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Killer Queens #2

Dark Horse Comics

By Steven LeitmanPublished 3 years ago 3 min read
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Killer Queens #2

Dark Horse Comics 2021

Created & Written by David M. Booher

Illustrated by Claudia Balboni

Coloured by Harry Saxon

Lettered by Lucas Gattoni

The Killer Queens face their greatest threat yet . . . deportation! After their ship is shot down on a hostile moon, reformed galactic assassins, Alex and Max, find themselves locked up in a high-security detention center by some very hostile and very xenophobic aliens. When they get help from a tough-as-nails—not to mention smoking hot—rebel prisoner, they'll fight their way through the deadly facility. Can they break out in time to complete their rescue mission or will Max screw it all up by fawning over his new rebel heartthrob?

This is kind of way over the top and it almost borders on stereotypes but it is so damn fun that it really doesn’t matter. Alex and her seriousness balances Max’s flamboyance perfectly so that they both work together sensationally well. Max is a horndog and all he thinks about is men and sex and it seems he’s not picky he’ll do anyone so long as he’s a he right and I hate to admit but in my 20’s I knew folks like this all too well. There’s a part of me that thinks Alex is a little jealous of his single mindedness though I’m probably wrong.

I am very much enjoying 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 that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter is marvellous in how it brings their personalities to the forefront. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story the more we become embroiled in the events.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen is marvellously shown. I like how the layers within the story open up new avenues to be explored and they do this here with the characterisation and what they are up against. The depth, dimension and complexity we see is magnificently rendered. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is nicely achieved.

There is something about the interiors that is utterly brilliant. It has this complete Archer vibe to the work, that after hours kind of animation that we all love and honestly it really just works brilliantly here. The linework is nice, clean, crisp and strong and how we see the varying weights being utilised to create the detail within the work is extremely nice to see. I do wish we’d see backgrounds utilised more but it doesn’t hurt the composition within the panels bringing out the depth perception, 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 talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a remarkable eye for how colour works. The overall effect really does remind you of the Archer series and it's amazingly well rendered not to mention expressive.

This is a lot more fun and interesting than I expected it to be. I love David’s work and his Canto is among my favourite series so I should’ve expected to love this off the bat but it’s so wildly different from that and I have to say the man can pretty much write anything at this point and I’ll blindly follow along. This is fun, sassy and interesting and full of balls to the wall storytelling and it’s a brilliant example of how words and visuals can work together in such sync to create this amazing series.

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About the Creator

Steven Leitman

Just me talking about the comics I enjoy reading, ones that you might not know exist and spotlighting the indie creators that excite me.

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