About Pimp Killer
Comic book writer Ghezal Omar is delving into graphic noir crime fighting with the release of Pimp Killer. Although, if the name isn’t clear enough, this graphic novel is far from a PG rated detective procedural.
In Pimp Killer, LA Jones has carved out quite a name for herself as this one woman wrecking ball bounty hunter who will exact the kind of justice that will make pimps think twice about going into the trade of sex trafficking.
Ghezal Omar, who has brought Artist Ayhan Hayrula into the fold, has created this graphic novel which can best be described as a reverse Jackie Brown, both in terms of tone and style. Aspects which I’ll delve into throughout this article.
Reader beware: this article contains spoilers.
Pimp Killer Recap
Pimp Killer introduces us to LA Jones’ sordid crime-noir the same way all could crime-noir stories do: with the protagonist behind bars in a local police station. What I can assume is the Detective-in-charge, Max, lets LA out, leading to the following scene where Max is discreetly handing over intel on a pimp that LA has been following for a while: Lucky Strykes. After a quick feed in the car, Max drops off LA at a nearby homeless encampment, where we learn the empathy that LA Jones feels towards the down trodden when she gives the remainder of her meal to a homeless kid and leaves her card with the promise to help if they ever need it.
Ending up at a local diner, LA is enjoying a coffee as she scopes out the locals and noticed a woman with her boyfriend. The woman sports multiple bruises to the face and so LA asks the waitress Wendy about them. She gives Wendy her card and asks her to give her a call if either of them turn up at the diner again, to which Wendy is more than happy to agree.
Noticing the boyfriend of the battered woman get up to go the men’s room, LA sits down opposite the battered woman in their booth, asking questions about if the boyfriend is hurting her. She, of course, flatly denies and LA leaves her with her card advising her to call if she wants to leave the boyfriend. Who, speaking of which, appears at the booth and starts yelling at LA. Prompting her to grab him on the testicles and twist hard. He learns very quickly that LA Jones is not a woman to screw around with.
We’re introduced to the H-Wood Inn, where LA Jones has set up her base of operations and is trying to figure out the best way to track down and take out Lucky Stryker. Promoting a much needed stiff drink at Bings Bar where she meets up with Brett who seems to be an old colleague but you get a feeling they’re more than just work colleagues when there’s an extremely hot sex scene that follows the next two pages.
One that feels less about just one of them getting off, which is the failing of a lot of these crime-noirs, and more about mutual satisfaction of both of them. After things start to “wrap up” and during the post-sex pillow talk we learn that Brett will do anything to help out LA and LA will do anything to avenge the death of a dead hooker.
While this happening, unfortunately the battered woman from the bar is considering leaving her boyfriend and after looking at LA Jones’ card she suffers again at the hands of her boyfriend. Leading to LA Jones taking some money from strip club owner, Naomi, who wants LA to make the boyfriend of her highest paid stripper Tiff, to pay for knocking her teeth out. With the business done, LA gets up to leave the strip club, but not before enjoying a lap dance from one of Naomi’s finest dancers.
Back at the H-Wood Inn, Brett informs LA that Lucky Strykes has put a bounty out on LA’s head. He urges her to get out of town but not before a stray bullet being shot into her room warns them of an imminent threat. Brett removes his gun from its holster and fires back but is taken out, instantly.
9 days later, LA Jones wakes up in the bed of a woman, Simone, who says that LA needs to get up and back on the case. It seems that Simone was previously in the same work that she is but had gotten out due to the dangers of liberating hookers from their pimps. A danger made all too clear as they discuss this over the freshly laid grave of Brett.
In the next scene, we’re inside the car as LA is watching a prostitute get picked up by a client. As the client starts to punch her back at his hotel room, LA Jones busts through the door, whip in hand. After causing some serious damage with the whip, LA asks some information from the hooker, Amber, about Lucky Strykes. After she gets what she wants she gives Amber some money to get out of town with and turns her attention to Amber’s abusive client, takes a pair of pliers, and plies off his two testicles.
Having finally tracked down Lucky Strykes at the home of a woman called Malena, LA goes in with her gun aimed at Lucky who is in the middle of receiving a blowjob, but not before LA is blindsided by another woman hitting the back of her head with her gun. LA wakes up, tied to a chair and exchanges a few jokes at the expense of Lucky who then hits her in the head. Simone then busts in and starts firing her gun, taking out Lucky’s two goons, a car chase ensues but, thanks to Simone’s expert driving skills, they make a clean getaway. Leaving Lucky’s car totalled after running into a telegraph pole.
Back at Simone’s, the pair soak in a bubble bath, and Simone is far from pleased that LA set her up to come out of retirement to save her and kill two men in the process. After saying a few sweet nothing to each other, LA receives a call, being asked to come to the police station to identify a body. Prompting an obligatory nude shot of LA Jones — with soap suds in all the right places. But before she leaves for the police station she asks Simone if she can get rid of the client of Amber’s who is still in the trunk of LA’s car, missing a testicle or two.
LA arrives at the police station to identify the battered woman we first met at the diner which prompts a highly satisfying brand of LA Jones kicking the ass of the abusive boyfriend complete with whip, an old fashion roundhouse kick to the face and a stab to the throat.
LA Jones will do anything to avenge a fellow woman who’s been abused and the streets are safer for it.
Pimp Killer Review
Writer Ghezal Omar takes a simple premise for a revenge thriller graphic novel and gives it Quentin Tarantino-esque qualities. There’s something about LA Jones exacting revenge on Pimps who exploit women and the way that Ghezal writes the character that gives it a very neo-noir feel to the story. Her characters feel fleshed out and real. Each with their own voices of pain and suffering as they wallow in the lower class of American life. All the while, a darkness seems to hover over the atmosphere of this story, whether it’s through the style of Ghezal’s writing or through the substance of the characters being pimps and how they oppress innocent characters.
Ayhan Hayrula’s artwork reinforces this idea of a neo-noir revenge story that plays on the border that separates thriller and straight out revenge killing. The tone in the artwork feels yanked from the tv show of a cop procedural but at the same time there’s a honesty about how he approaches drawing LA Jones. From her dealings as a vengeful private eye to the delicateness of the sex scenes to the yanking of one’s testicles with a set of pliers. It could’ve been outright Graphic and gratuitous but it’s not — it stays within the boundaries of what a crime noir story should always be.
Pimp Killer isn’t perfect. There are aspects of the story which I feel could’ve been fleshed out a little more. For instance, the connections of the hookers and how they know Lucky Stryker could’ve been more of a slow burn. This wouldn’t have hurt the story in the end. More to the point, it would’ve added to the tension. But then, procedurals are far from an easy craft to master and Pimp Killer isn’t exactly a procedural or a revenge story. That’s what makes it so scintillating. If anything, it’s a proving ground for what Ghezal Omar is capable of. I’d love to see these work shopped into 150-200 page graphic novel — but we don’t always get what we want.
Pimp Killer is savage and sexy. It roots out the worst parts of a society and does to them exactly what we’d all love to do – rip their balls off. It’d be shame if this is the last we see of LA Jones.
What did you think of Pimp Killer?
Is Pimp Killer the type of crime-noir that you enjoy?
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