Review by Ian Keogh

Trigger Keaton plays Marshal Art in a phenomenally successful TV show. What the public at large don’t know is that he’s a violent bully with poor attitudes to women and an ego the size of his dressing room. Now who’d want to kill someone like that?

He’s discovered hanging in his offices by Miles Nguyen, his most recent co-star who calls the police and observes less than thorough procedure when they arrive. They’re content to pass Keaton’s death off as suicide, but Miles picks up on several things they’ve either ignored or deliberately not mentioned. He thinks Keaton was murdered.

In every TV movie Keaton has a different co-star, primarily because no-one will work with him a second time. They’re a wildly different bunch from the bullish Terry Komodo, the only co-star who admires Trigger, to the quiet Paul Hernandez who quit acting to work as a nurse. For various reasons, though, they’d all prefer the truth was known.

Kyle Starks creates an unrepentant scumbag in Keaton, who’s therefore very entertaining as excepts from his films, plus the reality behind the scenes, are interspersed between the present day events of the investigation, which is complicated by stunt people who also hate Keaton. The very different personalities of the assorted sidekicks are constructed for incompatibility, which means they work well in a comedy action thriller. Starks takes his time in introducing Alison Saint-Marie, but there’s a good reason for that, while the most successful sidekick Richard Brannigan is held back even longer.

Artist Chris Schweizer worked with Starks on the less successful Rock Candy Mountain, and much the same applies to his art as then. He’s a talented cartoonist who supplies detail and brings out personalities, but the way he generally lays out his pages doesn’t maximise the comedy. There are exceptions, such as a sparkling fourth chapter scene running the parallel experiences of two characters in different places, but despite all the work put into the actual drawing an early car chase doesn’t come alive.

The purpose of the stuntmen is to provide comedy action before a final chapter revelation, and their presence encourages a little too much filler. Unlike the leading characters whose personalities are all well rounded, the stunt men are silly cannon fodder. Readers may well have figured who’d have the best reason for getting rid of Keaton before being told, but that’s hardly the purpose, which is entertainment and 6 Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton delivers solidly on that score.

This is labelled Volume One in large cover font, so perhaps Starks intends to continue the series, but this provides a complete story.