Black Comics Month: Toss A Coin To ‘Quarter Killer’

Ah February, the month of love, and the shortest of the twelve months. Also, more importantly, it’s Black History Month.

Welcome to the first entry of Black Comics Month! Where every Friday this month we (myself & sometimes a friend) will be bringing you a column specifically focused on comics from Black creators. They’ll span the vast genres that comic books can touch from superheroes to magic to vampires and even cyberpunk.

Let’s kick off this thing with Quarter Killer, a cyberpunk Robin Hood series from Vita Ayala, Danny Lore, Jamie Jones, and Ryan Ferrier.

Say hello to Quarter Killer, aka Quentin Kidd, a former corporate hacker offering his services to anyone who pays with a specific currency. You guessed it, quarters. Why quarters? Because in this cyberpunk future they are old school currency that is no longer traceable. Great for making phone calls and playing some of those retro arcade machines.

They live by only two rules: they don’t work for criminals or police, and they do not kill.

Action and digital escapades fill these pages, but at their core the stories focus around the idea of community, identity, and family.

Hot damn is this good stuff.

Ayala and Lore are two of my favorite writers. There was no doubt that I would like this combined outing from them, and it had to be on this list — both because of how good they are but also for the genre that it features. Bringing Cyberpunk and Afrofuturism into the same space in this way just works. I could read a whole full ongoing series of the adventures of Quarter Killer and their crew.

Jones’ artwork is dense, vibrant, and lively through the whole endeavor. It really hits those perfect beats of exaggerated but also hefty and grounded with plenty of dark gritty beats sprinkled in with the somewhat whimsical energy. Thank goodness as I matured I came to greatly appreciate art styles that were not “photo realistic” or similar. I would have missed out on amazing stories like this one.

In interviews, Ayala and Lore spoke of how this series had begun percolating in their minds back in 2009 before it finally saw print in 2019. Even with that time gap and the years since publication, so many of the issues and scenarios featured still feel timely. Because unfortunately a lot of things haven’t changed enough in the world at large in all that time.

While we fight against so many similar things in the real world there is something cathartic about a world where someone can fight against them. We need someone able to stand up and tear down those that lord their power and wealth over everyone else.

Finally cracking this book open at this moment in time felt right, even though that says very little for our current situation. What it does say though is how powerful, fun, deep, and resonating this series really is.

Starting with this one was the right way to go. If you haven’t read Quarter Killer yet, or haven’t re-read it yet, now is the time. What are you waiting for?