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Kill Them All
A betrayed murderess wants revenge. A hard drinking former cop wants his job back. For either to get what they want they're going to have to fight their way through fifteen flights of criminals, assassins, drug lords, murderers, yup, even accountants... and Kill Them All.
194 pages, Paperback
First published October 10, 2017
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168 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
January 17, 2022
Corny revenge fantasy where being trained as a fighter enables a person to survive explosions and fend off 20 attackers at a time — all on the same day!
Marketed as a love letter to action movies, it does embody the cheesiness, the unrealistic situations, and cartoonish characters (although criticizing cartoonish characters in a comic book is perhaps going too far . . .).
There is humour here, in the sense that it is a genre parody or mocking itself. My favourite joke was an automobile trunk full of guns, referred to as the "carsenal".
In a couple of instances, characters spoke Spanish and Russian, but these comments were not translated (this reader still doesn't know what they said).
Rounded up to 3 stars because, even though movies such as "Kill Bill" leave me cold, cartoonish violence in a comic book leavened with a heavy dose of humour can almost be entertaining. As a palate cleanser.
Marketed as a love letter to action movies, it does embody the cheesiness, the unrealistic situations, and cartoonish characters (although criticizing cartoonish characters in a comic book is perhaps going too far . . .).
There is humour here, in the sense that it is a genre parody or mocking itself. My favourite joke was an automobile trunk full of guns, referred to as the "carsenal".
In a couple of instances, characters spoke Spanish and Russian, but these comments were not translated (this reader still doesn't know what they said).
Rounded up to 3 stars because, even though movies such as "Kill Bill" leave me cold, cartoonish violence in a comic book leavened with a heavy dose of humour can almost be entertaining. As a palate cleanser.
February 20, 2020
The entire plot of this book can be accurately summed up by it's title. Like sexcastle, this book is incredibly funny, and obviously there's a crap ton of butt kicking. And that's basically it.
August 6, 2023
She's like a young Beatrix Kiddo, a deadly assassin betrayed by her clan. He's a goofy take on Cobra: Crime is a persistent rash, and he's the steroid cream. Together they fight their way to the top of a goon-filled high rise to win the bossfight and reclaim their lives.
Kill Them All reads like a couple guys had a blast slapping it together in their garage after school and accidentally made something good. The illustration is full-speed-ahead un-self-consciously amateurish, yet always perfectly readable. The dialogue is absurd yet I found myself laughing out loud and completely invested.
and
It has reasonable twists, non-stop action, wit and personality. It's not GOOD, but it's far better than the sum of its parts.
Damn fun.
Kill Them All reads like a couple guys had a blast slapping it together in their garage after school and accidentally made something good. The illustration is full-speed-ahead un-self-consciously amateurish, yet always perfectly readable. The dialogue is absurd yet I found myself laughing out loud and completely invested.
Requin Plaza is filled with dudes willing to kill and die for that guy. It's not a building--it's a fifteen story man blender. I'm going to kick ass until my leg falls off....and you're coming with me.
and
It's so choice: 50 cal, 635 rounds per minute. It's like a belt fed Mother Theresa feeding all the world's children bullet dinners.
It has reasonable twists, non-stop action, wit and personality. It's not GOOD, but it's far better than the sum of its parts.
Damn fun.
April 5, 2020
Pretty good action and flow, but the art never worked for me and the comedy's a hit-or-miss. Maybe I haven't seen enough action flicks.
October 8, 2018
Meh this was supposed to be a comedy but the jokes were uber corny.
May 3, 2020
An ex-cop tries to get his reputation back and an assasin tries to get her revenge. Their fates meet at the base of a skyscraper and their destination (and destiny) is the top floor.
It's kinda like Kill Bill meets Jackie Chan meets Kick-Ass. The art is sketchy and there are some good lines. Not bad, it's a quick read.
Above average 6/10.
It's kinda like Kill Bill meets Jackie Chan meets Kick-Ass. The art is sketchy and there are some good lines. Not bad, it's a quick read.
Above average 6/10.
