Kill 6 Billion Demons, Book 2: Wielder of Names

Kill 6 Billion Demons #2

by Tom Parkinson-Morgan

In this collection of the second major arc of the popular webcomic Kill 6 Billion Demons, woefully out-of-place sorority sister Allison Ruth and angelic lawman '82 White Chain' must struggle against their own fears in a fateful clash with one of the seven evil masters of creation.

Genres: Fantasy, Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Horror, Graphic Novels Comics, Comics Manga

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 8, 2018

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Less obtuse but still a lot to digest. Once the story started to concentrate on Allison and we were seeing the story from her confused perspective, it was easier to follow. Before that, it was like trying to drink through a firehouse of world-building information. I read this digitally and the colors were so dark I could barely make out what was happening until I switched from my ipad to a 24 inch screen. The colors were still too dark but more readable.

Received an advanced copy from Image and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slightly less normal young woman pops out of her world and returns into the land of adventure at her own free will, this time, without anyone or anything forcing her to. Then she proceeds to make some very poor and stupid decisions. A lot of people don't like it when the main characters are dumbasses, but I say those are the best kind of main characters, provided their decisions still make sense and they pay for them accordingly. So much more entertaining than the bunch of milquetoasts that just walk along the paved road of Destiny... let alone some weak-ass regular Joe being dragged along and having no agency whatsoever, as was the case in book one.

Great antagonist, too. A terrible person that I love to hate, while also understanding where she was coming from and how she ended up the way she did. The first book didn't really have much of an antagonist at all, thinking about it - just the entire city ganging up on her.

Still rather heavy on exposition, I guess... but otherwise, this was a marked improvement on basically every front. Even the art's getting better. I'm quite invested now.

[Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

IPAs in a drinking contest? Damn I guess it really is hell.

THANK YOU I'LL BE HERE ALL NIGHT TIP YOUR WAITERS

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's more of everything I want. The mythology feels rich rather than dense, the action is kinetic, it's like the cantina scene, you want to know more about every background character.

[Valuxiea · Rating 2 out of 5]

The second book is significantly better than the first. Not great, but now there's actually a plot and characters as opposed to incoherent rambling about how cool the author thinks their world building is paired with a mediocre philosophy 101 course.

The big problem is the protagonist is not active in her own story. And you can write a story with a passive protagonist, it's just incredibly hard to do well. And even within those stories, at a certain point they have to stop being passive. Thank God, she finally does in LITERALLY THE LAST 10 PAGES.

I hope each book in the series subsequently improves, because asking the reader to slog through is a big ask.

Also, minor gripe. The series is called Kill 6 Billion Demons, and our protagonist is yet to have killed a single demon, or have killed anything for that matter. Also, almost every action scene is hard to follow. I'll still read the next ones because I hate myself.

[Colona Public Library · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm still hoping for more character development, but I hear this comic continues (and started) online and has many more chapters. I want to learn maybe more about Allison's past? Maybe what her college life was like and compare that to what she's going through now. I feel there was a little more fun in this, especially with the drinking musical! The story is still a bit muddled to me, but starting to come together a bit more. I was impressed with the art and creativity in the last volume and this volume really wow-ed me! The Illustrations are fantastic! ~Ashley

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full review to come once I finish the series. I can see how some folks might be overwhelmed by this book, like the protagonist: they are thrown into a weird (and visually striking) world with smatterings of exposition to ground the reader thrown in. It may have helped that I had already read this chunk of the story from the webcomic and I can assure you the story is well worth sticking with.

[Bill Coffin · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're on the wavelength of this off-the-wall story of a gradstudent/barista who gets pulled into a bonkers, multi-planar world with angels and demons and everything in between as she discovers she is one of the most powerful beings in the universe...then you're going to love this. If this all feels a bit like 10lbs of story stuffed into a 5 lb bag, then it's going to be a hard read. Either way, Tom Parkinson-Morgan gets huge credit for publishing this ambitious effort on his own. But throughout all three volumes, one can't help but thing how much better this might have been if he had some help along the way.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very surreal. Biblically accurate angels. A girl trying to figure out a strange world and why she is even there.

