10/11/06: The Annihilator #1: All Must Die (1981)
                                                                             [Language (and gore) Advisory]

Sometimes, we just want to keep RightWingTrash as a respite from current events. Michael Dukakis taught politicians to avoid discussing vigilante justice during an election, so there's a good excuse to hack out a Theme Week.

The Annihilator #1: All Must Die is the greatest vigilante paperback of all time. Even better, it’s a series that never got past its debut. The reason's apparent once you read this self-published work of genius. There’s no way that author Pete Billac could have maintained the sheer craziness.

Cliff McDade is your average mechanical engineer who becomes a ruthless killing machine once his best friend’s family—and his best friend—is savagely murdered by the Mafia. The grisly details of the crime scene will get plenty of readers to give up on the book. Those faint hearts, however, miss out on the most overblown revenge epic ever.

Let’s close our eyes and open to a page.

Okay, this is the scene where the mobsters are having a meeting, and McDade has already sent them two shoeboxes—in the space of a few minutes—containing, respectively, a dead crime boss’ penis and hands. The third package has just arrived:

“What has the psycho, bloodthirsty bastard sent us this time?” Baiamonte asked.

“What the hell else can he send?” Segretto replied swiftly. He removed the lid, and there—looking up in eyes frozen open in horror, was the severed head of the big boss of New Orleans with his mouth open, and strands and strings of bloody meat hanging down below his neck.

“Holy Mary in Heaven!” one of the Dons remarked. “The guy is a butcher! He ain’t human. He ain’t got a fuckin’ heart!”

McDade would have liked to have been there so he could shove a poker up that Capo’s ass to show him what is human or not…

That pretty much sums up The Annihilator—although we really like the scene where McDade goes to a strip joint and has a dancer point out assorted mobsters while he shoots them in the head. (McDade’s gun has a fancy silencer.) You keep waiting for the stripper to say, “No, I meant the other guy…”

We had the honor of interviewing Billac for an article marking The Annihilator’s 20th anniversary. Not surprisingly, he's a fascinating character. Billac didn’t feel too bad about the book’s blatant stereotypes, stressing that he was only capturing the same reality that brought acclaim to The Sopranos.

Billac also had an amazing story about nearly getting killed while doing a stunt on That’s Incredible! As seen at his website, the writer certainly has broad interests. Too many, sadly, to accommodate Billac ever getting around to The Annihilator #2.

Make it your own: The miracle of Amazon keeps The Annihilator available to the masses. Order through Pete’s website, though, and maybe you can get the book autographed.

 

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