August 19, 2018
Bloody and bloody hilarious, cartoonist Kyle Starks’ shoot-‘em-up graphic novel, “Kill Them All” is probably the most fun I’ve had reading a comic all year. Like the bastard child of movies such as “Kill Bill” and “The Raid” and comics such as “Powers” and the “Scott Pilgrim” series, “Kill Them All” is a love letter to violence, cursing, boozing, and grizzled anti-heroes. From the first page to the last, Starks’ pace (breakneck), tone (over-the-top), and mood (irreverent) make for a highly entertaining reading experience.
The “elevator pitch” is simple enough: an alcoholic ex-cop, pulled back into service by a hook-handed detective, teams up with a disavowed assassin to ascend a high-rise full of bad guys in order to take down their boss, who is overseeing the carnage up in the penthouse. It’s tough to decide which fly faster in “Kill Them All:” the jokes or the bullets. Starks keeps his panels loose and lively (bordering on almost amateurish - but appealing - in some of the frantic action set pieces) while Luigi Anderson’s evocative coloring gives the lunacy a nice noir-ish cast. To pick apart “Kill Them All” any further would ruin all the fun.
If you like luchador gangsters, grisly virtually non-stop exit wounds, and tastelessly awesome one-liners, “Kill Them All” was made for you. It’s a (shotgun) blast!
The “elevator pitch” is simple enough: an alcoholic ex-cop, pulled back into service by a hook-handed detective, teams up with a disavowed assassin to ascend a high-rise full of bad guys in order to take down their boss, who is overseeing the carnage up in the penthouse. It’s tough to decide which fly faster in “Kill Them All:” the jokes or the bullets. Starks keeps his panels loose and lively (bordering on almost amateurish - but appealing - in some of the frantic action set pieces) while Luigi Anderson’s evocative coloring gives the lunacy a nice noir-ish cast. To pick apart “Kill Them All” any further would ruin all the fun.
If you like luchador gangsters, grisly virtually non-stop exit wounds, and tastelessly awesome one-liners, “Kill Them All” was made for you. It’s a (shotgun) blast!
December 6, 2017
This goofy homage to Kill Bill and The Raid: Redemption almost won me over by the sheer enthusiasm of its mindless violence but lost me with a dramatic death and a stupid twist in the closing stretch.
October 3, 2017
Some folks fight their way through a building, floor by floor, from bottom to top.
With humor thrown in, this is basically a poorly executed comedic version of The Raid Redemption.
With humor thrown in, this is basically a poorly executed comedic version of The Raid Redemption.
March 22, 2023
This is 100% a Kyle Starks book and I love everything about it! The story is just wild and the action is so absurd that it all makes perfect sense! Starks’ dialogue is a home run in this book and his humor throughout the book doesn’t wane. So ridiculously ridiculous and fun! This was especially entertaining reading this book immediately after finishing Millar’s Wanted.
January 12, 2018
I was hoping to give this 5 starts after reading Kyle's hilarious Sexcastle. Kill Them All is more of the same (which is what I wanted!) although it doesn't hold up as well. The story seems a bit forced if that makes any sense. It's a coherent story, but I just couldn't get into the motives of the protagonists. I kept hoping it may get better, but the humor was a bit too ridiculous to be funny.
I'm still a fan of the author and will check out his other work. I'd say definitely check out Sexcastle before this.
I'm still a fan of the author and will check out his other work. I'd say definitely check out Sexcastle before this.
September 10, 2019
"I'm going to kick ass until my leg falls off" pretty sums up the awesomeness of this book.
A true tribute to 90's' action movies, with the cartoonish art working amazingly in favor of the incredible amount of violence, that could make even Deadpool sob.
A true tribute to 90's' action movies, with the cartoonish art working amazingly in favor of the incredible amount of violence, that could make even Deadpool sob.
December 28, 2017
A total guilty pleasure.
