Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Cold — Reviewing ‘The Mafia Vs. The Klan’

Sometimes the title alone is enough to get you reading a graphic novel.

Fortunately, in the case of The Mafia Vs. The Klan, the artwork is enough to keep you reading. And then there’s the story behind the story.

Let’s talk about the project first, because the clock is ticking. The Mafia Vs. The Klan is currently being crowdfunded on Kickstarter, with only hours left before its deadline. (Don’t worry, it’s already funded. But if you want to back it and get a copy of the graphic novel — something you should seriously consider based on the first story beat — you’ll need to act fast.

Then there’s the title. I mean, it pretty much says it all, right? Not since Snakes on a Plane has a title told you pretty much everything you need to know, while also sucking you in.

In the story, written by C.E. Massarai, we meet Italian immigrant Mario Veneri and his 17-year-old daughter Augustina in the New Jersey suburbs of Philadelphia in the 1920s. The first pages made available for previews show Mario as an upright man willing to defy his paisans in the local mafia. But being Italian — plus hiring Black workers for his restaurant — are all the local Ku Klux Klan needs to target Mario. Tragedy soon strikes, sending the peaceful man on a John Wick-like revenge tour.

While that description is interesting enough, it’s the story behind the story that will really get you. Massarai’s grandfather is the real-life inspiration for Mario. His sister Augustina, was gunned down in Virginia in the 1960s. The comparisons between real life and this story end there, but it’s enough to get you thinking.

Ultimately, though, it’s Martin Gimenez’ artwork that sells The Mafia Vs. The Klan. Using black-and-white illustrations, Gimenez telegraphs each character’s motivations and feels through detailed facial expressions. Mario’s head is held so high, his chin is pointed at anyone he’s speaking to. You can see that the Klan members (when they aren’t hooded) are spewing hate without reading the word bubbles. And doomed Augustina is defiant to the end.

It’s reasonable to believe the story takes a significant turn after the events of the limited preview. But that should still make for a compelling graphic novel, particularly if you are into revenge stories.

The Mafia Vs. The Klan — written by C.E. Massarai, illustrated by Martin Gimenez, and lettered by Dave Lents — is being crowdsourced through Kickstarter. The project has already reached its funding goal and is expected to be released by Source Point Press Publishing in March 2027.

The campaign, which ends today at 11:59 ET, can be found at this link.