From Multiple Warheads, I don’t yet know.
But I cracked the cover of Brandon Graham‘s King City graphic novel a few nights ago and was immediately sucked into a world of complex weirdness and intrigue and solid, interesting characters, and all of it drawn in a distinct graffiti-influenced style that made me consider the results of Vaughn Bodé‘s ghost possessing Paul Pope for a few years.
Backtrack: It was local man-of-many-hats Shannon McCormick who first hipped me to King City about a year ago, with just a couple of the floppy-comic issues. And I’d been thinking about it and thinking about it for months. Finally decided, okay, I really want to know more about the world (and the narrative) this guy’s created, about cat-wielding martial artists and Korean zombie wars and a drug that turns people slowly to chalk, and I want to see more of the artist’s smooooooth draftsmanship and weirdly punning minutiae … so I’ll just stop in at Austin Books & Comics and buy the collected volume.
But good shit is always happening at Austin Books, and so, as I handed over my credit card for budget-denting, ABC store manager Brandon Zuern – ah, so many Brandons! – Zuern mentioned that B. Graham would be in-store on Thursday night to promote his new Image title Multiple Warheads.
Ah, fate.
Yes, goddamnit: The very same fate that insists on having Chris Ware and Charles Burns
appearing across town at BookPeople on the very same night.
Austin, my beloved city – you’re killing me, here:
This article appears in October 19 • 2012.