True Kvlt #2 Review
True Kvlt #2 is a satanic cult meets clerks comic book. It’s written by Scott Bryan Wilson with art by Liana Kangas, colouring by Gab Contreras and lettering by DC Hopkins.
Synopsis:
Previously in Issue 1 of True Kvlt, Burger Lord Shift Manager Marty Tarantella was sick of his dead end life. So in an attempt to reset things, he pulled off a tremendous heist. The only problem? He stole something that belonged to a Cult of Weirdos called the Church of the Immortal Heart Beat. And they’re not happy about it. They confronted him as he was interviewing Alison, a potential new Burger Lord employee…
You can pick up True Kvlt directly from their website or gumroad.
True Kvlt #2 Story
Just like Dante Hicks being stuck at a convenience store for the better part of two Kevin Smith movies, so is Burger Lord employee Bernice who spends the better part of Issue 2 reacting to an untenable situation with a missing manager, over entitled customers and a loud mouth fellow employee who continues to make Bernice’s life a living hell. True Kvlt #2 is a brilliantly executed look into the overly bland workings of hospitality workers stuck in dead end Fast Food chains.
If you’re coming into True Kvlt with this issue, things are bound to get a little confusing so let’s digress a little. All you really need to know is that True Kvlt depicts an over zealous Burger Lord Shift Manager, Marty Tarantella, who stages a heist but in doing so manages to steal something owned by the local cult: The Church of the Immortal Heart Beat. Resulting in his own kidnapping at the kidnapping of Alison, a potential new employee. Issue 2 is really just the fallout of Bernice, another Burger Lord Employee, coming to grips with the shit that Marty has caused. Though blissfully unaware of how and why any of it has gone down.
At first glance, the reading order is a cacophonous state of affairs where you’ll start to wonder just what the hell is going on. However, at second read you’ll begin to appreciate the brilliant madness behind Scott Bryan Wilson’s depiction of fast food workers caught in the middle of the most ridiculous satanic cult known to man. So laughable, Anton Lavey is rolling around in his grave. True Kvlt brings endless Fast Food jargon and metaphor brought to ridiculous heights. Which will leave any reader who’s worked in Fast Food thinking to themselves: “How the f*** did I last so long at McDonalds?”
Wilson’s understanding of Fast Food employee first world drama is at a level only a former disgruntled burger flipper can be. From the overreactive teenager with low emotional intelligence dynamic to the Store Manager who’s never around and always dreaming of better things. Right down to the regular shift worker who spends more time managing the staff and dealing with the bullshit of the day than her Manager is and should be. True Kvlt may be absolutely ridiculous but it’s the right kind of ridiculous fiction which every Fast Food worker can see themselves in – adding to the brilliance of this series.
True Kvlt #2 Artist
It’s extremely hard not to revel in the sheer talent behind Liana Kangas and Gab Contreras’ collective effort. You’ll read this comic book, go back for it a second time, and then think to yourself ‘what is it, about this comic?’ While it’s hard to pin down, I simply can’t imagine another artistic team on this project who could’ve realised Wilson’s vision in a way which reads as an artistic extension of the madness behind a Satanic Cult Fast Food comic book series.
Kangas’ art and Contreras’ colors are as immersive as they are street smart. There’s an intelligence between the two artists which meets in the middle and creates a powerhouse palette of incredible colours and sights. A complete juxtaposition of the content which, if at the ends of any other team, would’ve just played more into the darkness and not as much into the element of fun these artists evoke.
True Kvlt #2 Conclusion
True Kvlt #2 takes this series to a level of exceptional difference that is both fun and filled with nostalgia of working those dead end shit kicker jobs we all loathed in our late teens/early twenties. The irony here is, a comic book about those boring dead end jobs, is a refreshing and much needed break from the superhero superficiality of the big two. True Kvlt is well thought out, insane and loaded with extra fries that come with that special kind of sauce. You know the kind.
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