Review by Ian Keogh
Dylan still believes he needs to kill one person a month, the price to be paid for a demon aborting the suicide attempt he immediately regretted. However, Ed Brubaker via a Sean Phillips illustration dropped one hell of a shock about that to end Volume Two.
It seems as if Phillips takes a short break to begin Volume Three, as the opening apparently reprints four pages from the start of Volume One, but with new captions. Closer inspection, though, reveals the panels have been rejigged with some additions, and they’ll recur again later. That fits Dylan’s freeform first person narrative, as Kill or Be Killed continues to jump back and forth, although, as is pointed out, the entire story to date is technically a flashback. It’s also a method of deliberately frustrating the audience by showing some action in a chapter that otherwise features little, with the claim that it’ll feature again later.
However, Brubaker is playing fair, as Kill or Be Killed shifts into new territory here. Until now the threat of being killed has been generated by the demon. It’s a little more complicated and twisted, but basically the demon, whether you want to see him as literal or metaphorical. Now the prospect of being killed also comes from Russian gangsters who’re looking for Dylan. How does one man deal with that type of threat?
Page after page, volume after volume, and project after project Sean Phillips delivers textured naturalistic art with real people embedded in real backgrounds. It’s amazing. Yet, part of the story calls for the lurid SF paintings created by Dylan’s father, and Phillips delivers great pulp illustrations for those also. However, the visual line between Dylan and Phillips himself is becoming ever thinner.
By now it might be assumed we know everything relevant there is to know about Dylan, yet surprises are in store, not least for Dylan himself, who’s been suppressing more than his father’s suicide. And another nice aspect of the entire series is the demon. Is it a manifestation of Dylan’s subconscious because he’s not taking his medication, or is there something more to it? Do we have a supernatural incursion? We still don’t know as Volume Three leads into Volume Four, and Dylan ends this in a very different place from where he started. It’s all still compelling, though. So compelling that you might want to forget about individual volumes and just pick up the Deluxe Edition compiling the entire story.