January 25, 2019
Nunca había escuchado de Starks o de este libro, pero la portada me resultó irresistible y me encontré con una de mis mejores lecturas del año (ya sé, estamos en enero, pero eso no es demérito). Kill Them All es un homenaje/parodia/reconstrucción de todas aquellas películas de acción de los 80s y 90s donde un par de tipos rudos -en este caso La Hija del Dragón, maestra asesina traicionada por su empleador, y Mason Iruka, un ex policía increíblemente recio que cumple al dedillo todos los clichés- terminarán tirando abajo un imperio criminal. Aquí el emperador del crimen se llama Requin y tiene un edificio fuertemente resguardado, lo que no impedirá que nuestros dos protagonistas -acompañados por Khan, un tímido policía amigo de Iruka quien tendrá las mejores líneas de diálogo- vayan piso por piso -haciendo la gran The Raid- remándose a una amplísima variedad de malvivientes. El ritmo es simplemente arrollador, la acción no para nunca, los diálogos son increíbles y las carcajadas se producen al mismo vaivén de lectura demencial de libro que te agarra y no te deja soltarlo. Pero Starks no es sólo un gran guionista, sino que además es un virtuoso de la narrativa. Con un estilo de dibujo que recuerda poderosamente a Angel Mosquito -o a un Freddy Baert o a un Carlos Aón algo más desprolijo- el relato no para nunca y entrega alta diversión. Ya mismo a buscar otras obras de este hombre.
Read
October 10, 2018He's the world's best cop, benched just because he blew up half the city and shot that man's penis off; she's been betrayed by the organisation that raised her from childhood to be an elite assassin. Both of them want to get the bastard who's hiding out at the top of 15 storeys of psychos, and an uneasy alliance ensues. Yes, from the dude who brought you Sexcastle (seriously, that's how it credits him on the cover), it's another loving action movie homage/spoof. The sheer crazy vim is what makes it, whether in the cartoonish ultraviolence or the ridiculous quips: "I got no beef with you. Stand aside and you'll all get to keep shitting normally. And by normally, I mean via your butthole."
February 20, 2020
In this book we face the practicality of two tiny swords, the necessity of two flasks, and why two badasses are better than one. Still fun, still funny, but I think Sexcastle is a better take on the tropes this book touches on.
January 31, 2024
An action packed GN with LOL moments. Loved it!
August 9, 2020
Pretty meh until about halfway through when it developed some friggin' heart and then it was AWESOME. Cheesy violence alone = boo, BUT cheesy violence with HEART = YEAHHH!
December 15, 2017
This is a pretty silly book. I read it with an enjoyably swift enthusiasm, but if I was comparing how much I liked it to Peter Weller movies, it's more Fifty/Fifty than Robocop. Fun stuff and a quick read, so definitely read it if you want to get some funny action in you, but Sexcastle is still the winner in the Kyle Starks catalog.
June 15, 2020
Re-read. posting my original review (which first appeared at https://comicbastards.com/comics/revi... in 2017)
Kyle Starks is the best thing ever! And he has a new book out and it is called Kill Them All. I have basically loved everything he has done since I first read Sexcastle a few years back. Kyle Starks' books are silly and weird and totally fucking intense. And Kill Them All is no different. This book is great. It is everything I have come to love from both Kyle Starks and the medium of comic books in general.
I have often found myself thinking about how much most comics books would be better if they took on the tone of all those ridiculous/cheesy/intense 80s action movies. If the stories stopped taking themselves so seriously, maybe. If they just embraced the absurdity of the world we actually live in. And this is what I think Kyle Starks does when he sits down to write a comic book. Maybe. I don’t know. Basically, what I'm saying is: Kill Them All is the best 80s action movie to come out in comic book form in a long fucking time. Probably ever. Or at least since Sexcastle was released.
Seriously, I'm finding it hard even to explain or describe this book. So, I'll just say that it involves one disgraced cop, another shy/nervous/weird cop, and a badass assassin chick taking on an entire office building to get at a crime boss known as Requin. It's an office building of crime, which in theory doesn’t make any sense, except that while reading the story it totally does. (It's essentially the corporate headquarters of Requin's criminal enterprise). Just know that this is floor after floor, page after page, of mayhem and death and dick-punches. It's basically a sillier comic book version of The Raid: Redemption.
