Read it: Kill Audio

From the mind of Claudio Sanchez (Coheed and Cambria, The Amory Wars) and co-written by himself and Chondra Echert, Kill Audio takes readers on a tour of the World of Sight and Sound where the abstract is given form and one small, indestructible man must take up his role as the savior of all.

Where did he come from? What is his true destiny? Why can’t he die? We don’t know that yet.

What we do know is that issue one features loads of promise for a series that could become the next sleeper hit.

Kill Audio (the name of our regenerating hero) is on a quest to find the all-knowing Clockwork and discover his purpose in life. Self-admittedly borrowing from The Wizard of Oz, Audio befriends three bizarre misfits along the way including a coke-head rooster, an alcoholic skeleton in a beaver suit and a pillow. Yes, a pillow.

While issue one does a fine job of setting up this surreal world, the reader pretty quickly realizes an attitude of “just go with it” will serve best when traveling a land where an army of knives carrying knives hunts our hero, cement shoes can appear out of nowhere and musical references pop up on just about every page.

The characters are unique and fun and the world is wild and well realized.
The writing, too, is pretty dang good. Humorous, dark and edgy, Sanchez and Echert make a great team.

The art, though, is what really jumped out at me. Newcomer Sheldon Vella is quickly establishing himself as a creative force to be reckoned with. The back matter for issue one features a note from Sanches wherein he claims Vella is able to effortlessly pull ideas from his head and put them onto the page. The detail is deep, the style is refreshing and the use of red as the only color other than black and white creates a striking combination.

Put together, we have ourselves a rather fantastic start to a series sure to turn heads in the months to come.