Killchella #1
Mario Candelaria words
Serg Acuña art
Katherine Lobo colors
Matt Krotzer letters
From Scout Comics
Are your great times constantly being ruined due to try-hard slashers murdering your friends and loved ones? Make sure your doors are locked and peep the solicit:
A group of friends drive up from Los Angeles to attend an ultra-trendy music festival in the Coachella Valley desert. They soon face a bloody night of terror when a reclusive pop star making her big return after five years recruits her most fanatical devotees to assist in a massive human sacrifice ritual.
I’m a sucker for a great slasher, and it’s the season for slashing, baybee! Killchella releases at the perfect time and seasoned writer Mario Candelaria is doing an excellent job reminding people to pre-order and building up anticipation around this release.
Good news: Killchella is the slasher comic you need for a better Spooky Season! Candelaria writes an astounding, high-paced script with some brutal payoffs. It’s creepy, culty, and extremely bloody. All of these things make my cold, black heart grow like the Grinch’s on Christmas.
I’m also digging the characters. On the surface, these seem like extremely superficial people obsessed with selfie likes on Insta, but as the pages turn, they become a real group of friends excited to regain that closeness a lot of us lose as we get older. This is smart writing from Candelaria. Attachment is strengthened through nostalgia, and the tension ever-increases as the audience comes to realize no one is safe.
On top of great writing, the book is gorgeous. Serg Acuña is able to put real terror into the faces of these characters. The locales are welcoming, and what lurks in the shadows provides a looming, menacing threat. Speaking of threats, when the actual murdering goes down, it looks spectacular. There’s a particular panel in a public bathroom that chisels itself into the flesh of your eyelids, and I can’t wait to see what other horrors Acuña brings to the page.
All that gore wouldn’t hit as hard if the colors didn’t back it up, and luckily, Katherine Lobo never disappoints. There’s a great juxtaposition between the excited friends attending a music festival and the continuous slaughter surrounding them. Lobo keeps the panels bright and inviting, which works quite well when the slashing starts. I might just be a sick puppy, but I’m really digging how the art team makes sure we see everything.
Matt Krotzer letters all the madness marvelously . Screams and sound effects look great on the page, and there aren’t any bubbles to clog the frame when panels become soaked in blood.
I really dig this book. It’s a great premier issue, and I can’t wait to see the spooks this talented team brings for the following issues.
And now for some current Buzzenings…
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