By Zack Quaintance — Kill a Man is an original graphic novel coming this year from AfterShock Comics, which has done a really underrated job of releasing complete comics stories like this one since its launch a few years back. Indeed, AfterShock has perhaps been at its best when releasing graphic novels and novellas, be it the excellent Garth Ennis/Keith Burns air warfare story Out of the Blue or the very scary and personal The Replacer by Zac Thompson and Arjuna Susini. They don’t seem to get much credit for it, but AfterShock has done a great job with these contained books.

Kill a Man is a great addition to their growing repertoire of graphic novels, as good if not better than anything the publisher has put out to date. Kill a Man is written by the team of Steve Orlando and Phillp Kennedy Johnson, with art by Al Morgan, and lettering by Jim Campbell. It’s an ultimate fighting story, or rather, a story of ultimate fights, if that distinction makes sense. Ultimate fighting is what gives this story a structure and an easy access to kinetic action sequences. It’s definitely necessary to the story, but it’s not foundational to it. This could, in fact, be a book set within a number of several other sports, especially combat sports like boxing or kickboxing. It could even function well in the worlds of football or basketball. Essentially, Kill A Man works as long as its given a sport (or potentially another environment) rife with machismo where being outdated as a gay man would be alienating.

That’s the other major ingredient in this book’s plot. It’s a story of a child whose father is killed in the ring after hurtling slurs at a gay fighter. This kid grows up, becomes a mixed martial artist himself of relatively high profile, and then is outed by an opponent on a very public international stage. So, that’s the two intersecting plotlines here: mixed martial arts and LGBTQ issues, specifically those that exist within violent areas long dominated by traditional notions of masculinity. 

With all of that, there are two really strong qualities to Kill A Man, and the creative team establishes both early. The most striking facet of this book is the artwork, which is drawn and colored by Al Morgan. Morgan uses a minimalist aesthetic, making ample use of dark spaces to keep the action and primary visuals as the vocal point of every panel. Morgan colors himself in this book, and almost every page gets its own palette, ranging from red for fight scenes to an anticipatory purple for before fights to shades of gray for funerals. Morgan does it all throughout Kill a Man, and it works fantastically.

That’s not to say Morgan strays away from precise linework in this comic. No, not at all. The linework on the characters — especially those as they fight or grapple — is clean and powerful, incredibly well-done. Morgan is a powerful artist with what reads like a preternatural command of space and focus. He uses it well throughout, making Kill A Man equal parts clear and fascinating, no easy feat. 

The other quality that really powers this book is the intense and powerful, almost Shakespearean drama the book relies on. This is the opposite of an overwrought or convoluted story. It’s one of those stories that reads as simple but powerful. Who are main character is is made clear, what he wants is made clear, and why that is a difficult and complex goal for him to pursue is equally clear. The end result is a book that reads like a pre-existing story from the ether that found its way to its creators, burning them until they eventually told it. 

Kill A Man is a powerful story told by creators with a strong handle on craft, made compelling in equal parts by its striking visuals and Shakespearean drama. I highly recommend this one to all readers.

Kill a Man OGN
Writers: Steve Orlando & Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Artist: Al Morgan
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Publisher: AfterShock Comics
Price: $17.99
As a child, James Bellyi watched his father die in the ring as payback for slurs thrown at the other fighter. Today, he's a Mixed Martial Arts star at the top of his game, and one of the most popular fighters in the world...until he's outed as gay in his title shot press con-ference. Abandoned overnight by his training camp, his endorsements, his fans and his sport, to regain his title shot Bellyi is forced to turn to the last person he ever wants to see again: Xavier Mayne, a gay, once-great fighter in his own right...and the man James once watched kill his father.
Release Date: Oct. 7, 2020

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.