Freshly Spilled Blood Coats The Labyrinth – The Kill The Minotaur TP Collection

Athens lost the war to Crete. Now, they pay tribute to King Minos by sacrificing their best citizens to his unearthly labyrinth. Conspirators believe Theseus can be the hero they need, who can end the mad king’s bloody reign…but no one on this world has ever encountered anything like the savage minotaur. Chris Pasetto, Christian Cantamessa (Red Dead Redemption) and Lukas Ketner (Witch Doctor) reinvent the most fearsome beast in all of mythology with this horrific tale of heroism. Collects Kill The Minotaur #1-6.

The first appearance of Theseus and the Minotaur in literature was more than 2,000 years ago. Plutarch, Ovid, and Horace all wrote accounts of the legendary confrontation, but the story is much, much older than the written records, having been passed for generations through oral tradition.
In the classic story, Asterion was a bull-headed monster born to Queen Pasiphae of Crete after she got down with a bull. The beast was imprisoned by King Minos in the center of the Labyrinth, which he had specially made by Daedalus and his son, Icarus. The Minotaur was offered regular human sacrifices to satisfy its cannibalistic hunger. Eventually, Asterion ran up against an Athenian prince named Theseus, and, well…I think we all know how that turned out. (The man-bull died.)

Chris Pasetto and Christian Cantamessa took on a massive challenge (took the bull by the horns?) in bringing such a well known mythos to a modern audience with Kill The Minotaur. They took a few liberties with the beast’s origin story, and added a few characters, but left most of the major plot points intact.

KTM’s Theseus is headstrong, quick-witted, and skilled in hand to hand combat. He’s also cocky, selfish, and more than a little dickish. He spends a lot of time trying to find the setup that will get his hero song written. Minos comes off as appropriately homicidal and insane. Daedalus is brilliant and more than slightly off center. The dialogue and interactions between characters are well planned and help the reader invest in the story with minimal exposition.

The art team of Lukas Ketner and Jean-Francois Beaulieu nail this thing to the wall. I’m probably not the first guy to compare some of the artwork in this book to James Stokoe. It’s got that hyper-detailed, hyper-colored, strangely familiar, oddly grotesque, visually satisfying quality of Orc Stain and Aliens: Dead Orbit.

Kill The Minotaur is a solid, straightforward modern spin on a familiar ancient myth. If you’re into horror, fantasy, or Greek mythology, give this one a go.

Kill The Minotaur TP, published by Skybound/Image Comics, releases 31 January 2018. Created and written by Chris Pasetto and Christian Cantamessa, art by Lukas Ketner, color by Jean-Francois Beaulieu, letters by Clem Robins.