Written and Illustrated by Kyle Starks
Color by Vlad Popov
Published by Image Comics
This book had me right when I heard the title.
What a title! Good lord, could there ever be a better title on God’s green earth? I don’t think so! I was jumping for joy when I read that and my enthusiasm for this book only grew as I started finding out more details about it.
Then, I saw that it was written and illustrated by one of my favorite creators, Mr. Kyle Starks. Starks is the mastermind behind Sexcastle, a book I read and vowed to pick up everything this guy does. He is a creative tour de force, and his writing is spectacular, and I love his artwork as well.
Whether he is drawing Karate Prom or Kill Them All, there is something attractive about his artwork, almost like an old EC artist combined with a cartoon sensibility.
I just love his stuff and am always impressed and happy when he has a new book out.
The book is about a wrestler named Sterling Steele who is very much a Kyle Starks character. He is one of the biggest stars for the wrestling company that he wrestles for.
But all is not well with Steele. He is about to jump ship to another wrestling company. They are promising him more in the way of royalties and respect, and that means more money for him. They also promise to push him as a wrestler more than the gang that he is presently with.
All of this sounds great to Steele, so he is about to make that leap. But, in the background, something more sinister is happening that Steele just happens to be completely unaware of.
Apparently this moron of a promoter named Buddy Hansen gets wind of Steele’s forthcoming defection. Being the villain that he is, he decides to formulate a plan. He decides to form a plan with the current champion who’s name is Guy Grudges (ha! The names!) to do something terrible to Steele.
He gets him to break Steele’s neck in his final match with his present company. This, in effect, kills Steele’s contract with the other company as well as his career. Needless to say, Steel is none too happy with the predicament he suddenly finds himself in. He is not prepared to take all of this lying down either. He decides to do something about it.
Steele tracks down a bunch of other wrestlers that have been screwed over by Hansen in similar ways. The people Steele assembles a motley crew of characters. My favorite is Gravedigger, who is a wrestler who is now half blind and has done jail time before. There is also El Ocha Bola who is a luchador and his son El Hijo de Ocho Bola. The pair of them have a lot of problems and they have their own demons to contend with.
All of them have one thing in common. They want to get back at Buddy Hansen and they want to hit him where it hurts. And that is exactly what they set out to do.
The characters in this book are all some form of idiot or another. And that’s really what makes them so endearing. Some of them make some REALLY bad choices. But that’s really the charm here. There is a theme that resonates in all of the work that basically shows a bunch of losers going against the “winners” of the world.
There is a little bit of David and Goliath happening in a lot of his stories and I really love it. It really is endearing and it gives the books he works on a lot of heart. It certainly does that here.
Kyle Starks has books that go places that you don’t expect them to go. The endings of his books don’t end like you might expect to. That is certainly the case here. There is something almost sublime here about that and I just love the way that he concludes the book. This is a great story and a great comic and I loved every second of it. I will definitely reread it again and will be picking up anything Stark touches. He is one of the best modern creators out there.
RATING: A
