Tag Archives: kyle starks

Wrestle Heist #3 adds more absurd humor as well as motivation

Posted on by
Wrestle Heist #3

If our heroes survive the trap set for them by crooked promoter Buddy Hansen and if they can survive each other they turn their attention to the greatest heist in Wrestling History! Is there team complete? Are they prepared? Will there be a training montage? You better believe there will be! Does this issue curiously make this series an evergreen Thanksgiving season classic? Curiously it does, indeed! Wrestle Heist #3 is another fantastic issue that expands the heist plan while adding more motivation.

Kyle Starks has delivered a fantastic series so far and Wrestle Heist #3 is a great example of how and why this series works so well. On its surface, the story is a simple heist story, though a bit exaggerated in so many ways. But, not all that below the surface is some biting commentary about the wrestling industry and its underlying issues and outright abuses.

The second issue left some of the team in a hardcore match to free up one of their members to participate in their planned heist, but from there, it’s the addition of a new team member as well as discussion as to why they’re all doing what they plan on doing. With a lot of risk, the comic up to this point has delivered a fairly simple reason for everyone’s actions but Wrestle Heist #3 adds some depth to it. While enjoy Thanksgiving, our band of wannabe thieves discuss the abuses they’ve experienced and know about within the industry and perpetrated by their target. There’s thinly discussed real world issues and individuals and the group touches upon racism, sexism, abuse, drug abuse, homophobia, sexual predators, and more.

While all of that might seem weighty as topics, Starks delivers it all with a sincere take but at the same time small additions that take the tension and seriousness out of it all. One group members loves the drugs, a solution to so many problems in their mind. Another reveals they’re gay and while the revelation starts of sincere, it goes off in a direction of horror and humor. It’s the sort of delivery Starks brings to the comic over and over, just when you think it might go off in a serious direction, it does something to cut the tension and gets readers to laugh.

The art is fantastic as always with an over the top style to it that helps add to the humor of it all and Vlad Popov‘s colors help make it all pop. The visual delivery of lines just add to the enjoyment of the comic and at times it’s the punchline to whatever joke Starks has set up to be delivered.

Wrestle Heist #3 continues what’s both a love letter to the wrestling industry but as biting commentary and observation about it as well. You don’t need to be a fan of sports entertainment to enjoy it but those that are will find a layer that’ll get you to think and experience it on another level.

Story: Kyle Starks Art: Kyle Starks Color: Vlad Popov
Story: 8.25 Art: 8.25 Overall: 8.25 Recommendation: Buy

Image Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Purchase: Zeus Comics – Kindle

Preview: Wrestle Heist #3

Posted on by

Wrestle Heist #3

Written by Kyle Starks
Art by Kyle Starks

If our heroes survive the trap set for them by crooked promoter Buddy Hansen and if they can survive each other they turn their attention to the greatest heist in Wrestling History! Is there team complete? Are they prepared? Will there be a training montage? You better believe there will be! Does this issue curiously make this series an evergreen Thanksgiving season classic? Curiously it does, indeed!

Three time Eisner nominee KYLE STARKS (Peacemaker: Tries Hard, Rick and Morty, I Hate This Place) and colorist VLAD POPOV (Where Monsters Lie) bring you the third issue of the delightful romp WRESTLE HEIST!

Wrestle Heist #3

End of Life #1 is solid entertainment and feels like the action films of the 90s

Posted on by

Professional hitman Eddie Stallion has messed up. He’s accidentally robbed the Raven, a high-ranking boss of the international cabal of assassins the Menagerie, of which Eddie is a member…or he was. Now with a price on his head, Eddie chooses to hide in the one place everyone knows he’d never go…the small midwestern town of Pluto, home of his estranged father and known hard-ass George Stallion. Looking for safe harbor, Eddie instead finds his resentful father dying of cancer, old friends looking to collect that bounty, Menagerie assassins who have wandered into town, a cancelled newspaper comic-strip creator turned local crime lord, and oh yeah, his childhood first love, too. Kyle Starks and Steve Pugh, the team behind Peacemaker Tries Hard!, present the story of a man-child assassin with some very grown-up problems. As Eddie grows more attached to the people of Pluto, he’ll have to step in to solve those problems the only way a hitman knows how!

Story: Kyle Starks
Art: Steve Pugh
Color: Chris O’Halloran
Letterer: Becca Carey

Get your copy now! To find a comic shop near you, visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com or call 1-888-comicbook or digitally and online with the links below.

Zeus Comics
Kindle

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, we’ll receive a percentage of the sale. Graphic Policy does purchase items from this site. Making purchases through these links helps support the site

ComicsPRO 2026: DC Gives an Update and Tease of more from Vertigo!

Posted on by

Vertigo is back! After the announcement of its return last year, the first titles of DC’s relaunched Vertigo line have started to hit shelves. During ComicsPRO 2026, DC gave an update on the rollout.

Following the successful launch of Bleeding Hearts, End of Life, and The Nice House by the Sea—with The Peril of the Brutal Dark: An Ezra Cain Mystery launching February 25—DC shared updates on the forthcoming slate of DC Vertigo titles arriving throughout 2026.

