A Nightmare On Elm Street (comics) - Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics

In 1989, Marvel Comics released Freddy Krueger's A Nightmare on Elm Street. The black and white comic book was published in a magazine-sized format. The first and last storyline was the two part "Dreamstalker" written by Steve Gerber with art by Rich Buckler. Other than the inclusion of the characters Amanda and Freddy Krueger and the fictional town of Springwood, Ohio, the story does not fit seamlessly into the continuity of the films and even contradicts the film continuity in several places. The series immediately proved to be Marvel's top selling black and white magazine, even outselling the long running Savage Sword of Conan magazine, but despite distributors soliciting the title through the fifth issue, Marvel quietly canceled the title after only two issues had been released. New stories had been written and submitted by Buzz Dixon and Peter David. Speculation arose that, despite Marvel clearly labeling the book as a mature readers title, Freddy Krueger's A Nightmare on Elm Street could have caused image problems for the publisher who generally catered to younger readers. In 1990, Steve Gerber told Reading For Pleasure that Marvel had canceled the book in anticipation of pressure from various anti-violence advocate groups that were actively protesting violent media in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In the October 6, 1989 issue of the Comics Buyer's Guide, Peter David claimed that, while he originally felt that the story he had submitted for the series was like nothing else that he had ever written, in retrospect, he was no longer happy with it and was somewhat glad that it had never been published.