I Was Killing When Killing Wasn't Cool

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Seymour and Knishkebibble meet Cinnamon Jack in "I Was Killing When Killing Wasn't Cool"
Seymour and Knishkebibble meet Cinnamon Jack in "I Was Killing When Killing Wasn't Cool"
A still from the 1925 Koko the Clown cartoon "Ko-Ko Nuts"
A still from the 1925 Koko the Clown cartoon "Ko-Ko Nuts"

"I Was Killing When Killing Wasn't Cool" is an 8-page comic by Al Columbia. It was published in the fourth (August 1995) issue of Zero Zero. According to the issue's contributor notes the comic was originally intended for the never-published third issue of Columbia's solo comic book series The Biologic Show.

[edit] Synopsis

Seymour Sunshine and Knishkebibble the Monkey-Boy read an announcement by Alexander Crowley promising a reward "in excess of $1,000,000,000" to whoever can acquire one of the fabled hummingbird pies baked by Cinnamon Jack, a blind man said to have murdered his own twin brother. The garrulous, impulsive Knishkebibble browbeats the mute, reluctant Seymour into joining him in attempting to recover one of the pies. As the two approach Cinnamon Jack's house, they find it surrounded by the impaled heads of his many victims. Jack, a scowling, heavyset man wearing dark glasses and carrying an oversized folding blade, stands in front of the doorway. When Knishkebibble rudely demands one of his pies, Jack cuts off Seymour's nose, then attacks Knishkebibble. Knishkebibble dodges Jack's swings and kills him by prying off most of his head from his jaw. He hands Seymour's nose back to him with a resigned sigh, and they enter the house.

The two are disappointed to find the inside of Jack's one-room cottage barren except for a bowl containing the remains of a small animal, a bathtub, and a mirror. While Knishkebibble playfully hops into the bathtub, Seymour looks into the mirror and is puzzled by what appears to be an orange dot in the center of his forehead. When he touches it he is faced with a horrifying illusion that he has pulled his own brain out of his skull, and closes his eyes tightly. Reopening them, he finds a pale doppelgänger with pointed ears and a black cloak staring back at him from the mirror with an evil grin. Seymour flees across the room in a panic and runs into a wall, momentarily knocking himself unconscious. The doppelgänger climbs out of the mirror and moves about the room while transforming his body in strange ways. Turning his hand into a revolver, he shoots and kills Knishkebibble, snickering all the while.

Coming to, Seymour attempts to attack the doppelgänger. He picks up a brick from the floor and throws it at him, but the brick dissolves into a swarm of moths. The doppelgänger surprises Seymour by sticking out his hand for a handshake, which Seymour hesitantly accepts, and telling him "Pleased to make your acquaintance," to which Seymour replies "Oh, likewise I'm sure." As the two continue to shake hands, the doppelgänger's appendage suddenly turns into a pair of clippers which cut Seymour's hand off at the wrist. Seymour glances down at his severed limb in alarm, then looks up to see the doppelgänger's head changing into a malevolent, serpentlike form as it moves towards him. The story ends enigmatically with an image of the exterior of the house at dusk.

[edit] Analysis & criticism

While its plot is relatively simple - Paul Gravett summarized it in one sentence as "scheming little Knishkebibble the Monkey-Boy and his hapless crony Seymour meet the Devil and die"[1] - "I Was Killing When Killing Wasn't Cool" is admired for its meticulous design and its powerful evocation of mood. Tom Spurgeon wrote that it "allows the reader to slowly realize, like the best horror films, that the adventure you are currently enjoying is going to end in ways too terrible to imagine."[2] An editorial that appeared in the final issue of Zero Zero noted that issue #4 "always sells out before any other issues at conventions, even when we take extras,"[3] on the strength of Columbia's contribution.

"I Was Killing When Killing Wasn't Cool" was the first of Columbia's comics to show the conspicuous influence of the animated cartoons of Fleischer Studios, particularly the Out of the Inkwell series with Koko the Clown and "dark" cartoons such as Bimbo's Initiation. The story's dense layout, which fits as many as 32 small panels into each page, creates a strong sense of visual rhythm similar to that of the Fleischer cartoons.[4] Also, its distinctive color palette, which is restricted to fluorescent orange and small amounts of brown, recalls the palette of the Fleischers' early color cartoons of the 1930s, which were made using a two-color process after Disney purchased exclusive rights to three-color Technicolor.[5] Columbia explicitly acknowledges the Fleischers' influence, offering "my sincerest apologies to Max and Dave Fleischer" at the end of the story.

[edit] Musical influence

According to Eric Reynolds, a fellow cartoonist and Columbia's former bandmate in The Action Suits, Columbia listened to the Kicking Giant song "She's Real" obsessively while drawing "I Was Killing When Killing Wasn't Cool".[6]

[edit] Citations

  1. ^ "Al Columbia: Columbia's Voyage of Discovery". PaulGravett.com. Accessed October 13, 2007.
  2. ^ "CR's Halloween Special: Brief Notes on Horror Comics, Art Comics, and Their Intersection". The Comics Reporter. Accessed October 13, 2007.
  3. ^ "Editorial". Zero Zero #27 August 2000, 15.
  4. ^ Pryor, Marshall. "Young Cartoonist Profiles: Al Columbia", The Comics Journal #205, June 1998, 80.
  5. ^ Maltin, Leonard. Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons (New York: Plume Books, 1980), 110.
  6. ^ "Five For Friday #45 -- Soundtrack". The Comics Reporter. Accessed October 20, 2007.