I'm not normally a big fan of vampire comics, but this one surprised me. The main character or "star" of the series, Jessica Evelyn Murphy or "Eve" as she is simply known amongst her friends and foes, is a popstar singer that believes in her music and her job where she fights supernatural forces undercover. Sure, she has an attitude, but if you had to battle werewolves and such at night time and put up with an annoying and useless agent, you'd understand her position a little more. Eve is having a hard time dealing with her pesky agent Herbie who insists on doing things for her "career" when it really only gets in her way such as signing her up for a reality show that would watch her 24 hours a day, 7 days a week which is hardly an ideal situation for a girl like her. Not only that, but the Council has asked her to do an important mission, and that requires her taking some much needed time off much to Herbie's chagrin.
I enjoyed reading this first issue of a four issue mini-series because Eve has a lot of personality and she's very independent. She works for a "Council" that is made up of people like her, vampires, but often goes off on her own, ignoring the Council's wishes. Eve's independent streak makes her good at what she does best - slaying monsters. There's a lot of humour in this comic, especially when it comes to the messy wizard that advises Eve on her missions for the Council. It doesn't focus on vampire mythology or anything like that, and goes against the usual vampire myths too, like appearing in daylight. Instead, it's all about Eve juggling two different identities. I love the dialogue between Eve and a messy wizard who has a cat that constantly gets into his way. There's a mystery revolving around a character called Devon that's from Eve's past, and now it's up to Eve to solve the mystery before the place is overrun with dark creatures. The writer did a brilliant job of handling the dialogue so that it sounds natural, as if they're real.
The artwork seems rushed in the first few pages of the comic, but as it progresses, it starts to become much more fluid as if the artist has become more comfortable with his pencils. The colours are also a little too dark in the werewolf battle sequences, so it's sometimes a bit difficult to make out what's happening. The art style also seems a bit unusual to begin with, but I came to realise that it actually suits this type of comic extremely well. Ash Jackson has combined the hellish vampire look with a tough girl attitude, and added humour to his style.
Since three different people worked on the colours, I expected to see different colour choices throughout the comic, but they've managed to make their colouring blend in well with the rest of the artwork. The colours used are nice and moody, if a little too dark during night time, but it brightens up during the day. There's some amazingly brilliant colours in the scenes where Eve is fighting supernatural forces that makes the colouring really stand out for me.
If you're in the mood for a light-hearted vampire story with plenty of action and humour thrown in too, then I'd definitely say it's well worth your time checking this one out. It's more of a supernatural story than it is a horror story, so nothing gory/grisly is shown. I thought this was a fun story, and despite my initial assumptions that this was going to be just another vampire comic book, I ended up enjoying it more than I expected to. A character like Eve could easily make it into an on-going series as I can see her having lots of fun adventures. This issue is due out in December from Arcana Studios. |
