Six Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton #1 Will Make You Cry While You Soil Yourself Laughing

The world’s most unlikable action star has been found dead, and his previous TV sidekicks are looking to solve the mystery. But how can you catch a murderer when almost everyone hated the victim? Now, these sidekicks are going to learn what it means to be the stars of the show … that is, if any of them survive the STUNTMAN WAR! Sharpen your kung-fu skills with Image/Skybound’s The Six Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton #1, written by Kyle Starks and drawn by Chris Schweizer with color assists by Liz Trice Schweizer.

Dan Grote: Kyle Starks has made me laugh the hardest comics have ever made me laugh (the scene in Old Head in which Nash Gliven lays up Dracula’s head into a wood chipper) and cry the hardest comics have ever made me cry (Jackson’s reunion with his family in Rock Candy Mountain). So I’m looking forward to being in my feelings with you men about this latest romp about kung fu, stuntmen and all the ways Hollywood can destroy you.

Zack Jenkins: The thing I love about the work of Starks, including but not limited to his collaborations with Chris Schweizer, is that they are very dumb comics that also have made me cry on more than one occasion. The pitch of a “stuntman war” is exactly what I’d expect from this team, and I’m excited to dig into it.

Will Nevin: The magic of what he does — aside from karate chopping you in the feels right after you almost soil your pants laughing — is that there are subtle variations on the same themes across Rock Candy Mountain, Old Head, his take on Mars Attacks, Kill Them All and (probably my favorite Starks joint) Sexcastle. And I think this is going to ultimately slot nicely into the canon while it explores a family (of sorts) and the consequences of being an utter asshole.

Meet the Sidekicks

Pictures of the six sidekicks of the titular Trigger Keaton

Will: All of those core Starks books are about families and relationships (and funny lines, naturally), but in The Six Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton, the family dynamic is a little different because it’s by circumstance and not birth, and yet we have these former sidekicks reckoning with the damage done to them by this insufferable, abusive father figure. The three who caught my attention most were Paul (the one who exposed Trigger’s behavior at great personal and professional cost), Terry (the one who most internalized the abuse) and Miles (the new guy who didn’t know Trigger long enough to be broken). But generally, I think they all seem to be interesting characters because none of them fit neatly into action tropes or archetypes.

Dan: Miles having spent the least time with Trigger, combined with his brief stint in police boot camp, definitely seems to lend him the most clarity when it comes to the investigation, but I keep coming back to Paul’s observation: “You know, I think you might be one of those smart dummies.” Ultimately, he has just enough fake police training to THINK he knows how to solve Trigger’s murder, and let’s face it, the studio would never pair Trigger opposite someone confident and competent enough to stand up to him, not after (I speculate) what happened with Richard Brannigan on the set of Frankenstein & Frankenstein. What about you, Zack, any sidekick observations?

Zack: Terry Komodo has just enough moxie in him to become a lovable favorite by the end of all this. He’s a total turd, but deep down in that turd there’s a kernel of corn that just wants to be loved and never quite figured out how to express it. He was the guy who was told he was always better and believed it despite any and all evidence to the contrary. He loves Trigger, even when Trigger is apathetic toward him. It’s weirdly relatable in daddy-issue ways that I do not want to unpack when talking about this action-comedy book.

Though, if I am going to be honest, my favorite of the sidekicks, Tad and Allison Sainte-Marie, don’t get a ton of play in this issue. A massive amount of credit to Schweizer, who gives each of these sidekicks a unique personality that’s apparent in the design. Still, they all have one thing in common, a life that has been forever altered by working with Trigger Keaton. Which begs the question …

Who Is Trigger Keaton?

Dan: He’s an asshole. There, on to the third section.

