King: The Graphic Novel
Joshua Hale Fialkov, illustrated by Bernard Chang and Marcelo Maiolo
Jet City Comics
Fiction, Fantasy/Graphic Novel/Humor/Sci-Fi
Themes: Cross-Genre, Diversity, Dystopias, Ghosts and Spirits, Post-Apocalypse, Robots, Weirdness
****
Description
Generations after the apocalypse devastated the planet, birthed monsters, unleashed magical entities, and drove humanity to essential extinction... the Los Angeles
commute still sucks. King, the last human male alive, fights his way through squid-possessed gods and hybrid beast biker gangs to his job at the local police precinct,
or what passes for the police in this insane new world. His assignment: seek the Life Seed, the legendary force that will supposedly heal Earth. King doesn't even know
if such a thing exists - this isn't the first reported "life seed" he's been sent to fetch - but a job's a job, and beer doesn't buy itself even in the post-apocalyptic
future. This time, he may have found the real deal... though whether he or the Life Seed will survive a deadly gauntlet of fanatical robots, elder-god-possessed
coworkers, sapient plants, and King's own sister remains to be seen.
This is going to be the worst Monday of his life.
Review
Another impulse read from Amazon's Prime Reading, King is a quirky, sometimes surreal graphic novel, full of action, explosions, and twisted humor. King's a jaded protagonist just trying to get by in a world that's constantly trying to kill him; even his own sister has become an enemy, despite them being the last two pure humans on the planet. His Monday turns out to be even worse than usual, with everyone even more determined to do him in. The tale moves quickly, and the art was mostly easy to follow, with a colorful cast and several moments that nearly had me laughing out loud, even with the dark streak and frequent violence. It made a nice change of pace. I'd likely read more adventures in this world if they appear, though so far it's not a series.
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