IMAGE COMICS – @ImageComics
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
STORY: Rodney Barnes
ART: Jason Shawn Alexander
COLORS: Luis Nct
LETTERS: Marshal1 Dillon
LOGO/GRAPHIC DESIGN: Brent Ashe
EDITOR: Greg Tumbarello
COVER: Jason Shawn Alexander
VARIANT COVER ARTIST: Matteo Scalera
28pp, Colors, 3.99 U.S.(January 2020)
Rated “M/ Mature”
“Sins of the Father” Part III: “Abaddon”
Killadelphia is a new comic book series from writer Rodney Barnes and artist Jason Shawn Alexander (Empty Zone). The series focuses on a police officer who falls into a lurid mystery, one which reveals that the corrupt, but historical city of Philadelphia is vampire-ridden. Colorist Luis Nct and letterer Marshall Dillon complete Killadelphia's creative team.
James “Jim” Sangster, Jr. is a Baltimore Police Department beat cop who comes home to deal with the final affairs of his recently murdered father, revered Philadelphia homicide detective, James Sangster, Sr. Jimmy hated his father, who is not dead, but is of the undead. Now, they're working together to stop an apocalypse – son and vampire dad!
Killadelphia #3 (“Abaddon”) finds the Sangster boys and Jose Padilla, the chief medical examiner, cleansing the city morgue of its cadavers-turned-vampires. This team-up, however, does not hide the estrangement between Jim, Sr. and Jim, Jr., and Padilla's honeyed words of peace and calmness may not change that.
Meanwhile, John Adams... the second President of the United States and the “Vampire King,” ruminates on his history. He remembers how he came to be what he is and thinks on the evolution of his plans to build a society not defined by money, race, and class. But what happens when you use the same old flawed ideas to build something new... or when your partners decide to go their own way?
Killadelphia #3 remains a thrilling, ass-kicking vampire comic book series, but I like that writer Rodney Barnes turns the narrative inward, as the two fathers, Jim, Sr. and John Adams, are forced to reap what they sow – at least, mentally and philosophically. I like the haves/have-nots dynamic that plays itself out in who gets turned into a vampire and who does the turning. However, I like what I see as Barnes' consideration of the costs people pay because of the hubris and the narcissism of powerful men.
Back in the 1980s, the peak work of comic book artist and illustrator, Bill Sienkiewicz, was some of the best, if not the best painted comic book art. Many of Sienkiewicz's individual pages looked like individual paintings, while still propelling the narrative and also being graphical storytelling.
Jason Shawn Alexander, especially in Killadelphia #3, presents some pages that are like stand-along paintings, each with its own message, while being part of the larger narrative. That would be story-pages 14-15, 19, and 22. Luis Nct's coloring remains electric and alive – like something bad come alive. Marshall Dillon letters rhythmically, creating a melody of blood and history and of sex and death.
In my review of Killadelphia #2, I wrote that if Killadelphia #3 was as good as the first two issues, I would begin to suspect that there was something supernatural about this comic book's creative team. So...
10 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.
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