Those Not Afraid

Fifty-seven.  That’s how many victims the Murder-Hole Killer had before they disappeared.  It’s a state record, and one that’s in danger of being broken by two current serial killers.  There’s the Ladykiller, who has forty-one kills to his name, and the Home Invader, who’s at forty-two.  Which one gets there first is anybody’s guess; however, it’s going to happen a lot sooner than later.  That’s because after a chance meeting has these two killers getting to know each other, they’ve decided to have a little friendly competition to see who can break that record.

Kyle Starks has written comedies, action comedies, and horror comedies, all to great effect.  “Those Not Afraid” sees him writing something more suspenseful and genuinely horrifying than he has before, to lesser effect.  While the idea of two serial killers in a race to break a state record for kills seems like the kind of premise that would lend itself to some very dark comedy, most of what’s here is played disappointingly straight.  More so due to the fact that things never get very tense or scary with a lot of the story’s beats and turns coming off as fairly obvious.

If there’s one thing I was pleasantly surprised by here, it was the art.  I’d never heard of Patrick Piazzalunga before, but he does some good work here.  The man is very clearly influenced by Nick Dragotta when it comes to his character work and how action is portrayed.  Piazzalunga’s style is obviously not quite as accomplished as his main influence’s is, yet he successfully tilts it towards horror/suspense here.  Not quite enough to elevate the story as a whole, as I couldn’t quite bring myself to be interested in the follow-up story that’s shamelessly set up by this volume’s cliffhanger ending.