ADVANCED REVIEW: Blood Paves a Yellow Brick Road in Kill Your Darlings #1 (Spoiler-Free)

Summarizing the sullen beauty of Kill Your Darlings #1 in just a couple of words or even phrases is a challenging task. The book itself is impressive, incredibly engaging, atmospheric, and subversive in all the right ways. However, this wouldn’t adequately capture the complexity of how this story feels to read. Rain-soaked, human, and crushing, this comic is one of the few melancholic works that managed to escape the pervasive sanitization of mainstream media in the modern day and become something more than mere ‘content’. In its rawest sense, this opening salvo is a work of comic art that blends fantasy, horror, and humanity, gripping the reader and not letting go until the very end.

                                                          Variant Cover by Ryan Stegman

There isn’t an easy way to dilute and specify what exactly makes this such a good comic at a technical level, which in itself is one of the greatest compliments a comic can ever receive. The art, lettering, dialogue, and plotting are indivisible from one another.

It almost feels like this book was crafted by a one-person army, meticulously built and then placed onto the page in a way that flows naturally, making the most of its 32 pages of excellence. Every panel, every beat, and every piece of dialogue matters, with images that create both impact and atmosphere. It exudes craft, competence, and creativity with every page turn.

Regarding its genre and tropes, Kill Your Darlings is rooted more in human drama and horror than in fantasy. However, its unique brand of fantasy is unlike anything else on the current spinner rack. Continuing the KLC Press tradition, it blends genres constructively to directly serve the book’s characters.

Rose and her supporting cast are incredibly compelling and likable, thanks to the way Parker & Sheridan have paced their dialogue and plotting. An air of melancholic mystery infuses every scene of this issue, building gradually until the book’s cliffhanger, where it explodes like a powder keg. The issue doesn’t solely depend on mystery to captivate readers. Rose, her mother, and their relationship do the majority of the heavy lifting as the team commits to a fly-on-the-wall, character-driven presentation for their narrative.

Keeping this review spoiler-free has been extremely difficult, so do yourself a favor and pre-order or pull this issue with your local comic shop before September 6th, 2023.