Posted in: Comics, Indie Comics | Tagged: Abhay Khlosa, gangland allstars, kickstarter

TCJ's Abhay Khlosa Announces Kickstarter For Gangland Allstars

Abhay Khlosa, known for among other things, for a multi-part piece condemning abusive behavior by comics professionals through The Comics Journal, announced a Kickstarter to reissue his comic series Gangland Allstars.

Gangland Allstars is a trio of 17-18 page genre comics, heavily influenced by a mutated version of the 1980s. The three comics in question, along with the artists that drew them are:
1. Death Car by Alfredo Torres
2. Melody Mink by Diego Guerra
3. The Black Ambulance by George Kambadais

The package also includes a cover from Diana Whitney and pinups from Beidak and Paneeps. Sean Witzke and John G. also contribute essays. Helena Masellis also draws three pages of comics.

Khlosa's series at The Comics Journal was acerbic, exasperated, and had a wide blast radius, so I'm at least interested to see what his comics look like. In writing about Warren Ellis' behavior, he managed to say that Brian Wood never had an idea in his life, and Molly Crabapple is a terrible artist. He stopped just short of calling Kelly Sue DeConnick, Matt Fraction, and Kieron Gillen enablers of Ellis' behavior.

Khlosa describes Gangland Allstars like this:

What is GANGLAND ALLSTARS?
GANGLAND ALLSTARS is a collection of three one-shot comic books set in an imaginary "comic book universe" that never existed… but maybe should have.
In GANGLAND ALLSTARS, we wanted to create space for a reader to daydream about an entirely new, larger-than-life comics universe.  But one without superheroes.  Let's instead imagine a universe of mercenaries, renegades, double agents, criminals, cannibals, thieves, swordsmen, gangsters, goons, bare-knuckle boxers, Firestarter-style on-the-run psychics, Jack Hill girl gangs, Rick Moranis in Streets of Fire, everything you love but maybe shouldn't– everything that rots your teeth.
Comics from the publisher of Motorcycle Maniacs.  Comics escaped from an alternate universe where the #1-selling comic book is made by a guy in prison and it's called Cool World.  The Marvel Universe if it had been created by Johnny Craig instead of Jack Kirby. Astro City, except for creeps.  Atlas/Seaboard, except in 1986.

Imagine you're having a nightmare where you're wandering through an abandoned town… empty streets; broken windows… it's too quiet.  You know something bad has happened here, recently, but it's going to be dark soon and you won't survive whatever waits outside of this town when night falls.
There's somebody else in the town, and you can feel it on your skin that they're watching you.
You decide to hide in the town's used bookstore– dust everywhere; dark corners; the power's off. Except: by the window, there's a box of abandoned comic books, forgotten comic books, haunted comics you've never heard of, that never existed, that shouldn't exist…
GANGLAND ALLSTARS is meant to be three of those comics.

Gangland Allstars will run until Tuesday, September 29, 2020, 2:05 AM CDT.

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