[Jim-my · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked this significantly better than book 1. Greater focus on characterisation than world building led to a stronger story and made it much easier to follow.

Keen for book 3!

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kill Six Billion Demons: Book Two

Allison has returned to the Throne, still looking for her boyfriend. The angels and demons have gathered to trade for her key to Earth's Gate.

The chaos of the Throne is still beautifully realised and there are plenty of examples of rich, dark humour.

[Pop Bop · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Weird, Funky, Beautifully Drawn, Hoot

I didn't realize what a big deal the "Kill 6 Billion Demons" world was until I started reading this. Partway through I decided to do a little research. Since this is Volume 2 and the second major story arc, if you start here you just get dropped in the middle and have to figure out the backstory. Poking around the internet taught me that this is a hugely popular webcomic; it's a tabletop game; it has a devoted following, a blog, and an immense backstory. Well, I just wanted to start with an entertaining read, not enter into a lifelong commitment, (at least not yet), so I skimmed enough on the net and the blog to get the gist.

Basically, our heroine, (sorority sister Allison Ruth), has some kind of thingy/key, she's trapped in the middle of a multi-multi-multiverse, and she has to kill 6 billion demons and defeat at least a couple of the seven main evil guys, in order to get home. She picks up companions; she is helped, (especially by the gloriously named angel "82 White Chain Born in Emptiness Returns to Subdue Evil"), and frustrated by a vast array of characters, and essentially she does a multiverse dungeon crawl without knowing much about anything that's going on. But that's O.K., because what's going on is going on so fast, so weirdly, and so confusingly that understanding it all is sort of beside the point. (Actually, about half way in the story does start to clear up; people more knowledgeable than me have observed that this is where the pieces do start to come together, so that's good.)

Putting aside the larger story arc, many of the kicks here are from scene to scene, and sometimes panel to panel, and if you get a half of it you're way ahead. For example, there is a multi-page bit in which Allison accepts a drinking challenge from a demon - if she wins he'll help her. Between the main action, the jokey comments from the onlookers, and the slyly humorous details hidden throughout the panels, you could probably pour over those pages for quite a while and still find new stuff. Think "Where's Waldo" if Waldo where a satanic being hiding amongst demons, gods, corpses, and unimaginably weird creatures somewhere in the outer reaches of Hell. All of this is drawn in a sort of modern Heironymus Bosch style, which makes it especially funky and weird.

It helps that Allison hooks up early on with a character, Cio, a demon who identifies herself as a fan fiction writer, and who serves as Allison's companion. We, along with Allison, get enough explaining from her to sort of figure out what's going on most of the time. That said, though, this whole world does have a steep learning curve and lots more going on than appears in this book's pages. I'm sure devoted fans will have lots to say, good and bad, about how this volume compares to the web comic. But speaking purely as an interested newbie, I thought this book was a refreshingly and wildly imaginative hoot. And that was fine by me.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

V2 has the scope and the beautiful art of V1, but it somehow loses a lot of the heart. We get a lot of exposition and a lot of big-picture happening, but that's in exchange for the loss of most of the screen time of our main character, and it's pretty hard to connect with the other angels and beings. So, this book doesn't feel like it really gets going until 70 or 80 pages in, and then much of the rest of the book is taken by a big fight.

So, a bit of a disappointment after the amazing V1, but hopefully we're back on track now.

[Psychophant · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is interesting to see how the confidence of the author has progressed from the previous book. When I read the webcomic the change seemed more gradual, but in book sized packages it is more evident.

The ambition is huge, and we start to see huge fantastic vistas, battles with hundreds of participants, and a plot of universal proportions, together with creative world building and a cast of characters we start to care for.

