Kick is a comic written by Jeff Leeds with pencils and inks by Eric Clinton Anderson and colors by Derek Dow. A track star that is sick of coming in second debates taking something to give himself an edge. This is a dramatic sports comic with science elements and a theme of honesty. The main man for this story is Pierce, he is a high school senior that runs track and he has a rivalry with Chip Stanfield, a runner he has been unable to beat. The story begins with Pierce waxing poetic about running before talking on how he’s been watching Chip train in an effort to surpass him. It is this urge to win that leads to him looking up the new speed-enhancing supplement Vruum. There is barely violence here. The pacing for this is steady and the tone is like that of a sports TV show. There are a few intense moments due to anger and drama. The dialogue is split between narration of Pierce’s thoughts and out loud conversations. There are no word-heavy pages here. This is a comic about the conflict of using morally wrong methods to get something you believe you rightly deserve.

            The art here is detailed with a style that is reminiscent of comics from a bygone era but smoother and cleaner. The color range here is realistic and has an overall medium to low tone. Due to this taking place at a school and on a track there is plenty of grass and some trees on display. This story moves around frequently from the aforementioned track and school to locker rooms, a pizza place, and even a football game. They usually show the surroundings of these areas in the background but when they don’t it is usually black. The expression level here is a tick above-average as these characters usually show their feelings. The main emotion is determination with some smugness and anger as well. The faces are decent on detail but do a good job at conveying the different feelings. There are sports-related action scenes that flow well and the one violent moment is physical.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like sports drama stories about a high schooler running track then this is for you.

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

PG-13. Drug use.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Better safe than sorry. Pure and simple.”

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

*
*
*
*
*

Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 18

Violent Pages: 1, for 5% 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 – 1

“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 – 1

“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 – 1

“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.”