By: Tomm Coker & Daniel Freedman (writers), Coker (art), Freedman (color), Michael David Thomas (letters)
The Story: A modern day vampire story in which a soldier falls in love with a vampire and attempts to free her soul.
What’s Good: Well, this is a very stylish looking book. Although Coker is using a lot of photo-reference, this falls more onto the Alex Maleev side of the equation where they make photo-reference look good (as compared to the tracers out there). If I had to speculate, it looks like Coker is starting with a photo for the general outline of the character or face and then inking digitally over the top of it, so while the faces certainly have the photo-outline look, they also have a very rough and chunky inked shading that keeps it looking good. This is important because a lot of photo-ref artists focus so much on the outline of the character that they forget that shading within the character is what gives it vitality and emotion. I really don’t mind photo-reference as long as the artist does something cool with it and these guys do just that.
The story is entertaining and pretty straightforward, going right into the action as we see a Caucasian man and Chinese woman who are on the run. They’re clearly in love, but something is chasing them. Then they are confronted at a shrine by a talking fox and all these ancient Chinese soldiers with swords and armor and a fight ensues. The man pulls out his gun and starts mowing them down. The fight progressed and then WOW .the Chinese woman nails one of the soldiers and she has fangs an glowing red eyes: She’s a vampire! That’s why they’re on the run!
I have taken to really avoiding preview promotional material and didn’t see this twist coming at all, and my initial reaction was “Cool! She’s a vampire!” so the creators are not guilty of creating, “yet another vampire book.”
From there, we learn a little more about how our main characters plan to free her from the bonds of vampirism so that they can be together. All in all, it’s a cool and well-executed story that has me wanting more.
What’s Not So Good: Well there are going to be some people who are going to object to this title due to the word “vampire” because there has been a LOT of vampire material out there. I’m in a bit of unique position because I’ve never been a big fan of vampire fiction, never read Anne Rice; love True Blood, but never watched or read Twilight; LOVE American Vampire, but skip a lot of other vampire comics. I guess my point is, I’m personally not saturated with vampires, but do know that there are people out there who are. I think Coker and Freedman are offering something fresh and worth checking out, but to each their own….
There also might be people who shy away from the word “photo-reference” and I think that’s a shame. Greg Land and Salvador Larroca are giving that term a bad name, but folks like Coker are showing how it can still be done with style. And, to me, that’s the important thing, but I do understand that there are purists out there who simply hate it.
Conclusion: A fresh story with very stylish art. Coker & Freedman are really just using the vampire genre to tell a story of man-and-woman-in-love-and-on-the-run. They happen to be running from vampires, but this story could just as easily be a crime/exploitation tale of freeing a prostitute from her pimp. It wasn’t an “awesome” first issue or anything like that, but you can tell by reading the first 5 pages that it is going to be pretty good and possibly great (as it does have a LOT of buzz behind it).
Grade: B-
– Dean Stell
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