Kill My Boyfriend #1 is a comic written by Anas Abdulhak with art by Tench. A couple faces tension in their relationship when a promotion is on the line. This is a relationship-focused comic with elements of betrayal and revenge. The leading lady for this story is Kim, a focused and proficient writer who works at the same company as her boyfriend Ethan. Ethan is also a writer and both he and Kim live together. The story kicks off when a new position is available at the company and this couple finds themselves going head-to-head. There are themes of heartbreak and vengenance with a good portion of this comic having an uneasy and mysterious atmosphere. The action here gets very bloody with no gore. The pacing is steady and builds towards the bigger moments. The tone goes from normal to serious gradually with intensity spikes throughout. The dialogue is mostly spoken aloud but a small chunk of it is Kim’s thoughts. No word-heavy pages here. This is a debut comic that establishes characters and relationships while providing us with an intriguing plot that you’ll want to see develop.

            The art here almost looks like a highly detailed version of animation sketches with a focus on lighting and shading. The colors here are realistic with a good range overall. Aside from the opening shot which shows a body of water there isn’t much scenery here. The two primary locations for this story are the office where Kim and Ethan work and their apartment. Their place of work has all the trappings of a modern business with large screens and an open concept. The backgrounds usually have elements of the scene in them but sometimes they get gradient and bubbly. The expression level here is high as the words are assisted beautifully by the looks the characters give. The range is very wide as the emotions are all over the place in this comic. The faces are very detailed down to the eyebrows, lips, and eyes so every look comes across clearly. The violence here is very bloody and the action flows well.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like stories about a woman attempting to progress in her career while in a relationship with drama, betrayal, and revenge then this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Violence.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Yeah…I guess you could be good at it.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dennismenheere/kill-my-boyfriend-1-a-whodunit-revenge-comic/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 23

Violent Pages: 2, for 9% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 2

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 3

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 2

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 1

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”