Like most other Kyle Starks' books, the characters here aren't the most fleshed out. They're basically just caricatures or homages to Hollywood action stars. We don’t ever really get any background info on them but it doesn’t really matter here. It doesn’t affect the story at all. Because this isn't really the type of book you read if you're looking for deep and thoughtful characters.
The action in Kill Them All is as over-the-top as you'd expect. There are so many explosions and deaths and ridiculous one-liners that I almost couldn’t handle it all. Kyle Starks has some of the best one-liner dialogue in the business. For instance when one character describes another character as looking like "a sword and a big toe had a baby."
As much as I love Kyle Starks' writing, it's the combination of writing and his art that make his books truly special and unique. The art matches the tone of the story. The over-the-top-ness of it. The linework is very simple, big and bold. My favorite thing, though, is the way Starks illustrates fight scenes. He uses smaller panels when depicting an intense fight. I think this way of showing adds to the urgency of it. Little silent panels that you quickly scan to show the speed and urgency of a fight (which in the case of Kill Them All all happen to be life-or-death fights).
Luigi Anderson colors Kill Them All, and I think the color work is spot on. It's a good mix of bold and dreary. It captures the various tones of the book. The scenes featuring Detective Iruka are heavy on the grays and blues, which fit his mood and sensibilities. He's more of a hard-boiled badass detective type, and these are the colors I associate that with. The scenes featuring Babe (or The Tiger's Daughter, or whatever her real name is) are slightly brighter and seem to have more of a reddish tint to them. Which could be playing up her revenge piece. The fight scenes are colored differently, too. They're more or less confined to two or three colors, but there's occasionally something that pops in them. Whether it's a burst of bright yellow where a punch connects or a blur of color to show movement. Color isn't something I generally focus on while I'm reading comics (even when I'm reading them for the purposes of review). But in Kill Them All I seemed to notice them more. They stood out in a way that grabbed me.
Kill Them All (like all of Kyle Starks' books) is just fun. It's funny and silly and wacky and blah blah blah. Kyle Starks consistently puts out the exact kind of comic books I seek out and like to read. His work wears its influences on its sleeves but that is fine, because he uses them to create his own, totally original, things. I loved every single page, every single panel, every single uttered one-liner in this thing. It's just a good fucking book.
Kyle Starks is the best thing ever! And he has a new book out and it is called Kill Them All. I have basically loved everything he has done since I first read Sexcastle a few years back. Kyle Starks' books are silly and weird and totally fucking intense. And Kill Them All is no different. This book is great. It is everything I have come to love from both Kyle Starks and the medium of comic books in general.
I have often found myself thinking about how much most comics books would be better if they took on the tone of all those ridiculous/cheesy/intense 80s action movies. If the stories stopped taking themselves so seriously, maybe. If they just embraced the absurdity of the world we actually live in. And this is what I think Kyle Starks does when he sits down to write a comic book. Maybe. I don’t know. Basically, what I'm saying is: Kill Them All is the best 80s action movie to come out in comic book form in a long fucking time. Probably ever. Or at least since Sexcastle was released.
Seriously, I'm finding it hard even to explain or describe this book. So, I'll just say that it involves one disgraced cop, another shy/nervous/weird cop, and a badass assassin chick taking on an entire office building to get at a crime boss known as Requin. It's an office building of crime, which in theory doesn’t make any sense, except that while reading the story it totally does. (It's essentially the corporate headquarters of Requin's criminal enterprise). Just know that this is floor after floor, page after page, of mayhem and death and dick-punches. It's basically a sillier comic book version of The Raid: Redemption.
Like most other Kyle Starks' books, the characters here aren't the most fleshed out. They're basically just caricatures or homages to Hollywood action stars. We don’t ever really get any background info on them but it doesn’t really matter here. It doesn’t affect the story at all. Because this isn't really the type of book you read if you're looking for deep and thoughtful characters.
The action in Kill Them All is as over-the-top as you'd expect. There are so many explosions and deaths and ridiculous one-liners that I almost couldn’t handle it all. Kyle Starks has some of the best one-liner dialogue in the business. For instance when one character describes another character as looking like "a sword and a big toe had a baby."
