Kilroy Is Here #1 // Review
It was the early 1990s. Indie comics publisher Caliber Press had managed some commercial success with James O'Barrβs The Crow, which was destined to be turned into a big Hollywood movie. They published a promising anthology of debuts called Calibrations. There was a character in that anthology who has walked around the fringes of the indie racks since then. He makes a one-shot appearance this month in Image Comicsβ Kilroy Is Here #1. Writer Joe Pruett, artist Dalibor TalajiΔ and colorist Stjepan BartoliΔ give the gritty tale of an avenging angel a new angle in a potentially promising new direction.
Kilroy smells death. He follows the distinct scent of dead innocence. Thereβs a pair of dead in a darkened home. Written on the wall in blood: βKilroy Is Here.β Thatβs HIS calling card. Itβs what he writes in blood on the walls when he kills those who have killed the innocents. Now heβs face to face with someone who seems familiar. It turns out that the individual in question...the individual who had killed the pair is also immortal. He has a proposition for Kilroy. Things are about to change for the angel who walks in two worlds. Things are about to get very complicated for Kilroy.
It's nice to see the return to an old indie character from an era that is marked by darkness. The series had been running for quite some time. And though Pruett had worked on a few other things since he had created this character, Kilroy really was I don't one he had worked with most often. It's really the one he's known for. The power of the concept of immortality in a world of immortals and contemporary society continues to be really appealing. The particular twists on the old premise that Pruett works with in the latest one-shot seem interesting enough that they could theoretically turn into something completely new.
The Croatian team of TalajiΔ and BartoliΔ do a very good job of recreating the overall visual feel Earthbound indie comics supernatural horror in the early 1990s. This isn't some big, Gerrish, Todd McFarlane splatter fest. There's real mood and tone to it that feels very powerful and dramatically resonant. Of heavy shadows of TalajiΔβs work allows, just enough area between the ink to provide BartoliΔ room to add moody luminosity and depth to the page. Get all fuels so very pleasantly retro and it's approach.
It's all so very familiar. Answer current comic book but looking at the visuals it's easy to feel nostalgic. I lean your head back just right and squint a little and you might sense the smell of fresh printers Inc. on cheap news print from Caliber Press in all those old issues of Negative Burn that ran through the heart of the 1990s. It's been a long time for him, but it would be really nice to see this sort of thing return. Certainly the character of.Kilroy carries more than enough appeal to be granted another long run..this time with Image.
