Killer Influences #1 Review: Covered in Bloody Fame
When IDW announced its brand new CRIME line of 3-issue series in February, one title in particular caught my eye: Joey Esposito and Valeria Burzo’s ‘Killer Influences’. Set in the depressing, rotting US county of Eden, where we follow our two protagonists, a true crime influencer by the name of Kylie and her new fixation, the serial killer Melvin, as their wants for fame cause them to collide in a fabulously messed-up fashion.
It must be said that the online world of true crime has always felt like an uncomfortable side of internet content to me. The idea of what can often feel like hollow profit-making from tragedy has never sat right with me, which is exactly why this title fascinated me on its premise alone. Having our main protagonist (Kylie) be someone who desperately wants to use a killer to build a social media presence to leave her terrible home is a great setup for a very morally confused character. This moral murkiness is only deepened when Kylie meets Melvin, our second main character, a serial killer with a disturbed life goal of becoming an infamous killer in the vein of the Zodiac and Jack the Ripper.
Whilst Kylie and her relations with her crumbling home life, made up of her overbearing Grandma and all around failure of a brother Evan, make her a natural source for personal drama and tension it also makes her a latch point for the audience in the vain of other morally poor protagonists, her context allows for the audience to get close to Kylie before her decisions test our ability to side with her. In contrast to Melvin’s incredibly static and drama-free lifestyle, which Esposito uses to accentuate his dark actions, his motivation leaves us with nothing to grasp at first. It is only at the issue’s end that we develop a semblance of ‘empathy’ that further divides us between these two characters.
This setup makes the admittedly short cat-and-mouse game these two play in the issue’s middle section explode, revealing what I think is the best part of the series: the exploration of a unique side of parasocial relations that can form in the true-crime sphere. This cycle of ever-rising stakes in fame and violence truly hooks us as readers. This Title clearly aims to critique the ever-present trends in online behavior that turn people into social parasites, all in an effort to break big before they hit rock bottom.
It’s also a pleasure to say that I believe Burzo’s art accents the narrative well; the grainy pencils capture the failing of this setting. Everything about Eden looks worn, muddy, and benign, which makes the scenes of brutal murder not only a visual pop but really stick with the reader in the natural arc of the story’s pacing. Burzo’s art is also given a nice visual flair by colorist Inaki Azpiazu, who allows for the digital stage of influences, comments, and content farms throughout the story to break into the rugged and muted ‘real world’.
All in all, this was an exciting first issue, and with the ending really altering what I thought would be the natural direction of this narrative, I look forward to seeing what issues 2 and 3 will bring. If you are a fan of media like the 2014 film ‘Nightcrawler’, revenge stories, or, like me, have a cynical fascination with others’ obsessions with the morbid, this is a title to look out for.
