Killadelphia #1 // Review
The cover of Image Comics Killadelphia and its ingenious use of negative light with evil red eyes peering out at a man in the dark in noticeable terror, pistol in one hand, shovel in the other certainly grabs your attention. Then you recognize the talents of "American Gods" and "Marvel's Runaways" writer Rodney Barnes for their new series, and it piques your interest even more. Then you learn they also enlisted the artistic direction of Spawn series artist Jason Shawn Alexander with colors by Luis NCT, and the ensuing product seems like a can't miss sent straight down from the comic gods.
The first installment of the series Sins of the Father starts off strong and introduces James Sangster Jr., a young Baltimore police officer that hates his father and has a career that's going nowhere fast. Nevertheless, he's doing his best to make his own mark in the world. To get out from under the shadow of his father, Philadelphia detective James Sangster Sr. From the beginning, you can surmise that James is resentful of his father and views his funeral as more of an obligation than a sentimental affair. He wants to bury the man and get back to being a no-name beat cop. When James Jr returns to Philadelphia to bury his father after he is killed in the line of duty, the younger Sangster finds his father's old journal, and upon reading it, he assumes that his father has lost his mind. James Sr was investigating a series of missing persons around Philadelphia that have all the hallmarks of vampires, and it seems to have led to his untimely demise. The elder Sangster discovered that the city of Philadelphia was previously stricken by yellow fever, which in a bizarre twist, lays the backdrop for the crux of the vampire element of Killadelphia. As the younger Sangster gets deeper into his father's journal and does some investigating of his own, he discovers that his father may have found what he was looking for, and it may have cost him his life. In Philadelphia, he makes a discovery that changes his mind about his father's sanity and leads him down a similar path while trying to avoid the same fate.
Rodney Barnes uses James Sr's flashbacks to give insight into some of the histories of the darker areas of Killadelphia like Hell Hall that have been allowed to languish and fall into abject deprivation, criminality, and corruption - maybe even a little vampirism. James Sr's flashbacks are bright and vivid compared to the younger Sangster's darker, shadowy more gritty world in the present. Barnes paced the two Sangster's stories very carefully throughout until their convergence in a mind-blowing reveal in the end. Shawn Alexander's art utilizes all of the light and shadows on each page, and those little intricacies draw the eye closer to get a better look. The distinct splashes of color used by Luis NCT complement Alexander's lines. Bringing a textured feel to the reds and browns used to articulate the decay and danger of Killadelphia. The dark blues and grays are used to imply the coldness of the inner city and the anxiety of a vampire den as they are revealed. Letterer Marshall Dillon deserves a nod, especially for his cursive presentation of James Sr's journal that also helps with the pace and tone for the story. Killadelphia was as promising an introduction as you'll find in comics today and comes out firing on all cylinders. It's dark, scary, and cynical, but it's also concise and well written.
The way the two Sangster's stories are run parallel until the inevitable convergence is a sign that Killadelphia is going to push the boundaries of the noir genre and urban vampire tales deeper. The flashbacks have a larger purpose in explaining the predicament of the current Philadelphia landscape that the younger Sangster finds himself in by revealing causation through the eyes of his Dad as he works through his missing person cases and the one that eventually causes his demise. Killadelphia is a very strong first effort that lays the groundwork for the future and develops the main characters, assisted by some gritty artwork that glues the story together, ending with a plot twist that leaves you on the edge of your seat waiting for the next page. It is indeed a gift from the comics gods to end a great year for Independent comics.
