#IReadsYou Review: KILLADELPHIA #5

KILLADELPHIA #5
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 ARTISTS: Neal Adams and Zeea Adams; Inhyuk Lee
28pp, Colors, 3.99 U.S.(March 2020)

Rated “M/ Mature”

“Sins of the Father” Part V: “The Sun Will Rise”

Killadelphia is a new comic book series from writer Rodney Barnes and artist Jason Shawn Alexander.  The series focuses on a police officer caught in a lurid conspiracy, and its mastermind is the second president of the United States.  John Adams is a vampire, and he has made the corrupt, but historical city of Philadelphia 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, son, vampire dad, the chief medical examiner (Jose Padilla), and a rebellious vampire (Tevin “See Saw” Thompkins) are working to save “the City of Brotherly Love” from a vampire apocalypse.

Killadelphia #5 (“The Sun Will Rise”) opens on the morning after the night of revolution.  Now, Mayor Gaskins and Lieutenant Zimmerman of the police department are in a state of denial, but Zimmerman will soon get the proof he needs in order to believe... in the unbelievable.  Meanwhile, a gospel and a history lesson (sort of) from See Saw.

I believe that each society, even humanity as a whole, will get the apocalypse it deserves and it earns.  “You reap what you sow” ends up being more than just wisdom and being words from a religious text.  Were America to fall in a vampire, zombie, and monster-driven apocalypse, the nation would finally be harvesting its fated bumper crop, the bountiful yield of its plantation state.

The thing about Rodney Barnes' writing in Killadelphia is that it seems less like fantasy or even speculative fiction, for that matter.  It seems like a beautifully composed point of view of an actual reality.  And when he isn't writing killer dialogue, Barnes fills exposition boxes with poetry, which makes the violence and bloody righteousness such a beautiful thing.

Artist Jason Shawn Alexander and colorist Luis Nct produce rich and lavish storytelling.  They are not simply creating pretty comic book art; they are telling a story with passion and poetry.  Still, the pages are resplendent, each a story all its own.  Meanwhile, Marshall Dillon acts as a quiet stenographer, lettering this gorgeous vampire tale with the resoluteness of a reporter chronicling the end of city where liberty was born lying.

Killadelphia #5 is another great entry in a killin'-it comic book series.

[This issue contains bonus art by Jason Shawn Alexander.]

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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