I really liked was more on Freddy's and Amanda's backstory. Their backstory is slightly shown within the later installments of Nightmare; however, I truly do not find much cannon to the original story as it really does not make sense as a whole.
One big thing within the whole series that I had an issue with that these comics truly fixed in their cannon world: was Freddy human--and if he was: was he born evil? In these issues, Freddy as an infant has violence drawn to him. He was kidnapped from a good family and placed under the home of a pimp and his prostitute--a very abusive and sexualized situation. The reason why I bring up sexuality is that Freddy, even in these issues, makes many sexual comments to his victims. It also was suggested that he loved his murdered victims (who were children).
I think this story was unique in a way. It didn't follow the same plotline of one of the movies as the remake did, but rather added another character around movie 3 or 4 (probably) without bringing mention of those children.

[Zachary Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

As far as comic books based on movies go, this offering is fairly strong. It follows the rules and tone of the Nightmare series accurately and the black and white art is great. You get a better glimpse at Freddy Krueger's background when he was still alive and it fits in perfectly with what was presented in the movies up to that point. With a few minor changes it could have worked as the template for an actual Nightmare on Elm Street film. It's just too bad issue two is so expensive and hard to find. Bonus points for having Dwayne McDuffie as an editor.

[The Smoog · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent story with great artwork. As a whole, it really manages to catch the vibe of the films, I was really pleasantly surprised with how good this actually was. As someone who was raised on these films, I went in thinking I was going to be disappointed (that seems to be the case all too often with movie-inspired comics), but boy was I wrong.

[Sam Nicholson · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10

[Jacob Shelton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like if this had been in color I wouldn't have been tempted to sell it as a used copy of the New York Times

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yup, classic horror

[Rose 'I Have Too Many Books To Read And No More Room' Barrientos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought this was pretty good, wish there was more. Especially after that ending.

[Shreks Cumdump · Rating 3 out of 5]

feels a bit hard inspired by the dream warriors movie but nonetheless the kids were scary drawn and the Art itself was good. sadly it ended too abrupt

[Shea Chen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent work that was canceled.

[Omar Gómez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Freddy Krueger's A Nightmare on Elm Street Vol 1 #1-2, escritor Steve Gerber, calificación 3.5/5 estrellas.

En mi segunda lectura, este es un trabajo en blanco y negro, un comic Inconcluso.

Dr. Julian Quinn y Allison Hayes son hijas de los padres que quemaron a Freddy Krueger. Julian y Allison se encuentran en Westin Hills, son como Nancy Thompson y Kristen Parker.

Julian investiga a Freddy, conoce sobre Amanda Krueger y su Violaciones por los dementes por tres días, Freddy fue dado en adopción y sus padres adoptivos fueron asesinados por ladrones.

Los ladrones a Freddy lo vendieron a una prostituta y freddy la mata a ella y a otro sujeto ya que lo maltrataron, crece en las calles y empieza sus asesinatos.

En el siguiente número y último, menciona Jools que usara el Hypnocil, Alisson cuenta que en The Dreamland ella se perdió y en un bar encontró a Freddy y ese demonio se obsesiono con ella, Freddy la desea a Allison, después de defenderse de Freddy, Allison se la llevan para sedarla en el final de la historia.