Tap or Die #4 is a comic written by Anthony Stokes with art by Emilio Utrera. Domino’s Aunt Tia shows him parts of his and her past in an attempt to show her perspective. This is a wrestling drama comic that can get a bit deep while showing brutal fights and family issues. The main man here is Domino, he is a 23-year-old wrestler with anger problems and he’s on the warpath after being deceived, beaten and injured. He’s won his first comeback fight against Pride but he still has his eyes set on a rematch against Randy Real Deal. Iris is a good wrestler as well and she is pretty much Domino’s girlfriend at this point. Tia is a former women’s champion who used to train Domino. This story begins in the ring where Tia and Domino are facing off/arguing with Iris being the only person in attendance. After asking Iris if she knows what happened to Domino’s mom she turns the screens and a video starts to play that shows a child Domino by his sick mother’s bedside. The violence here is wrestling-based with a little bit of blood but nothing gory. This moves at a steady pace and it has the tone of a flashback montage with live commentary from the people in it. This is very dramatically and violently intense. The dialogue is very aggressive with yelling, insults, and threats. There aren’t any word-heavy pages here. This is an intriguing sequel issue that gives us a full look at Domino and Tia’s backstory and shows us why they are the way that they are.

            The art here is a drawn in a smoothly detailed almost manga-like cartoonish style with heavy lighting and shading. This is in black-and-white and it utilizes different, sometimes classic, patterns like fuzziness. There isn’t really any natural scenery here as this takes place on city streets and inside buildings. The main location is a mostly empty arena with a wrestling ring at its center but the flashbacks are all over the place from bedrooms and the gym to hospitals and funeral homes. Backgrounds here do a good job of showing the actual surroundings but on occasion it’ll be a color gradient or something patterned. The expression level here is very high as these characters react strongly to just about everything. Most of the emotions shown are aggressive with anger, rage, and fury with sadness, regret, and some fear. The faces here have a good level of detail with strong eyes and mouths with occasional animatedness that leads to most looks coming across clearly. A lot of the violence is physical and brutal with hands and feet being the main weapons; there is some blood but nothing gruesome of gory. Action scenes usually come in 1-3 page bursts but they are frequent and usually have a non-confusing flow and a variety of angles and perspectives. Some of these characters wear tight and revealing clothes, like the average pro wrestler.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like wrestling dramas with a main cast of Black characters that features brutal brawling and family problems then this is for you.

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

R. Violence, blood, nudity, sexual scenes.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“She could’ve put a better fight if she had the money.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/decay/tap-or-die-1-4-a-brutal-wrestling-comic/description

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

*
*
*
*
*

Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 26

Violent Pages: 10, for 39% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 3, for 12% of the comic

 

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

 

Violence Level – 3

“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 – 2

“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 – 4

“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.”