Beginning this summer, Vertigo will publish 100 Bullets: The US of ANGER and Fanatic, followed in the fall by Necretatious and Black Tower: The Raven Conspiracy.

Winter 2026 will see the arrival of The Crying Doll and A Walking Shadow, rounding out the imprint’s first full year of its return.

As revealed during New York Comic Con 2025:

  • The Nice House by the Sea #7 by James Tynion IV, Álvaro Martínez Bueno, and Jordie Bellaire: Following the survivors of Walter’s “hexagon” experiment, the series explores the terrifying consequences of escape…and the threat it poses to what remains of humanity.
  • Bleeding Hearts by Deniz Camp, Stipan Morian, and Matt Hollingsworth: A zombie named Poke discovers his heart beating again, threatening his place in a society where death reigns supreme.
  • End of Life by Kyle Starks, Steve Pugh, and Chris O’Halloran: A top-tier hitman returns to his Midwestern hometown to care for his dying father…and confront his own mortality.
  • The Peril of the Brutal Dark: An Ezra Cain Mystery by Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips: A noir detective tale that collides with magic, fascism, and a stolen artifact of unimaginable power.
  • 100 Bullets: The US of Anger by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso: Lono returns to America and reignites chaos, taking the nation’s darkest impulses to their violent extremes.
  • Black Tower: The Raven Conspiracy by Ram V and Mike Perkins: Wizard spies in the UK navigate a global cold war over sorcery, revealing a hidden world of occult power.
  • Necretaceous by Tom Taylor and Darick Robertson: Scientists attempt to time-travel to stop a zombie virus, only to land 66 million years in the past, among dinosaurs.
  • Fanatic by Grace Ellis and Hannah Templer: A woman’s obsession with a comic book spirals into a deadly parasocial fixation on its creator.
  • The Crying Doll by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell: A Jekyll-and-Hyde thriller about just how far a young woman would go to protect her best friend, who may (or may not) be a killer.
  • A Walking Shadow by Simon Spurrier and Aaron Campbell: Eight strangers wake up chained to a boat in the woods. No memory. No escape. No explanation.

Preview: End of Life #1

Posted on by

End of Life #1

(W) Kyle Starks (A) Steve Pugh

Professional hitman Eddie Stallion has messed up. He’s accidentally robbed the Raven, a high-ranking boss of the international cabal of assassins the Menagerie, of which Eddie is a member… or he was. Now with a price on his head, Eddie chooses to hide in the one place everyone knows he’d never go… the small midwestern town of Pluto, home of his estranged father and known hard-ass George Stallion. Looking for safe harbor, Eddie instead finds his resentful father dying of cancer, old friends looking to collect that bounty, Menagerie assassins who have wandered into town, a cancelled newspaper comic-strip creator turned local crime lord, and oh yeah, his childhood first love, too.

Kyle Starks and Steve Pugh, the team behind Peacemaker Tries Hard! , present the story of a man-child assassin with some very grown-up problems. As Eddie grows more attached to the people of Pluto, he’ll have to step in to solve those problems the only way a hitman knows how!

End of Life #1

Preview: Devil On My Shoulder #3

Posted on by

Devil On My Shoulder #3

Writer: Kyle Starks
Artist: Piotr Kowalski
Colorist: Brad Simpson
Letterer: Joshua Reed
Cover artist: Piotr Kowalski

She was tortured and abused for forty days by five boys. Two of those boys are now dead at her hand and the next is lined up to get their retribution. But how can Tee get into his fortress home? Or past his monstrous bodyguard? And where is the Fifth Boy? We learn more about the dangerous past of Father Guerrero as Tee’s bloody revenge continues.

A new dark horror four issue series from the creators of Where Monsters Lie Kyle Starks (Those Not Afraid) and Piotr Kowalski (Let This One Be a Devil) that’s perfect for fans of The Crow, Revenge Horror and violent, well-deserved retribution.

Devil On My Shoulder #3

Wrestle Heist #2 delivers fun as the team comes together

Posted on by
Wrestle Heist #2

We reach the best part of any heist tale – putting the team together! Our heroes reach out to another wrestler wronged by evil promote Buddy Hansen to rob him blind at the biggest show of the year – but of course, nothing comes easy as obstacles arise! Wrestle Heist #2 leans into some cliche along its way, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun with an enthusiasm full of winks and nods readers and wrestling fans will appreciate.

Kyle Starks is delivering a series that’s just a hell of a lot of fun. While the main concept is a simple heist story, it going neck deep into the world of wrestling adds a bit to it all that fans of sports entertainment, even casual fans, will appreciate. Wrestle Heist #2 introduces new members to the team, each bringing their own motives and baggage. But, like so many heists, things aren’t going to be easy and this issue delivers side quests and are goofy, fun, and show off some generational differences in wrestling.

For those more into wrestling, Starks is delivering a story that’ll have you guessing who is based on who and what real history the series is lifting some of its details from. Horrible promoters/owners will quickly remind readers of some real life individuals while the wrestlers themselves each feel like ones we’ve seen.

