Graphic Novel Review: THE BEAUTY VOL. 4

Jeremy Haun & Jason A. Hurley craft an even more engaging and intricate chapter in the world of The Beauty Vol. 4 (Issue #17-21).  The story of The Beauty follows a sexual transmitted disease that makes people “beautiful” and who wouldn’t want that?  When people with The Beauty start to mysteriously die people start to wonder whether or not The Beauty is responsible or if there is something more nefarious going on.  The series does a great job as an anthology focusing on different aspects and characters of the world and how they are affected by the disease (whether some people see it as such or not).

In this volume Cooper is a journalistic blogger who gets involved with a whistle blower who works for Abericorp, a corporation who has deep ties with The Beauty.  Cooper, seeing a cover-up, tries to learn as much as he can to expose the truth about what Abericorp knows about the truth of The Beauty even if it puts his life in dangerous.

Haun & Hurley know how to craft a story build around corporate espionage, government secrets, and the truth in journalism in the hopes of bringing “the truth” to the people before it’s too late.  From the very first issue of this engaging and electrifying series what may have started as a simple story about an infectious disease that makes people “beautiful” has become a cautionary tale about so many other things.  You’d think that presenting the stories in an anthology format would be detrimental to the overall series, instead, it allows the whole series to constantly introduce new characters that the reader cares about even if you don’t know their fate.

Matthew Don Smith (Issue #12) and Thomas Nachlik (Issue #18-21) have different styles but they compliment the entire series and especially each of the individual stories that are being told.  This is one of my favorite series and it just gets better and better.

Graphic Novel Review: FULL MOON PRESENTS: SUBSPECIES

The Vampire Radu returns in an all-new story in Action Lab Comics’ Full Moon Presents: Subspecies.  Taking place right after the events of the cult favorite Full Moon Entertainment franchise Subspecies, this new series finds Michelle (a former college student whose friends had all been killed in the films and herself turned into a vampire by Radu) working as a nighttime nurse in a hospital under the name of Shelly.  After having killed Radu four times, she’s trying to put her life back in order by helping people and living off the Bloodstone (a stone that can feed her bloodlust so that she doesn’t have to feed off real people to survive).  Then one night, Radu returns but it’s not quite the Radu she remembers.  It appears that the essence of Radu has been split into five separate vampires who all seek the Bloodstone.  Now Michelle has to find a way to defeat not one but five of her worse nightmares.

This story is written by Cullen Bunn & Jimmyz with art by Daniel J. Logan.  This story fits more in line with fans of the films and less about trying to bring on new fans but for readers familiar with the films this story gets straight into the action and carnage without a lot of (unnecessary) set up and exposition.  Bunn & Jimmyz fills the story with tons of references to the films and Logan’s style of art is perfect for the story as he knows how to bring out the menace and savagery of this vampire story.

The graphic novel is filled with extras but the most interesting are snippets from the actual script used and the steps to the final artwork.  This will interest readers with interest in the process of how the comic was crafted.

Graphic Novel Review: CAPTAIN KRONOS: VAMPIRE HUNTER

Titan Comics’ collected graphic novel of Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter is a love letter to the original Hammer Studios film of ’74!  Written by Dan Abnett with art by Tom Mandrake this story follows the events of the original film with Captain Kronos and his sidekick Grost and the latest addition to the team Carla who find themselves on a trail of a new vampire Porphyr.  Upon dispatching Porphyr, Kronos and his team find themselves outside the border town of Serechurch, which they soon learn is under the spell of an even more deadly menace which may be the greatest vampire threat that Kronos may have ever encountered.

For both fans of the film and vampire fans in general, this new tale is both entertaining and exciting.  Mandrake’s art is a perfect fit for the period setting of the story and has some amazing similarities to the artwork you’d see in the old EC Comics.  Abnett’s story is very vibrant and to the point but still retains the cadence of the characters from the film while also making Carla a more modern woman who has come as her own as a vampire hunter.

The is one of the first of the new Hammer Comics titles from Titan Comics who seem to want to be faithful to the original films while also trying to attract new fans for a new generation.  Despite never having a sequel, the Captain Kronos film has a huge following for which fans will be able to appreciate how much this new story feels like an authentic sequel to the film.

Caroline Munro, who was Carla in the original film, provides a Foreword while there is a collection of great interviews at the end to help readers enjoy the legacy of Captain Kronos.