Great second book.

[Venus Maneater · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still enjoying myself, but dear God there are a lot of names to remember. I'm now getting used to lore smacking me over the head, pretending like it's something I should already know.

BIG fan of white chain. BIG fan of the food. I can't believe this is free to read

[Floressas · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite arcs in the webcomic so far.
The world and its rules should be more familiar to most readers by this point, so it's absolutely easier to follow through it, but we also get better characterization of the recurring characters.
The art, as usual, is absolutely stellar, although the improvement is very easy to notice.
Personally, what I liked most about this book was Mottom herself. She's an amazing villain and her dialogue is written in such an excellent way. I loved the last sequence with her and how Allison finally begins to shine at that point.

I also feel like I should mention that I feel like a lot of people forget that this is a long story AND a webcomic, neither one of these things should be rushed and should be read with that perspective in mind. It's very clear to see that this is yet the beginning, expecting characters to be fully developed at this time is kinda boring, no?
Either way, I believe that this is the point where Allison's character begins to develop more and we start to see more of her foolhardy nature, which I really enjoyed in this arc.

[Tomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Short Answer
I love this. The last volume was a perfect setup and introduction to this world, but now the story can really kick into high gear. The mythology is rich and fresh without being overwhelming, and the characters are multi dimensional and fresh.

If you liked the first volume, you'll love this volume.

The Long Answers
This comic has grown at a wonderful pace. It's hard to write about without spoiling things, and there's precious little to critique. The art is still sometimes a little sketchy and rough, but it's so consistent that at this point it has just become a style, and it really helps give the book an alive feeling.

So the long answer isn't going to be much longer than the short answer. If you haven't read the first volume do so immediately. If you liked it (and why wouldn't you) then just keep going. This is the perfect follow up.

Recommended for everyone.

[Nim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second volume of the series! This is where I went from being impressed at the comic to honestly loving it.

Where the first volume could get a bit heavy for me thanks to the amount of exposition needed to introduce the world (note: partly my fault - I binged the whole thing at once. And it was a lot...), this one was more of an adventure. There's a couple of silly moments, the characters get more fleshed out, the villains are great, the art is breathtaking and the universe it all takes place is, like last time, full of wonder.

One of the main themes seems to be Allison having to decide her own fate - or, as someone put it, "the shape she will take".

Note: I actually binged the whole thing without a break back in November, but re-read the parts I had been skimming over a bit carelessly on December 24th, so that's where I'll mark this as "read".

[Rinaldo · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5

Continuing on the high-octane, fever dream ride of the first book, Wielder of Names follows more of Allison Ruth's story in her endeavour to bring back her boyfriend. While still containing some epic fantasy formulae in its barebones, the second book of this series also showcases a lot of twists and turns of fantasy tropes.

Now willingly returning to the Throne, Allison is joined by the blue demoness Miss Cio and some new potential companions. Together, they're trying to approach Mottom or Mother Om, one of the Demiurges who each rules upon 111,111 worlds. At the same time, we also witness the vulnerabilities of the lawful and stern angel from the previous book, White Chain.

With a more balanced plot, super rich worldbuilding, labyrinthine lore, and gorgeous eye-melting artwork, Parkinson-Morgan surely treats his readers with an equally heavenly and infernal dish.

[Ross Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 2 starts off in the best way that Book 1 finishes, without overloading the reader with universe building. Parkingson-Morgan slowed down the hectic pace of introducing information and at the same time, made the story more focused and centered, either on our heroine or on our leading angel. I don't know if this is because he was able to get all that exposition out in the first parts of Book 1, or if someone simply said, "Tap them breaks a bit!" Nonetheless, Book 2 is a step up in enjoyment and launched me right into Book 3. It seems clear that eventually, Kill Six Billion Demons is going to shrug off her boyfriend, but her continued dedication to saving him remains one of the weirder things based on how long she dated him and unfortunate lack of awareness (Something I hope the character gets a chance to reflect on at some point!) that he essentially forcing himself on her prior to his abduction.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books are dense not only in the illustration quality but also in background information; I highly recommend reading them in sequence.