Starks delivers the art too with color by Vlad Popov. The style works so well with an exaggerated look that feels like it fits perfectly for the exaggerated characters of the wrestling world. There’s something with Starks’ style for the comic that just adds to the humor of it all and it gives the comic a look and feel like it’s something you’d see on Fox’s Animation Domination. It’s great with each character’s look telling so much of their story and just nailing the emotion of it all. You feel the hate.

Wrestle Heist #2 is just a hell of a lot of fun. The comic has a familiar concept but packed with characters that make it all larger than life. It’s a fantastic mix of concept, characters, and setting and even if you’re not a fan of wrestling, this is one you need to check out.

Story: Kyle Starks Art: Kyle Starks Color: Vlad Popov
Story: 8.0 Art: 8.0 Overall: 8.0 Recommendation: Buy

Image Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Purchase: Zeus Comics – Kindle

DC announces MAD About DC, A MAD Magazine-style DC comic book parody, publishing on April 1 and guest edited by Chip Zdarsky

Posted on by

DC with some trepidation has announced MAD About DC, a 64-page one-shot arriving April 1, 2026. Yes, April 1. And no, this isn’t a prank—unless you count letting Chip Zdarsky run this thing as its Guest Editor a prank on the DC Universe itself. You’d have to ask Chip.

MAD About DC brings together an all-star lineup of writers and artists to lovingly roast, parody, and generally make a mess of the characters fans hold dear.

Inside MAD About DC, readers will find:

  • Sergio Aragonés with “A MAD Look at Comic Book Stores”
  • Jim Zub and Ramon Perez teaming for “Guy vs. Spy”
  • A brand-new DC Fold-In by Charles Soule and Ryan Browne
  • A parade of MAD-style parodies skewering the DC comic books you love, and a few you’ve always hated anyway, from Kyle Starks, Dave Johnson, Tini Howard, Mattie Lubchansky, Mark Waid, Ty Templeton, Rainbow Rowell, Vita Ayala, M.L. Sanapo, Mark Russell, Steve Lieber, Jeff Parker, Lukas Ketner, Gerry Duggan, Scott Aukerman, Mitch Gerads, Joanne Starer, Joe Quinones, Scott Snyder, Josh Williamson, Deniz Camp, Gail Simone, Colleen Doran, Joe Kelly, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Valentine De Landro, Ryan North, Erica Henderson, Tom Taylor, Bruno Redondo, Mariko Tamaki, Riley Rossmo, Al Ewing, PJ Holden, Shannon Wheeler, Leah Williams, Isaac Goodhart, Cody Ziglar, Daniele Di Nicuolo, Daniel Kibblesmith, Brandt&Stein, Casey Gilly, J. Bone, Skottie Young, Andrew Wheeler, Stephen Byrne, Colleen Coover, Benjamin Errett, Matt Fraction, Kagan McLeod, Lee Gatlin, Joseph Starkey, Graham Roumieu…and more?!

Whether you’re a lifelong MAD Magazine fan, a DC diehard, or simply someone who enjoys watching respected creators make questionable choices, MAD About DC promises to fulfill your every comic book dream…or at least three or four of them.

MAD About DC goes on sale April 1, 2026, wherever comics are sold. No whoopee cushions included. The issue features a main cover by Dan “MAD About Gluten Labeling Because It Should Actually Be Clearer or Else What’s the Point” Panosian ($7.99 US), cardstock variants by Simon Bisley and Chip Zdarsky ($8.99 US), and a foil variant by Panosian ($10.99 US).

We check out DC’s Vertigo Preview to see what’s coming in February 2026 from the revived imprint

Posted on by

We check out DC’s Vertigo 2026 Preview Special Edition showing off what’s coming from the revived imprint in February. It features previews of:
The Nice House By the Sea #7
Bleeding Hearts #1
End of Life #1
The Peril of the Brutal Dark: An Ezra Cain Mystery #1

Story: James Tynion IV, Deniz Camp, Kyle Starks, Chris Condon
Art: Alvaro Martinez Bueno, Stipan Morian, Steve Pugh, Jacob Phillips
Color: Jordie Bellaire, Matt Hollingsworth, Chris O’Halloran
Letterer: Andworld Design, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, Becca Carey

Get your copy now! To find a comic shop near you, visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com or call 1-888-comicbook or digitally and online with the links below.

Amazon

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, we’ll receive a percentage of the sale. Graphic Policy does purchase items from this site. Making purchases through these links helps support the site

Preview: Devil On My Shoulder #2

Posted on by

Devil On My Shoulder #2

Writer: Kyle Starks
Artist: Piotr Kowalski
Colorist: Brad Simpson
Letterer: Joshua Reed
Cover artist: Piotr Kowalski

They tried to kill her, but they failed. Now the five boys that tortured, abused, and tormented her have debts in her ledger, and she’s coming to collect. And her vengeance will be absolute. And it will be glorious. The blood-soaked revenge story continues…

A new dark horror series from the creators of Where Monsters Lie Kyle Starks (Those Not Afraid) and Piotr Kowalski (Let This One Be a Devil) that’s perfect for fans of The Crow, revenge horror and violent, well-deserved retribution.

Devil On My Shoulder #2
« Older Entries Recent Entries »