Kill Train #2 cover a

There's almost no point to reviewing the second issue of a micro indy book, but there's something about Kill Train that's resonated since the first issue.


Real quick : dystopian future, over population, one out of every ten thousand trains in New York is filled with psychos who will kill you to reduce the population, the subway is the one way poor people can travel, everyone just goes along with this and still gets on them because they're broke. Standard future nightmarescape stuff.

Obviously, we need to be on one of these trains to see what all the fuss is about. We also need a rooting interest. It's not going to be the art (which is passable micro indy), so the writing and characters need to carry us along.


And they do.


Writer Olivia Cuartero-Briggs gives us Vanessa, single mother, down on her luck at every turn. We go along with her on what would be a crushing day before she ends up on the titular train, and it all feels pretty plausible and terrible at the same time that this book has something worth saying about people and irresponsible hope that connects.