As much as I love Kyle Starks' writing, it's the combination of writing and his art that make his books truly special and unique. The art matches the tone of the story. The over-the-top-ness of it. The linework is very simple, big and bold. My favorite thing, though, is the way Starks illustrates fight scenes. He uses smaller panels when depicting an intense fight. I think this way of showing adds to the urgency of it. Little silent panels that you quickly scan to show the speed and urgency of a fight (which in the case of Kill Them All all happen to be life-or-death fights).
Luigi Anderson colors Kill Them All, and I think the color work is spot on. It's a good mix of bold and dreary. It captures the various tones of the book. The scenes featuring Detective Iruka are heavy on the grays and blues, which fit his mood and sensibilities. He's more of a hard-boiled badass detective type, and these are the colors I associate that with. The scenes featuring Babe (or The Tiger's Daughter, or whatever her real name is) are slightly brighter and seem to have more of a reddish tint to them. Which could be playing up her revenge piece. The fight scenes are colored differently, too. They're more or less confined to two or three colors, but there's occasionally something that pops in them. Whether it's a burst of bright yellow where a punch connects or a blur of color to show movement. Color isn't something I generally focus on while I'm reading comics (even when I'm reading them for the purposes of review). But in Kill Them All I seemed to notice them more. They stood out in a way that grabbed me.
Kill Them All (like all of Kyle Starks' books) is just fun. It's funny and silly and wacky and blah blah blah. Kyle Starks consistently puts out the exact kind of comic books I seek out and like to read. His work wears its influences on its sleeves but that is fine, because he uses them to create his own, totally original, things. I loved every single page, every single panel, every single uttered one-liner in this thing. It's just a good fucking book.
May 20, 2020
Kill Them All is a shot of adrenaline, heroin, every action film from the 80s and early 90s, karate, and the most delicious meal you've ever had in your life delivered straight to your eyeballs and maybe your pinky toe. Kyle Starks kills the printed page with his send up to the very particular subgenre of action film where the hero(es) have to painstakingly make their way to the top to kill the big bad facing many challenges along the way. The Raid Redemption and Dredd are two modern examples. If Kill Them All was made into a movie, it would be among the best action films out there.
This praise is not given lightly. Kyle Starks' sense of pacing, epic stakes, and memorable character archetypes is perfect for creating a page turning adventure. His humor also comes through with incredibly direct and funny jokes usually said in all seriousness by the characters. It's a rollicking good time.
This comic is so great, I have both versions of it: the black and white Kickstarter edition and the published color version from Oni Press. Both are great, and obviously the Oni colored version is more readily available.
This praise is not given lightly. Kyle Starks' sense of pacing, epic stakes, and memorable character archetypes is perfect for creating a page turning adventure. His humor also comes through with incredibly direct and funny jokes usually said in all seriousness by the characters. It's a rollicking good time.
This comic is so great, I have both versions of it: the black and white Kickstarter edition and the published color version from Oni Press. Both are great, and obviously the Oni colored version is more readily available.
November 17, 2017
Kill Them All is an absurd love letter to the insanity of over the top action movies of the 80's and 90's and martial arts films. Filled with all the notable cliches like an endless amount of flying bullets, tough as nails no nothing cop, and a kickass female ninja determined to find revenge. Imagine if you took something in the ilk of Naked Gun, modernized it up the silliness and body county you then would have Kill Them All. Starks also art style ties it all together. What can be overlooked in all the jokes is how well paced his panel work is and key it is to make much of this action work as well as it does. It is fine an all to pay homage but if your execution is nowhere near the properties you are homaging it does not work. Luckily Kill Them All lives up to that challenge. One of the books that is perfect to read when you just need something fun in your life.
October 12, 2017
FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: "a love letter to your favorite action movies and bullet ballets of the 90s"
That is a 100% correct.
