This was an interesting read. The artwork was pretty good. I could understand the characters, and I thought there was a good balance between the action and the main plot. I liked the character development but there was something missing to make me completely invested. I thought the premise was intriguing, and it's definitely a great insight into the highly macho, homophobic world of professional sports, but something about the execution fell flat for me.

I have received an ARC from Netgalley and I am voluntarily leaving an honest and unbiased review.

A well-put-together story of masculinity and self-acceptance. The complicated relationship between the characters was something I greatly enjoyed. The art was simple but expressive and the limited color palette worked well for the story.

This graphic novel, about a young MMA fighter who was forcibly outed before a championship fight being forced to turn for coaching to and older gay fighter who also happened to kill the young fighter's bigoted father in the ring, could have been great. But the story was just a tad too conventional and Rocky-esque, the plot too crammed in to too short a book, the characters too cardboard and one note, and the art to murky and mistaking splashes of a single color for drama and atmosphere. I will say the fight scenes were drawn well, and it was a fine read, but not something that was especially well done or memorable.

I love MMA and I was excited to read this graphic novel by Steve Orlando, Phillip Kennedy Johnson, and Alec Morgan. Kill A Man spans two generations of fighters who face the same obstacles. It is not that far-fetched as the world has not really changed in regards to homosexuality - especially as it relates to sports dominated by bio male humans.

One man is killed in the ring, but I do not look at as “murder” because those are the chances when anyone enters the ring or decides to engage in a fight. The impact of the fight effects more than just the family of the fighter, but the one who fought him, and the sport around them.

Jim Campbell’s lettering is clear and flows without any awkwardness. Artist Al Morgan flows between three tone and two tone panels which work for a male-dominated sport and story. The graphics are clear and you can deferiate the characters. The story by Orlando and Johnson is one that is relatable and gives readers a glimpse into the reality of sports. We do get a happy ending in the romantic arena for young Belly.

I loved Kill A Man. I love the fight sequences and the story. I love a book with a message and a HEA even though that doesn’t always happen in real-life. Orlando, Johnson, and Morgan give us one in Kill A Man. (Aftershockcomics.com, 9781949028478, 3 June 2020, pp. 129). Goodreads. StoryGraph.


I received an ARC of this book and I am writing a review without prejudice and voluntarily.

Sometimes you have to fight your way to success, even more so if you’re a queer person, surrounded by bigots.

James Bellyi is a young MMA wrestler who’s outed by his opponent in the middle of a fight and now, the company he works for, doesn’t want him to get the title, even if he deserves it.

On top of that, James’ dad died a few years ago by the hand of a gay MMA wrestler too. You see, DJ Bellyi was a homophobe who practically was asking to get beaten down. Wayne was the one who knocked him down for good and the guy never got up again. But this death changed both young James and Wayne. Now, so many years after that accident, Wayne becomes James’ coach and he helps him get back on the horse.

Now, this kinda sounds like the movie Creed, I know, the only difference is that we got a queer MC. Thus, we have the right amount of drama and action scenes that make this a fast read. Though I wasn’t really in love with the art style, the story has its strong points.

I would definitely recommend to read this graphic novel whether if you’re a fan of MMA or you’re interested in different yet entertaining queer stories.

2/5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley for providing this e-arc

This was.....meh? Not really the bestest fan of non manga graphic novels

*Netgalley gave my a copy in exchange of a honest review*

Kill a Man is a graphic novel that tackles a, sadly, still present stigma about gay men in manly sports like boxing, racing, football, etc. In this case the main protagonist is a MMA fighter whose outing during a press conference signifies an early end of his promising career to become the middleweight champion. With everyone turning their back on him, he has no option but to ask for help to the only person that could help him fight for his right to the title: the man who knocked out his father dead.

This was such a gripping read, the characters are interesting and their development well done. The minimalistic/line economy artstyle combined with the agressive color palette works very well with the gritty, bittersweet tone of the story. The composition of the fights were my favorite part because they really reflect the dynamism of MMA fights.

My only complain is that the end is left open and doesn't examines further if the industry becomes more "accepting" after all. Maybe there's a chance for a 2nd novel? Who knows.

The book is about a young closeted gay mixed martial arts fighter, James Bellyi, who has to navigate the world when he was suddenly outed by his opponent. He was supposed to at the height of his career, being the next contender for the championship, and once "outed"t the male-dominated culture of MMA starts to slowly reject him. Adding more drama to the protagonist is the fact that, as a child, his father was killed in the ring by a gay MMA fighter, Xavier Mayne.

