Butch Killigan Volume 1 is a comic with story and art by Sven Stoffels. A police detective is on a mission to break up a shady handoff but the situation takes a turn. This is a futuristic sci-fi comic with that 1980’s cop movie vibe. The main man for this tale is Butch Killigan, a detective who is a bit of a loose cannon and enjoys fighting and beer. His partner is Poncho, a more levelheaded man who thinks before he acts. Throughout this tale we’ll meet criminals, colleagues, and mysterious beings. The story begins with Butch and Poncho on patrol when they get a call about something going down. While the first half of this is a police drama the latter half is much more trippy. This takes place in Ultra City where things are more high-tech than they are now, but it isn’t too far ahead where these advances are unimaginable. The action here is extremely gory and bloody with the violence coming in a number of ways. The pacing varies but it is overall faster than normal as there are plenty of pages with little to no words. The tone starts off equal parts comedic and intense before becoming seriously unbalanced with some horror. The dialogue is very aggressive with cop talk and mid-combat quips. No wordy pages but some text bubbles are thick. This is the first volume for a story that will both reel you in and keep you on your toes as you try to figure out what exactly is transpiring.
The art here is cartoonish and looks like something you’d see animated on Cartoon Network. This is black-and-white so the smaller details stand out more. The vibe the art gives off is a gritty and tough, which is a bit reminiscent of movies like Robocop. This takes place in the inner city and near a port so the scenery is buildings and shipping containers. The main location for this comic is Butch’s car or different areas of the port from the warehouse to the cranes. The backgrounds are usually full of action lines or are just solid colors. The expression level here is high as all the looks come across clearly thanks to the art style. The range seems to be as wide as possible as we have a varied number of situations and the emotions that come with. The faces have a good amount of detail so whatever these characters are feeling will easily be seen. The violence here gets gory as you will see insides on the outside alongside plenty of blood. The action here hits hard and has good flow so you shouldn’t get lost in the scenes.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes.
“Would I like this?”
If you like police dramas starring loose cannons with plenty of violence gore and taking place in the future with an air of mystery and some mind-bending situations then this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Violence, blood, gore.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“Hope you like the taste of lead, loser!”
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/butchkilligan/butch-killigan/description
Indiegogo Link: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/butch-killigan-volume-1/x/26236710#/
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 104
Violent Pages: 24, for 23% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 2, for 2% of the comic
**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**
Violence Level – 4
“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 – 5
“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 – 3
“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 – 2
“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.”
