A Small Killing #1

Alan Moore, a name that brings well deserved attention.  Most famous for his acclaimed Watchmen, Moore would retreat to this original graphic novel as proof to himself that he is more then just Superheroes.  A Small Killing is likely the most overlooked of the "Keystone" Alan Moore books.  It was the winner of the Best Original Graphic Novel in 1994 and it also marks Moore's first major work outside Superheroes.

A Small Killing is not a coming of age story, but more a story of self-discovery.  Our main character Timothy Hole (Pronounced "Holly") is an adman for a big American soda pop company.  His big challenge would to sell this soda to the Russian market.  The adman thing is more back story since Timothy Hole spends his whole time chasing this Young Boy, while the Young Boy chases him as well. This chasing of the boy is symbolic of the innocence he has lost over time.  

 
Timothy Hole has become empty, much like the word "Hole" implies.  Speaking of the name, I love it.  Hole, an empty space.  This is what Timothy has become, a hole, void of real emotion.  Another neat twist Moore does with "Hole" is change the pronunciation of it to "holly".  This is a nice juxtaposition.  Holly is a celebrated beautiful plant of nature, used mostly as decoration in Christmas. For it to be decoration it must die, but Christmas is a celebration of Jesus' birth and life.  Very interesting that this would be the name of the main character.

The art I think is very symbolic as well.  There are few times it is just pencils or inks or half-tones or whatever.  Most of the art is in watercolor and I love that about it.  Watercolor to me is a form of painting that gives a life to it that no other paint can.  Much like the human body contains anywhere from 55% to 78% of water, watercolor is mostly water.  This connection to the building block of life I honestly believe has an affect on us that we cannot understand.   Timothy and his world has a life to it because of the water bleeding into the pages of this story and that is what A Small Killing is about.... Life.

Life is what A Small Killing is really about.  Timothy Hole killing the life of his childhood innocence: Timothy's lust being the reason for the death of a baby,  Robin eggs in which he collected, bugs he captured in a jar.  There are so many ways to kill innocence.

   

A Small Killing is not just the work of Alan Moore, but was a joint effort with Oscar Zarate.  Both of the creators invested parts of themselves into this story, a story which is almost like an everyman story.  It is every easy to relate to Timothy Hole and this ability to relate to him gives a sense of a personal work to Moore and Zarate.  Both men deny that it is based on their own experiences and it is really fiction. It does not matter how much is fact or fiction, for the moral truth is consistent.  Humans error this is history and it is up to a person to embrace their darker sides or to run for it.
 
A Small Killing is a great book and it really is overlooked when people start looking into Moore's body of work.  Thanks to Avatar Press, this book is in print again and is not remastered and contains a new commentary article adapted by Antony Johnston. If you are new to Moore and wonder what to read after his superheroes, A Small Killing is a must.
 
Cheers
- Silkcuts