Comic Books

[30 Days of Halloween] The Lost Boys #1 Review

October 13, 2016

A sequel to the 80’s classic horror movie, The Lost Boys, is making its way to comics this month, care of writer Tim Seeley and artist Scott Godlewski. Big shoulder pads, bigger hair, and a vampire hunter that looks suspiciously like Corey Feldman return to the beach town of Santa Clara, California, for a date with some more blood sucking ghouls. It has to be better than the direct to video sequels, but is it good?

The Lost Boys #1 (Vertigo)

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I grew up in the 80s, when the theaters and video market was flooded with horror films of all type. 80s horror featured gratuitous use of blood and sex, with a wink to the audience as masked psychos and hermaphrodites came up with more and more inventive ways to kill obnoxious young people in lazy sequels. However there were standouts like John Carpenter’s The Thing, Fright Night, Night of the Creeps, and Evil Dead II, which were inventive and original without relying on those tropes, but were still able to capture a sense of fun that is missing from modern day horror films. The Lost Boys made a name out of actors like the Coreys (Haim and Feldman), Jason Patric and Kiefer Sutherland, but it also embodied the feel of the decade as much as any horror film released then, which is probably why it achieved the cult status it has today.

Seeley picks up the story not long after the events of the film, where brothers Sam and Mike defeated a group of teenage vampires intent on adopting them to their evil ways and making their mom the bride of head vampire, and video store owner, Max. All is seemingly well as Sam has started working in his vampire hunting friend’s comic shop. The Frog brothers themselves are training to become better hunters with Sam’s grandfather, who apparently knows more about the existence of vampires than he let on in the movie. Mike is dating the now-human Star and rubbing old people’s feet at a retirement home (don’t ask). In short, the first issue is getting us reacquainted with the characters from the film and setting up the story to come, as there isn’t much vampire action until the end of the book.

I was glad to see they didn’t modernize the story and set it in present day, since the look of film, although dating it, is very much one of the draws. Godlewski does a good job of adding details from the film, like putting Sam in the same corny white overcoat that he wore in the film (you’re at the beach, man) and the Rambo headband that Edgar Frog still wears. He even makes sure the 80s hair is still present and accounted for. The characters are easily identifiable as their movie counterparts, which makes the transition smoother.

Is It Good?

This issue does a good job recapping and transitioning into the new story. Not much has been expanded on yet, but I’m looking forward to seeing if any of the baddies from the film make an appearance. There’s a lot of fertile ground to work with here. The movie was light on details about where the vampires came from and any of the history the town has with them, especially since we know there is a history, given Grampa’s vampire hunting club. It was a good start and I can only hope in the coming issues the comic lives up to the movie’s sense of fun and blood in the way only an 80s horror film could.

Oh, and I’m also hoping the muscle-bound sax player makes a cameo. Hell, put him on the cover.