Book Two, Wielder of Names, gives the reader more background on this bizarre new/old world and its mythology as the story progresses. There was a definite feeling of Dante’s multilayered inferno through an Eastern religion’s sensibility. For those who just want to skim a graphic novel for a light read, much will be lost. I loved the weird theology-mythology, like layers of Byzantine bureaucracy that go on forever, teasing you with some illusion of sensibility.

[Serum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mad I slept on this series for so long!

Reluctant nobody (hero?) Allison returns to the epicenter of all worlds, the otherworldly city of Throne. She joins up with the streetwise thief and master sorceress Cio, and hatches a plan to find her missing boyfriend (Almost one night stand). Things don't go even remotely close to plan as Allison finds herself locked in a musical-esque drinking contest with a crafty demon. Meanwhile, kung-fu Angel White Chain finds himself at the center of a dark conspiracy amongst angels. Finally, Allison must navigate a gilded court and comes face to face with one of the seven demiurges, the ravenous Mother Om.

[Johan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I needed three attempts to finish the first volume of "Kill 6 Billion Demons". The first two times I gave up because it was just too weird. It is still weird, but apparently I am currently in the mood for some really weird shit. After finishing the second volume, it is my impression that the story has finally started and that the first volume was just setting the stage.
I got this via a Humble Bundle.

[Ben Zimmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series got so much better in this book. Maybe half of it is lore now, which is still entirely too much, but the plot focused sections rip. There was a demon drinking contest/rap battle that absolutely ruled. Allison's interactions with Nadia were great. The War of the Teacups was cool as hell. The work finally feels like it's about Allison, and not just a bunch of made up religious philosophy.

[Noah Posthuma · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second volume of Kill 6 Billion Demons is in a much larger format than the first, and it really pays off. So much beautiful and complex art to look at. The printing is excellent, and the story ranges from a demonic singing-only drinking contest to an undead tree that demands tribute in brides. It's pretty wonderful all around.

[Noema · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this volume, our protagonist becomes a hero, gets herself together, and chooses a path of...well, we're not sure yet. But we've got a hero, a sidekick, a team, and a few clear villians, so I think we're in business. The art is absolutely beautiful but too icky and gruesome for me, so I read with an index card to cover up some parts of the page, but that's okay. I'll persist.

[Frodo · Rating 3 out of 5]

mellora o suficiente en tódolos aspectos como para seguir lendo, pero que collóns é ese intento de desenvolver a allison coma personaxe? dáme a sensación de que conprimiu o que deberían ser capítulos e capítulos de exploración súa en medio tomo, e non para ben. deixoume descolocadísimo ese último panel.

pero bueno, suficientemente decente como para continuar

[Blood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Migliore del primo volume. Fortunatamente il modo eccessivamente forbito di parlare di quasi tutti i personaggi si è ristretto a solo un paio, così la lettura è più piacevole. Disegni sempre migliori, alcuni design sono davvero meravigliosi, adoro le scene piene fino all'orlo di personaggi tutti diversi stipati gli uni sugli altri. La storia però non mi ha ancora convinto del tutto.

[Nesllogi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Als dos primers llibres de KSBD sembla que la màquina infernal encara està escalfant els motors.

El primer fa una labor excel·lent presentant l'estil i cosmologia de l'autor i peparen unes expectatives respecte a com serà la saga. El segon sembla que dona el ritme al que podem esperar que avança la història. M'han paregut els més curts de la col·lecció, però compleixen la seua funció.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Parkinson-Morgan is still easily one of the best comics artists/writers working today. I'm still bummed that the text pieces are mostly dropped from these collections, but K6BD is so wild and fresh that I can let these go.