The AFTERSHOCK Advisor: KILLER GROOVE Reviewed

KILLER GROOVE #1-5 (Aftershock Comics, 2019) Writer: Ollie Masters. Artist: Eoin Marron. Colorist: Jordie Bellaire. Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.  

Summary from the Aftershock webpage . . . .

 THE HITS JUST KEEP ON COMING.

In 1970s Los Angeles, Jonny is one of the thousands of musicians trying to make it big while working a crummy bar job, and getting drunk with his whiskey soaked P.I. friend, Jackie. When Jonny gets tangled up with a local mob hitman, he not only finds a new and violent career, but maybe the inspiration for his music as well.

 

From Ollie Masters (The Kitchen, Snow Blind) and Eoin Marron (HER INFERNAL DESCENT, Army of Darkness, James Bond) comes the next rock’n’roll crime sensation, with a beat that’ll kill you dead.

Matt Lowder's FOUR-STAR (out of FIVE) Review from Run The Comics 5K's Facebook page . . .

This was a delight. If Quentin Tarantino was much less verbose, he might pen a plot like this. If you like Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, or the 1970s, there's something here for you in this crime drama about drugs, dive bars, music, adversity, resilience, and of course a teaspoon of cynicism.

Writer Ollie Masters does a lot in five issues, capturing a mature look of 1970s Los Angeles. He includes several diverse perspectives, fleshing out characters as much as he could in just five installments. I'd love another five. 

We have a woman private investigator, Jackie, that was once a service member; a down-on-his-luck guitar player who gets sucked into thuggery, Johnny; a muscle-for-hire without a moral compass, Ignacius; a little girl looking for a missing father, Lucy; and an older Cuban man who is also uncle of the private investigator, Raul. Interwoven pretty flawlessly, with masterful first issue set-ups. These characters slip and slide and connect, altering the plot's trajectory organically and never clumsily.

The cultural pros and cons of the '70s are explored in the background and the forefront: hippies, Chavez, War, cutting records, the clothing and colloquialisms. It sounds like an overstuffed sausage, but the writer touches on things just enough to paint the corners of the canvas. Color is earthy with subtle textures adding to quality, angular art. Some faces are a bit janky or peculiar.

There was definitely a vision here and plan for five balanced issues, and I think it deserves at least one read. It has some great notes and tempos -- like a good song. I think it could make an even better screenplay. This is how you build on stereotypes of a genre and offer something interesting and slightly skewed. FOUR out of a possible FIVE STARS.