When it comes to great genre comics, there’s a lot of be said for chucking everything against the wall and seeing what sticks. A great example of this formula is the new book from Mad Robot Comics’ Matt Hardy, Vehi-Kill which is embarking on a fuel soaked, murderous rampage from Markosia!

Publisher: Markosia
Writer: Matt Hardy
Artist: Norrie Millar, Rob Jones
Price: £1.59 from ComiXology

Nominally Vehi-Kill the story of a bunch of demonic cars, that are suddenly manifesting in towns across the US and the ‘priests’ who are chasing them down. It’s a solid mix of genre staples and reminded us of everything from 80s action movie Maximum Overdrive, through to Vince Hunt’s Murder Road and also MI:666 with it’s mix of carnage and the occult. But really just an excuse for a a lot of outlandish action, vehicular mayhem and a lot of shouty dialogue. Which is fine by us!

With such an outrageous concept, Hardy hasn’t opted for layered complex story telling or soft and delicate dialogue, instead he has gone for all out action! As such there’s not a lot of obvious depth of character and subtlety to this first issue, but that’s not point. We do get a rundown of who all the main protagonists are, but it’s often in the background compared to the action, however there is enough to move things along in this issue and set thing up for the future.

One thing that will definitely sustain this book is that this is clearly being put together by a team who are having a lot of fun making it! (This is often the secret to a great indie book!) Hardy is revelling in the ridiculous set ups he has created and pushing everyone to the extreme. While artist Norrie Miller brings the mayhem with a great mix of strong characters and detail (but without over doing it). His style is like a mix of Vince Hunt (MI:666), Dave Braughton (Shaman Kane) with the colour and strong shadows of Rory Donald (Griff Gristle). He manages to make the most of every action packed panel, and packs the book with great moments, without relying on an excess of splash or spread pages – although there is one excellent DPS which really makes there most of the situation. He is ably assisted by the always quality lettering talent of Rob Jones who gets in on the fun and help make this book a gloriously over the top read.

Vehi-Kill is a fun and full throttle read, that hits top speed very quickly and never lets the foot off the pedal as it plows through it’s world on a blood soaked killing spree of vehicular mayhem!