6 Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton #1

6 Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton #1

Skybound Entertainment/Image Comics 2021

Written by Kyle Starks

Illustrated by Chris Schweizer

Colour Assists by Liz Trice Schweizer

The world's most unlikable action star has been found dead, and his previous TV sidekicks are looking to solve the mystery. But how can you catch a murderer when almost everyone hated the victim? Now these sidekicks are going to learn what it means to be the stars of the show…that is, if any of them survive the STUNTMAN WAR!

I had no idea what to expect from this before I read it so when I read this I fell in love with it and probably for all the wrong reasons. Then again knowing Kyle for all the right reasons heh. I hadn't thought of sidekicks as being superhero style but lo and behold what they are is a far cry different. I think what this is and what its about I find absolutely bloody brilliant. How we are introduced to the story and the characters is perfectly done and it just makes perfect sense in every way. Kyle is a very talented and sometimes underrated writer but one read through of this and you realise the man is kind of a mad genius.

I really like the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development we see is phenomenal as seen through the dialogue, character interactions and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter. Never have we see this like we do when all the sidekicks meet up. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages introducing us to these characters, the story and this world we’re immediately captivated by what’s being presented.

I like how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge and grow. It is in these layers where the all the good bits come to life as the introductions to which sidekick they are and how they all feel about Trigger and each other. These tie into the main arc beautifully and go to show just how important the layering of the story truly is. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is so magnificently achieved.

The interiors here are rather interesting. The artistic style here isn’t quite what I was expecting to see and it’s a bit more on the indie, indie side of how comes across. The linework is is pretty much one weight for everything we see and yet the detail work remains consistent throughout the book. When we see Marshall Art and he’s got a fighting pose he looks like a wooden doll. The style of the work is just odd like a cartoon Thunderbirds Are Go. I am impressed that we do get backgrounds as prevalent as we do and how they provide depth perception, a sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a strong eye for storytelling. The colour work is also well done. The use of colour blocking here is phenomenal and how the colour is packed in tight like a tattoo’s saturation works here.

While it may not be exactly what I was expecting but that is never a bad thing because what we get is a tour-de-farce of pure comedic gold. There is very little here that doesn’t work so amazingly well together in terms of the writing and interiors that it brings us this great introduction to what appears to be one of the more outrageously fun books you will read.