Halfway-grounded vampires
Let me preface this by saying that, although they are quite trendy right now, you can’t possibly resist vampires, no matter how absurd or melodramatic they become. Or, at least, I can’t. I am indeed a Twilight fan, for starters: I read the first book, dragged a friend to the theater when the movie came out, and bought the DVD within the first month it was out. There you have it – my name is Jordan and I’m a Twilight fan.
That said, I’m still terribly pleased when vampires turn up in a slightly less melodramatic form, which is becoming increasingly rare. Nothing beats the original Dracula, but, just in time for the (arguably) most deliciously terrifying holiday there is, here are some awesome vampires I’ve come across in graphic novels recently:
In Judd Winick’s Blood + Water, Adam is dying due to a lack of regard for his own life until his two best friends reveal that they are vampires and would like to go to the ultimate extreme to “save” his life… or at least ensure he won’t die. If I had to attribute the appeal of this graphic novel to one element, it would be the fact that the story and characters are painfully grounded. Adam’s personal back-story is well established within the first issue , to the point that I actually began to think while reading, “Wait… where are the vampires?” Not that the back-story ever becomes tedious and boring – rather, it establishes the setting and relationships that make the rest of the story. I am typically more fond of ongoing series of graphic novels because it seems that it takes multiple volumes to come to understand and care about the characters and the location. In this one, however, Winick takes care of that in just a matter of a few pages.
Similarly, Howard Chaykin and David Tischman’s Bite Club achieves in one volume what usually takes an entire series of trade paperbacks. This story is, more or less, “The Sopranos” starring a family of vampires. It begins when Eduardo Del Toro dies, leaving a Miami vampire crime family without a decided leader. It’s an amazingly intricate plot for just a single volume – and I had the misfortune (or stupidity) to have read the tiny paperback version – and while that is a feat in and of itself, it actually ended up being a win-lose. Win: it’s awesome and engrossing. Lose: it made me wish I had more time (more story time, that is) to settle into the characters and their relationships. For example, certain betrayals and double- (triple- and quadruple-) crosses might have been more astounding if the relationships were established longer before the truth was revealed. But again, the story was well-grounded and a definite page-turner, so what more can you really ask for?
Both are highly recommended, even after Halloween.
