Review by Win Wiacek

Sometimes all we want from a graphic novel is a primal experience with intrigue and character pared down to basics. Maybe a little mystery and treachery, but fundamentally heroes, villains and an overwhelming menace to rail valiantly against.

There’s all that and so much more in Kill All Monsters!: a vibrant and vivid monochrome monster-fest that started life as an online tribute to Japan’s greatest cultural export – spectacular Kaiju versus Mecha mega-duels.

Crafted by writer Michael May and illustrator Jason Copland with early idea contributions by Alex Ness, the 2013 webcomic opened in ‘The Ruins of Paris’ as a squad of human warriors explore the devastated city in their singular giant robot war-suits. Like everywhere else in the world, the City of Lights was razed to rubble by waves of monster attacks, which began in Japan in 1954 and which have steadily pushed humanity to the edge of extinction.

Dressen, Spencer Djamel and Akemi are part of the African Defense Force conceived and commanded by visionary General Abbud Rashad as a last-ditch deterrent to colossal horrors that started harassing humanity in the wake of the atomic bomb’s first detonations. The Mecha-riders are champions of human technology and ingenuity, forever shaking the earth in constant clashes with relentless, merciless killer kaiju.

Here and now, the pilots barely survive an assault by an octet of titanic terrors and are stuck nervously awaiting repair services, when they discover barbarous Parisians who have taken a different path in adapting to the monster depredations.

‘Attack of the Killer Robot’ takes us to Kenya, where latest recruit Archer despatches a brutal bug beast menacing a village. He is the General’s latest innovation and last hope. In Paris, the stranded pilots seek shelter until Archer can rescue them, encountering a pack of feral, human-sized beasts. They survive, but doubt their impending recovery will be in time. Moreover, they are far from happy that the General is putting so much faith in a Mecha that is fully artificial. Nobody human trusts AIs like Archer.

‘Pigs in the Sky’ reveals the machine saviour is equally uncertain of his role and capabilities, while we meet the French tribe who have become true savages ‘Down in the Underground’. ‘Pax Monstrorum’ – is behind the monsters, which leads ‘Into the Trees’ to a hidden base in the Black Forest of what used to be Germany, their assault on ‘The Castle of Doom’ forestalls humanity’s end – for a little while – but comes at a huge cost, and exposing a traitor in the squad working for the Pax in ‘Akemi’s Secret’.

There’s a tragic and cruel backstory beneath all the brutal Brobdingnagian battles, but revelation takes a big step to the side as ‘Time Bomb’ sees the ascendant Pax Monstrorum trying to clean house. They’re foiled and punished by the last ADF warriors in ‘Death in the Deep’ before ultimately triumphing over the worst beasts of all in ‘Revenge of the Robots’ and ‘The Serpent Strikes’.

This starkly compelling collection delivers dark chills, compulsive mystery, cunning conspiracy, deeply flawed human heroes and villains, but above all constant cathartic combat carnage in intoxicating amounts. There is a sequel, but it’s only available in book form accompanied by this content as the Kill All Monsters! Omnibus.

Less is More. Ride the rocket robot. Save the world.