This book mimics the true event that occurred during a boxing match between Emile Griffith and Benny Paret. In that match, Benny taunted Emile with homophobic slurs, and Griffith won by a knockout, but inadvertently killed him.

I found the story to be gripping because James realized by being shunned by family and his MMA community, he needs to seek out the help of Mayne to get trained for the next big fight. This is a nice, and interesting take of a story of a sports underdog. It is pretty obvious that both authors are well-versed with the MMA world and the pacing has the right beats that bring the reader into the fights as well as takes its time with the dramatic elements of the story. There is very striking drama especially with the tone and language between the son and mother. The artwork is easy to follow and has some depth of movement during the fighting scene. I never felt lost with the story-telling. It didn't feel boring and I was definitely hooked from the start. I am familiar with Orlando's writing, especially his DC works, as well as Kennedy Johnson's world-building stories. Having them paired for this book is a great boon for the readers. I do hope to see them collaborate again on another project.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me a free arc of the book in exchange of an honest review.

"Kill A Man" ia a graphic novel that centers around James Bellyl, the son of MMA fighter, DJ Bellyl. After DJ Bellyl is killed in the ring by another fighter, James takes up the mantel of aiming to be a champ.

Overall, I really liked this graphic novel; the character of James was compelling and you really root for him the whole way through. The other main protagonist, Xavier, is the man who killed James' father – and you really root for him too. Yes, he killed a man, but DJ Bellyl was a raging homophobe (not saying he deserved it - even Xavier wishes the outcome were different - but DJ Bellyl is anything but a victim). The real victim here is his son, who aims to be a athlete in a sport that "is not ready" for a gay champion and has been taught by his own father that to be a man you must conform.

There were a few parts that I wish were written just a tad bit different (like when the word "COCK" is bolded and said aggressively- yeah I just cringed haha) but otherwise, a solid read. The plot is pretty linear once we are introduced to the main antagonist - an asshole who exhibits the same homophobia James' father aimed at Xavier, but while the plot was pretty straightforward and almost predictable, it was a good spin. And as the authors of the novel mentioned, this story deserved to be told as a gay man in such a masculine sport is often overlooked.

And because this is a graphic novel, the drawing style is real fitting, I was never really confused by the drawings and it offered enough grit for the testosterone-heavy demands of the story. Real charming. 4/5

This is a gripping read. DJ Bellyi is a homophobic MMA star who is killed in the ring by Xavier Mayne his gay opponent. Years later Xavier's past come to haunt him when James Bellyi (DJ's son) asks for Xavier's help. James has been outed by an opponent but he us determined that homophobia will not stifle his career. He asks Xavier to train him for the fight of his life.

This is a really thrilling read. I wasn't too keen on the artwork because it was too dark for me but that is a personal choice. The story was great. I liked the way the story unfolded by starting with the past battle and then bringing us to the present. Best of all is the determination and courage of the main characters as they go up against the homophobic MMA establishment.

If you like graphic novels that will grip you, then this is definitely for you.

Copy provided by publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

Kill a Man is raw, violent, powerful. Steve Orlando, Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Al Morgan, and Jim Campbell’s story of a gay MMA fighter who gets outed and sets himself down a path for revenge is an unflinching exploration of homophobia in the sports world, of the challenges of coming out, of the self-destructive consequences of revenge, and of finding peace with yourself.

In the early days of mixed martial arts, before the EFC—Kill a Man‘s stand-in for the UFC—was as big as it is today, Xavier Mayne fights DJ Bellyi. Mayne is openly gay, but that’s something that’s far from widely accepted, as seen in Bellyi jumping straight into the homophobic insults as their fight gets underway. Xavier can only put up with so much before he snaps; what should have ended in a knockout instead ends with DJ dead on the mat.

Fast forward 20-odd years, and DJ Bellyi’s son, James, is one of the EFC’s rising stars, known for his flashy and aggressive style. He finally earns the right to challenge Derrick Waldron for the middleweight title—but during a pre-fight press conference, Waldron drops a bomb: James Bellyi, the son of a fighter killed by a gay man, an incident that made his already homophobic family even more so, is gay.

This seems like the end of James Bellyi’s career. The EFC manufactures an excuse to disqualify James from the fight with Derrick Waldron—ostensibly because of it was discovered that he won his previous fight due to an illegal strike, but really because “EFC fans aren’t ready for a gay champ”—and with no coach and no team ready to take James on, his left with no choice but to turn to the only person he can think of who knows what situation he’s in: Xavier Mayne, the man who killed his father.

