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Who doesn’t love a good true crime podcast? That said, some shows tend to be a little too enamored with their own subject, and that’s exactly the inspiration behind Killer Influences, the second entry in the new IDW Crime line. This three-issue limited series follows a serial killer and a podcaster who join forces to commit the ultimate murder spree.
IGN can exclusively debut a new preview of interior art from Killer Influences #1. Check it out in the slideshow gallery below:
Killer Influences is written by The Pedestrian writer (and former IGN Comics editor) Joey Esposito, with art by Valeria Burzo (EC Comics) and colors by Iñaki Azpiazu. The first issue features covers by Burzo, David Lapham, David Baldeon, and Sarah Stern.
Here’s IDW’s official summary of the new series:
Killer Influences follows Melvin, a serial killer who is aspiring to be one of the most infamous to ever do it, a true American nightmare. His problem? He’s so efficient and methodical that he doesn’t have a brand. No one has connected his crimes—except for Kylie, an aspiring true crime influencer who is flailing at a small-town newspaper. When she comes across Melvin’s crimes and reaches out to him…she figures out how she’s going to become a star. She will give Melvin the identity he needs to be the iconic serial killer he wants to be, while she follows his exploits on her channel and becomes famous. Kylie and Melvin make a pact that will make their dreams come true and destroy their lives in the process.
“There are great investigative podcasts that deliver real reporting and dig for answers and center the victims and humanity and tragedy of the crimes,” Esposito tells IGN. “But what I find troubling is the other side, not just people fascinated with killers, but fascinated in them without any consideration of the victims or their families. Viewing real lives like characters in a slasher movie. And then, perhaps worse, are those who speculate wildly but authoritatively in ongoing investigations of which they are not a part. Go down a wormhole of Savannah Guthrie’s mom theories online, you’ll see what I mean. So that is definitely the kind of thing Killer Influences is satirizing.”
Esposito sums up main character Melvin as a man who is entirely too good at what he does.
“Melvin is so good at what he does that I think he’s getting a little frustrated, frankly,” Esposito says. “I think he’s stuck in a never-ending conundrum that he can’t talk to anyone about but himself. He’s never been good at anything, but he’s good at this. And I think, like most of us, he just wants someone to be proud of him, though in this case that unfortunately means he wants people to know about this work. Yet he’s so good and methodical, they’ll never know — unless he gets sloppier, but that’s unacceptable.”
As for what podcasts or books might have inspired Killer Influences, Esposito points to one book in particular.
“I was very inspired reading Murderland by Caroline Fraser. It’s an excellent true crime novel mixed with memoir that presents compelling links between environmental pollution in the pacific northwest to a number of serial killers who operated in or were originally from areas near high pollution smelting plants. This includes some of the most famous like Ted Bundy and Richard Ramirez. I wouldn’t say it’s enough evidence to conclude it definitively had a role in their fates, but I thought this idea that a serial killer born from the disease of capitalism was interesting.”
Killer Influences #1 will be released on July 1, with a final order cutoff of May 25. You can preorder a copy at your local comic shop.
For more, get the full scoop on Marvel’s X-Men: Outback series and see an exclusive preview of X-Men ’97: Season Two #1.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
