It seems like there is a new B.P.R.D. comic almost every Tuesday now. I’m not complaining; just saying, dayumn!
I love vampires. I’m a vampire purist though. I like my vampires to exude sexuality, and to smile a toothy grin soaked in blood. So yeah, celibate-deer-drinkers? Get that shit out of my house, son! Anyway, let me put the soap box away, and let’s get into this review, right proper, ya slags.
B.P.R.D. Vampire #1 (Dark Horse)
Written by Mike Mignola, Gabriel Bá, and Fábio Moon…wait, hold up. Fábio Moon? How has he not written werewolf romance novels yet? Woah, hold on a tic. It appears Fábio and Gabriel are twins. Brazlian twins. Sexy.
I enjoyed the story immensely. The dialogue reminds me of some classic Bram Stoker type lines. For instance, one vampire says, “Come, my dear. Join your sister and me as the night opens her wings to us.” Ah, yeah, that’s the stuff.
Art by well, hey, look at that, they did the art too! Tag team of terror! (Twisted Twins should meet these two, and adapt something together. It’d be twice the twins!) The first few pages are great, images of dead bodies floating in a river. We begin seeing them from below, and then we get to see the bodies from above. Truly haunting stuff.
We discover the year is 1948, and meet Agent Anders of the B.P.R.D.
There is a great flow to the art, panel to panel. We start in a river, and then follow a trail of blood on the snow, through the woods, until we meet our vampires. Good transitions, too. For example, we see one hand slide along the snow, and the next panel is a hand at the same angle, with the same framing, sliding along a wood floor. Also, this white-haired dude vampire has a righteous outfit. I miss when every vampire dressed like a Shakespearean character.
The blood’s the thing.
Only one thing bothered me, and that was the style of the noses. I give you the main offender below, Agent Anders himself:
Sam Eagle?
Is It Good?
9.0
- Art flows really well
- Cool story, with the promise of more eerie, evocative imagery to come
- Hawk noses
- Story based off of previous events in B.P.R.D. issues
So, ahem, let me look up the Porteugese…é bom? Sim, ele é. The art is unique, and despite its cartoonish quality, I enjoyed it, for the most part. Perhaps this is due to the massive bloodletting. The story has me curious in what direction it’s going, and as this series will be a five-parter, I may actually be able to get emotionally invested in Agent Anders and the other characters. Not that we haven’t seen him before. It’s just nice to see one creator’s take on a character for more than two issues.
The only other negative thing I can think of about the comic is that it does go off of events from earlier B.P.R.D. runs. Still, we get a flashback, so it’s not that hard to simply pick up the issue and go from the first without any previous B.P.R.D. reading required.
Looking forward to the second issue.
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