A reluctant Xavier eventually agrees to help James fight his way back to the top and, hopefully, win that middleweight belt once and for all. He’s also got his own demons to deal with, and the weight of what happened so many years ago weighs heavy on his mind. But maybe if he can help James—not just to win his fights, but to avoid making the same mistakes that Xavier made—he can finally lay those ghosts to rest.

Through this setup, Kill a Man holds no punches in confronting the homophobia that’s still so prevalent in the world, and especially in the world of sports. The EFC may be a fictitious organisation, but it’s not hard to imagine its real-world equivalents having the same reaction to the possibility of a gay champ—saying the right things and talking positively in front of the camera, but knowing that it would alienate a huge section of the fanbase and doing everything behind the scenes to prevent that from happening.

In the same way, Kill a Man looks at the difficulties of coming out, especially when you’ve grown up with a family as hostile towards queer people as the Bellyis. James’ life would have been so different if he hadn’t been raised to hate “those people”—to hate himself. And with no one to turn to, at least until he meets Xavier, James really has no way of figuring out how to be who he is.

Again, Kill a Man is unflinching in all this. It presents the ugly reality of a homophobic world, with all the slurs and hatred that comes with that. Coupled with a story mostly driven by James’ desire for revenge, it’s a violent, bleak, depressing book. Al Morgan’s art really drives this home: heavy shadows, sharp lines, limited use of colour, and lots of angled shots that show the unbalanced state of James’ world. There’s plenty of energy in the fight scenes, but they’re not what I’d call “exciting” in the way that an action comic’s fights usually are; rather, they emphasise the violence and the desperation of the situation.

But there’s a glimmer of hope in there, too; ultimately, Kill a Man is about finding peace, with the world and with who you are, and about challenging the homophobia that it depicts.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC!

The story is as it says in the synopsis so there isn't much else for me to say. The coloring and panel work in this is very nice and helped contribute to the atmosphere while reading.

This is more of a 3.5 but I rounded up for the shoutout to queer people in sports at the end. What can I say, I'm sentimental.

** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE **
Copy received through Netgalley

~

Kill A Man
Steve Orlando, Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Alec Morgan
★★★☆☆
128 Pages
Content Warning: violence, MMA, homophobia, death of a character



This was an interesting graphic novel, with an up-to-date, relevant plot that explores the trials of homophobia within sports, and also takes a look at coming-out, both in terms of a young man being outed and the struggles faced through that process.

However, I do have to point out that one of the reasons I wanted to read this was because it was billed as a YA graphic novel. I was so excited, thinking there would be a sports-and-queer positive storyline in a graphic novel aimed at young men. Instead, I found the book was filled with swearing, homophobia, bloody violence and an MC that had zero romance in his life until the final few pages and was instead consumed by nameless/meaningless hook-ups. The one supposedly positive queer relationship within the story fell flat in terms of actually inspiring sympathy, compassion or a sense of romance. It felt lacklustre and lacked affection. I was never inspired to like or feel a connection to Mayne.
I would never bill this story as suitable for the YA market. Perhaps a NA, 17+ market, but definitely not for anyone younger, which is what YA means.

I did like that the story explored the concept of coming out, as a sportsman, dealing with homophobia in sports, and rigged matches. However, the ultimate message that came across was that gay men can't/shouldn't exist in the world of sports, because they will never be given a fair chance by the sporting community or other sportsmen. Unless those sportsmen were gay, no one would ever accept them for who they were. There was a really HUGE opportunity to portray otherwise, but it didn't, and that really felt like a loss, especially if they do intend to market this to the YA audience.

I genuinely felt that the overall message was negative – it focused so intensely on the fact that a gay man killed a straight man. The story was so set on emphasising this that it came across very negatively towards gay men. It also focused a lot on the concept of gay man not having romantic or intimate relationships, rather just focusing on James' flings and hook-ups. It had ample opportunity to portray two sides of a story, but focused too much on one storyline and that meant it didn't have the chance to properly explore the relationships it should have.

The reality of James' experience with his family, and dealing with his coming out, was realistic and well handled.

Overall, the story was good and had a lot of potential, I was just disappointed to see that some opportunities had been given an opening that was never followed through on. I was also less inspired to forgive those failings, since the story did come across as a bit of a blend between the Rocky IV and Creed movies. As a massive fan of the Rocky franchise, this was far too close to the plot of both movies, and lacked the originality I was hoping for.

