Sexcastle is a 2015 action/comedy graphic novel by Kyle Starks that tells the tale of a typical eighties action hero searching for a new life and redemption with plenty of laughs and humor along the way. It mixes a simple yet appealing art style with a plot that gleefully sends up just about every action movie cliche in the book.
Shane Sexcastle was once the deadliest assassin in the world before getting sent to prison after killing the vice president of the United States. Now all he wants to do is retire from a life of senseless murder, move to a quiet town and get on with his life... but things are never as easy as that in these kinds of stories. After a run in with a local gang Shane soon finds himself targeted by some of the top hitmen in the world, including more than a few familiar old faces from his past. Can he find a way to leave his dark impulses behind him for good? Can he even hope to survive long enough to try...? (Probably. The good guys usually win in these things after all...)
- Atrocious Alias: Thunderbutt, one of the assassins hired to kill Shane. He's about as impressive as his name would imply.
- Bears Are Bad News: Near the climax of the story Shane is strapped to a chair in a cage with a polar bear and covered in hotdogs. He manages to get it to back down through sheer intimidation.
- Black Comedy: The book is filled with it. Shane saying "Yep. It's going to be a good day." seconds before being surprised by a bloody and battered Chou warning him of several assassins arriving in town to kill him is probably one of the best examples.
- Chekhov's Gun: Done literally with the gun Shane disarms from one of Bradley's men and leaves on the roof of Jo's house.
- Doesn't Like Guns: Shane really doesn't like using them. Early on when he disarms a mook he tosses the gun away and fights them hand to hand. In the end he makes an exception for the Dragons, which are a pair of gun-chucks.
- Eyepatch of Power: Shane wears one of these to complete his Snake Plissken look. He also keeps a gun hidden in it.
- Heel–Face Turn: Bradley's men ultimately choose to desert him at the end of the book and go on to live happier lives.
- Impossibly Cool Weapon: The Dragons, a pair of gun-chucks.
- Improbable Weapon User: Shane kills one of The Damn Twins with a pair of used women's panties.Twin: What's that smell?
- I Own This Town: Wes Bradley, to an outright obsessive degree.
- Neck Snap: This is how Chou dies.
- Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: One of Wes Bradley's goons tries to intimidate Shane this way early on. He isn't impressed.Malone: You ever hear the phrase "you brought a knife to a gun fight?"Shane: This is worse than that. You brought a YOU to a ME fight.
- One Last Smoke: Shane uses this to get the drop on Dutch Matrix.
- Past Experience Nightmare: Shane suffers from these as a result of his past as a psychopathic killer.
- Revenge by Proxy: Invoked. Chou is murdered by the assassins near the halfway mark of the book to provoke Shane into going after them in revenge.
- Right-Hand Cat: Wes Bradley naturally has a pet cat with him at all times.
- Shout-Out: All of the assassins are references to famous action movie characters. Shane himself seems to be a mix of Snake Plissken and John Wick.
- Shovel Strike: Shane at one point dispatches an assassin with a shovel.
- Smoking Is Cool: Shane, much like many of the action heroes he's inspired by. Notably averted with Wes Bradley though, who smokes clove cigarettes and is compared to a moody teenage girl.
- There Are No Therapists: Averted and lampshaded at the end. After a few minutes of angsting after becoming a killer again Shane is about to have a mental breakdown when Jo suggests he simply see a therapist and get some help. He agrees and they start a happy new life together.
- Would Hurt a Child: Wes Bradley attempts to turn his gun on Max at the climax of the book and Dutch Matrix brags to Shane that he personally crushed the skulls of the vice president's children.
