Art by Tirso
Colors by Javi Montes
Printed by Humanoids
If you want a nice gothic feeling vampire monster comic book then this is the one you want to spend some time with. While the original series never came out in terms of being a completed series, the trade paperback is the graphic novel you want to pick up. While there are some continuity issues with the comic book set in 1949 referring to Nazis, overall this is a nice gothic vampire evil doctor style graphic novel that is well worth looking at if you are a fan of horror comics. You might want to get the digital edition of this one first and see what you think of the whole thing, and if you love it, go pick up the printed edition to add to your horror comic book collection. The story takes place in Czechoslovakia, where a young girl Sarah finds herself an orphan after watching her parents get brutally killed by monsters. The problem is, that this is no ordinary orphanage, and those are not ordinary doctors poking at her, really they want to see if she is going to turn into a monster herself.
As the tale spins along its path, we find that the orphanage is really the site of monsters versus humans in an epic battle to control the world. The kids are necessary pawns in the game as they are indoctrinated into supporting humans, or supporting monsters. This conditioning is not going to take for everyone, Sarah and some of her compatriots included. This leads to the divergence point in the tale, humans versus monsters, and the children that are caught in the middle of very adult games of control, power, and in some cases raw survival.
The comic book has an awesome gothic feel to it, dark, brooding, foreboding, and has the feel of great things are going to happen if you dare turn the page. While there are some standard horror comic book moments in this story line, some of the pages and the context really stand out as a good example of what a horror comic book can be, and should be if you are going to purchase it. I will rate this one four of five stars, again there are some cliché moments to this, but overall the story line is engrossing, and I enjoyed it because of the dark gothic feel to the whole thing. Emo kids will dig on this comic book like you would not believe, so it is well worth the purchase either digitally or in physical form if you want to add this to your comic book collection. Humanoids has done a very good job of bringing a European comic book to the USA market, and while there are a couple of translation errors that will make you crazy, it is worth the read.