Shaolin Grandmaster Killer #1
Zteroid Entertainment, 2017
Writer: Thomas Sluzalek
Many independent comic creators have turned to the fundraising site Kickstarter.com for investment, with varying degrees of success. Thomas Sluzalek, the writer and artist of this new title, “Shaolin Grandmaster Killer” is one of them.
Notwithstanding the grandiose and Chinese martial arts-inspired title, this story is submerged in a decidedly British comic book ethos. By this, we refer to the off-best science fiction- themed comic books published by 2000AD Comics, the influence of which is a monolithic shadow over the British comic book scene since the late 1970s. This is most evident within “Shaolin Grandmaster Killer” upon examination of the denizens of a dystopian establishment, a lawless, futuristic and decadent black market, located on the back of a flying and “tamed” kaiji called Megara. People with 1980s mirror shades, spikes for hair, and a total absence of civility occupy this haunt. Undiluted violence and gore abound. Drugs, alcohol, slaves and sex are the stock in trade, but also, quirkily, classic action figures. It would not have been out of place in this morally toxic but oddball habitat to have stumbled upon Captain Skank, a cyborg foe of 2000AD Comics’ Judge Dredd, or 2000AD’s Strontium Dogs.
