Kill Audio

September 13, 2010
Prog-rocker Sanchez (lead singer for Coheed and Cambria), this time writing with fiancée Echert, ventures into the world of comics with this vivid but often baffling action story of a troll-like immortal, Kill Audio, in a surrealistic world of music and art. At first he's motivated by a desire to learn why he and his siblings were created. Later it's to carry out his intended purpose: to limit and control excessive creativity. Kill Audio and his energetic gang of grotesques, from a beaver-suit wearing skeleton to a sex-obsessed giant chicken, find themselves opposed by a vast conspiracy whose mastermind is closer to Kill than anyone suspects. Mr. Sheldon's art is crowded and repellent, perhaps too closely reflecting the violent and chaotic world it illustrates. Sanchez and Echert tell their story with considerable energy but a similar lack of clarity; the result is a tale told passionately but in a private language, with fervor but no depth.