No, but seriously, while this is another ensemble cast book on the order of Assassin Nation, there is one — star isn’t the right word, but driving force. Trigger Keaton is an irredeemable jerk with a specific set of skills and a long-term contract. The studio caters to him because, legally, they have to, but most everyone else in his orbit sees him for the smoking, drinking, misogynistic, stuntman-injuring blackheart he is. What do we think about Starks and Schweizer exploring this cartoon strawman for toxic masculinity?

Will: Fellas, let me say first that the transition there was smoother and shinier than an exposed liver, but to your question, Dan, the thing that struck me about Trigger — in addition to what a total butt nugget he is — is that he’s the sort of guy we see everywhere. Looking at it narrowly, he’s a method actor (‘cept with fists) without any care to the trauma he inflicts upon others — you know, like Jared Leto but with physical violence instead of rats or sex toys. But more broadly, Keaton is a fellow who thinks he can go through this life as he pleases with absolutely no consequences, no need to sign for his bill of misery. Yet in this first issue we see there’s a clear price beyond momentarily losing a show or two because the butt nugget wakes up dead. I’m not sure if Starks has a point beyond demonstrating the grief one man can cause — and that such a man (maybe if he doesn’t necessarily deserve to die) shouldn’t be adored or in a place where he can continue to cause harm — but I thought this addressed our current dialogue on abuse and consequence in a way that only Starks could pull off.

Zack: Trigger Keaton sucks, but there’s a line that stuck with me. He’s not sad or lonely, he’s “un-encumbered.” Despite being the formative influence in the lives of, at minimum, six actors and an army’s worth of stuntmen, Trigger describes himself as unrestrained by anything or anyone. Now, he still has beers with Terry, as long as Terry brings the beer, which leads readers to believe that’s a load of bull, but I’m not so sure. There’s a freedom in accepting that you are the villain, that no one cares about you. If you can repress it enough, you can convince yourself that you enjoy the lack of connection. After all, like Trigger Keaton, we all die alone.

Listen, that got dark and I’m frankly having a bad day, how about we close out with goofs?

Mad TV

Dan: OK then, let’s move on to the important question: Which of the fake TV shows presented within this book would you be most likely to watch? We spend the most time on the set of Marshall Art, but from context clues it seems like Frankenstein & Frankenstein is the show people describe with the most breathless enthusiasm when they talk about it. Me, I’d probably be a sucker for Sidecar, if for no other reason than I’m still mad that Heat Vision and Jack never got picked up for series.

Will: Marshall Art would clearly be trash; I know that. And yet it might be so bad as to be unintentionally funny. But if I have to pick one in hopes that it could achieve what it set out to be, I guess I’m going with Spaceboat 3030 because with passable writing, you can at least crank out somewhat watchable genre television even if you don’t have a star cruiser full of thespians.

Zack: I, for reasons inconsistent with everything else I enjoy, don’t care for the syndicated shows that Trigger starred in. I’ve never been a Star Trek or Xena or Walker, Texas Ranger dude, so most of these shows wouldn’t do it for me. But Frankenstein & Frankenstein, a prestige drama about Doctor Frankenstein and his monster solving crimes? I could watch that.

Additional Sidekicks

“Are you saying America is an asshole?” is one of the all-time great Starks lines.
You should’ve known it was me because whoever you heard talking sounded handsome and tall.
Backmatter would lead us to believe there are monkeys coming.
I (Dan) really just wanna talk about this one particular scene in the second issue, but I will practice restraint.
I (Will) know that we have the first three issues because the comics journo life is SO GLAMOROUS, but I’m going to pace myself.
I (Zack) already spilled the beans that my favorite parts so far are in the next two issues, which I learned about because Robert Kirkman gave me some of that The Walking Dead money to give this book a positive score. Joke’s on him and his custom branded bourbon, we don’t give scores!
The Walking Dead bourbon isn’t great anyway.

Dan Grote

Dan Grote is the editor-in-chief of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Winston Wisdom.

Zachary Jenkins

Zachary Jenkins co-hosts the podcast Battle of the Atom and is the former editor-in-chief of ComicsXF. Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside all this.