Welcome to Small Press Sunday, a spotlight on the books, artists, and publishers that make up that “other” section of the comic book world. Whether the work is independently published, self published, amateur, professional, or even distributed through mainstream channels is irrelevant, we’re not here to split hairs over interchangeably used terms, we’re here to talk some comics!
This week the spotlight is on Killer of Men. The title comes to us from New Kingdom Entertainment, and boasts quite the collaborative cast of creators, including a special cover from Tim Bradstreet. Bradstreet’s always good for a quality cover on a down and dirty type character, and for a time basically defined how I thought of The Punisher. I especially loved his Jennifer Blood work, and the Wolverine: Flies to a Spider cover. Anyway, we’re here for Killer of Men, which promises us this story:
Abriam is a former soldier turned hitman. His next target: a crooked casino boss. Unfortunately the FBI, mobsters, rival hitmen, a waitress, a rubber-suited drug kingpin and the city of Las Vegas stand in his way.
If you don’t want to put too fine a point on it, that about sums it up, but allow me to add some insight. Abriam’s story is a classic case of “killer develops a conscience.” One day he shocked even himself with how far he was willing to go, and ever since he’s only taken jobs that allow him to be a killer of killers – he wants to act as a vigilante of sorts. It’s the same kind of story they’re doing in Black Widow right now, but the comparison that really kept running through the back of my mind was to The Boondock Saints. Much like Il Duce he has “a thing for clippin’ wise guys,” and is even hired by mobsters to take out their own. Over the course of nearly 100 blood soaked pages, he kills his way to his target, and the cast of characters grows. They never take their eyes off the prize for too long though, and the interludes that introduce us to and deepen the history of new characters are compellingly woven into the story.
Why you’ll like it: They don’t try to dress Abriam up or make him overly sympathetic, in fact they preserve the tone by doing the opposite. There aren’t many, if any, “good” characters. Hell, even the humor in this is angry and dirty. Visually the art is right up there with other books I’ve seen on the store shelf, and serves the story well. When everyone and everything finally does come together in the end, there are some of the typical twists and turns, but the no frills, straight shooting attitude keeps it from coming off as convoluted. If you’re interested, Killer of Men recently hit the digital marketplace.
Also, I love video previews!
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looks pretty incredible. i love bradstreet, so that would certainly get me to pick it up alone.
Looking forward to checking this one out!
Perfect descriptive review of this book. A very good balance in the book art and story.
where can i get a copy