KILL THEM ALL is the most explosively fun comic book I will read all year. Don't let its simple art style fool you, because Eisner award nominated Writer/Artist Kyle Starks understands bone deep how to illustrate and pace action. He gets what's amusing about the genre, but he also freaking LOVES IT, which allows him to create something that works comedically as WELL as emotionally because the structural groundwork is so simple and the pay-offs are beautifully executed.
If you like action movies, period, you should read this book. Now, I have to check out all Stark's other stuff!
That is a 100% correct.
KILL THEM ALL is the most explosively fun comic book I will read all year. Don't let its simple art style fool you, because Eisner award nominated Writer/Artist Kyle Starks understands bone deep how to illustrate and pace action. He gets what's amusing about the genre, but he also freaking LOVES IT, which allows him to create something that works comedically as WELL as emotionally because the structural groundwork is so simple and the pay-offs are beautifully executed.
If you like action movies, period, you should read this book. Now, I have to check out all Stark's other stuff!
May 21, 2022
There is a lot of love for a certain kind of action movie from the 80s that is going on here. Die Hard, Woo and Tarantino seem to all get a little love. I am sure that if I sat and remembered all those fun, over the top and expressive films, then I would enjoy this more.
But like those movies which often pulled from elsewhere and used that to create something new that could be enjoyed by just watching them, this has a bit of that feeling. A fun romp that crosses a number of tropes. A good sense of humor about it.
I enjoyed it quite a bit and would recommend it to a bunch of my friends who share the same taste in movies.
But like those movies which often pulled from elsewhere and used that to create something new that could be enjoyed by just watching them, this has a bit of that feeling. A fun romp that crosses a number of tropes. A good sense of humor about it.
I enjoyed it quite a bit and would recommend it to a bunch of my friends who share the same taste in movies.
March 16, 2022
Over the top. Some of the dialogue is really funny (like how the boss motivates his office staff to kill by promising health care or monster trucks) but some lines are really dumb. I liked the coda. Our heroine literally yells “this is not your story” to the hero. It’s a sendup of 90’s action movies, but the Big trouble in little China series does this better.
Dude tosses a gun and then shoots the first gun’s trigger with a second gun. Nutrageous.
What I learned: Requin is French for shark.
Dude tosses a gun and then shoots the first gun’s trigger with a second gun. Nutrageous.
What I learned: Requin is French for shark.
March 8, 2025
Classic Kyle Starks! Funny, entertaining, off of crazy action, cool art, and especially beautiful colors in this one. His books always have just enough heart that they aren't just non-stop laughs, but this book doesn't attempt to have any deep meaning. It is the '80s/90s action comedy type movie that doesn't get made anymore, and it has a little more social conscious to it than those movies that ever did. Having the former cop turn on crooked cops was a very cool move.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 8, 2018
OK, so I hate guns. And I hate 80's & 90's action movies. And yet, here we are with a 4-star review?
Yeah, I don't get it either.
I think it has something to do with the humor, which is goofy and fun, and the masterful paneling work in the fight sequences.
But still, weird.
I totally hope there's another one.
Yeah, I don't get it either.
I think it has something to do with the humor, which is goofy and fun, and the masterful paneling work in the fight sequences.
But still, weird.
I totally hope there's another one.
April 30, 2019
Great illustration. But personally, I think Kyle Starks should collaborate with a professional writer to bring his next graphic novels to life. So much talent. He doesn't need to do everything. In some cases, I felt like the dialogue damaged my overall experience of the book. But it's visually impressive.
August 5, 2021
Great, peppy, clever fun. Intentionally and very successfully evocative of schlocky action films, but altogether much more entertaining than the vast majority. Literally gives new meaning to the word Babe (read it and you'll know what I'm talking about, and you'll want a t-shirt of the panel in question while you're at it). Anyways, buckle up, grab your gun, and let loose some bullets.
March 23, 2023
Absolutely hilarious. I loved Sexcastle and this is more of the same, being a comedic parody of/love letter to action movies, laden with over the top visuals and cheesy one-liners. Like a silly version of The Raid (I presume, I keep meaning to watch it) if it were remade by Jerry Bruckheimer or someone of that ilk.
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