Steve Orlando is back with a new OGN. Queer ultraviolence is his brand. Midnighter, Virgil, Namesake and now KIll A Man. From SFF , magic or speculative to a grounded hyper violent story. The title explains it. The OGN starts with fatal K.O. Kickboxer icon DJ Bellyi slurs a queer opponent in the ring, and is beaten to death while his young son James watches in horror from the stands. More than a decade later . the son now grown James Bellyi has become a respected MMA star with top-tier endorsements and an imminent title shot. But when James is outed as gay he loses his standing, support group and loved ones To fight his way back, he turns to the only one left in the world willing to train him: Xavier Mayne, the man who killed his father.

Orlando uses every frame and dialogue to his advantage. You feel the anger, the agony and remaining grief that remained after 16 years. This title highlights queer masculinity in the violent MMA culture. But the art was to blocky for me, i appreciate it as piece but could not enjoy it. I knew it would be violent I guess I can only stomach violence in SFF haha. I love to see this animated or a film stylized the way Alec Morgan drew it. Fans of Orlando will love it. It's a good story about a queer guy

An interesting story. I liked the writing and the characters, but I wasn't crazy about the art. Think of it as an emotional story of a fighter whose life is torn to pieces and who has to learn to accept himself without any family support.

This is one of my biggest surprises of the year.

I picked this up from NetGalley today, after having seen it was written by Steve Orlando & Phillip Kennedy Johnson and being intrigued by the synopsis, and it did NOT disappoint.

Kill A Man is a tale about an MMA fighter who’s father was killed in the ring when he was a child by a queer fighter after throwing slurs his way. Now, all these years later on the cusp of competing for the belt, the main character is outted by his opponent, and the story follows the fallout from there.

Everything about this story felt so well done, nuanced, and incredibly realistic. Looking at history, especially sports history, involving marginalized participants just shows how authentic this story and the struggles are, even and especially today. The main cast felt so well written and fleshed out, and I loved how much this story goes for a realistic bittersweet tone the ENTIRE time instead of exploitative sorrow or kinda cheesy cheeriness.

The art for this story is also fantastic, and I was reminded a bit of The Coldest City as I was dazzled by the style. Al Morgan does the art and Jim Campbell does the lettering, and both look so stunning in the page and have a fantastic presence. It adds an additional layer to the already engaging story, and really won me over immediately.

I can see myself easily rereading this again and again, as well as picking it up for my own physical collection and recommending it to friends. If you’re looking for a good queer comic to pick up, I’d highly recommend this.

Paris 2119 transports readers to the future, a world where technology has provided people with everything they could ever need, instant entertainment, security, and easy travel. Despite this world of wonders Tristan pines for the days of old, and forgoes as much of technology that he can, particularly the new travel pods from the Transcore corporation that allow people to teleport from one location on the planet to another in the blink of an eye, instead, he prefers to walk through the streets of Paris and take the old, battered metro system.

Whilst travelling on the metro Tristan comes across a strange woman who seems to be in a daze, walking around in a trance, barely able to talk. He doesn't think anything of it until he ends up meeting this woman again, as his new boss. However, the woman seems fine now and has no memory of their first meeting. When Tristan sees her on the street acting strange again he follows her, only to see her killed by employees of Transcore. When she turns up alive and well Tristan finds himself wanting to get to the bottom of things, and soon stumbles across a conspiracy beyond anything that he could have imagined.

One of the things that immediately jumps out at you about Paris 2119 is how good the book looks. The artwork has been supplied by Dominique Bertail, and it looks stunning. The watercolour artwork is something that you don't often see in comics, and with the very fine line work that does with it, it gives the book an almost delicate and ethereal look at times. This style of art, coupled with some of the designs for the future architecture and art that fills the streets of Paris makes for some stand out visuals, and locations that reminds me of films like Blade Runner.

The central mystery of the book is one that I saw coming before Tristan, and is one that has been done before in science fiction, particularly in any story that involves teleportation, but it was still entertaining to watch him try and figure things out, and the journey he had to take to do so; especially when he pops across the channel to visit London, which is very different visually from Paris.

Paris 2119 might not be the most original book in terms of story, but thanks to likeable characters, some great designs and a visual style that feels unique, it end up being a book that really impressed me and that I found myself wanting more of by the time it came to an end.