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TOTAL CARNAGE - July 1995

Never mind MPEG-2 - the ultimate in data compression must surely be that displayed in Kill Your Boyfriend, the much-delayed new one-shot from comics ultrastar Grant Morrison, which crams the whole of Quentin Tarantino's True Romance into a 56-page joyride of thrilIs, pills and spills (in that order). Taking pretty much the exact same tone as said movie (and working in some great Reservoir Dogs-style time-play to boot, where the heroine relates events in the past tense as they actually happen), the plot whips through a familiar story (boy meets girl, criminal behaviour ensues shootout at the end) at exhilarating pace, wlth a new surprise plot twist in every second frame (in fact, I didn't even notice the big one just before the end until about the seventh read) and more ideas than every comic you read last year put together.

It's beautifully illustrated by Philip Bond, the perfect penciller of every teenage hero you ever wanted to be, and the dialogue sparkles so effervescently ("Christ! He's airborne!") that Damon Hill's most enthusiastically-opened bubbly seems like lumpy cement by comparison. Trashy and throwaway, but at the same time the first truly, totally, literally essental comic of the '90s.

Kill Your Boyfriend by Grant Morrison and Philip Bond, £3.30. Forbidden Planet: - +44 (0)171836 4179.

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