COMIC REVIEW: BLOOD BLOKES!

Title: BLOOD BLOKES

Format: AMERICAN COMIC SIZED. COLOUR COVERS B/W INTERIORS

Length: 6 ISSUES

Price: £17.50

Publisher: GREAT BEAST

Creators: ADAM CADWELL

Available from: https://adamcadwell.bigcartel.com/

Review:

An everyday tale of slacker vampires in the early noughties… in Manchester.

Vince is a twenty-something dropout from university, who loses his job and his girl and then his life all on the same day. He wakes to find himself all vamperised and wearing a gingham dress on a coffee table in the local vampire den. His new housemates, Mike, Ari and Douglas do there best to explain his new non-life to him (and why he’s wearing that dress.) They introduce him to the thriving vampire underground and hierarchy and rules as he struggles with adjusting.

Cadwell’s art is pretty impressive. Clear-cut and simple, but never lazy. Obviously influenced by Jamie Hernandez, while not being as accomplished (yet.) He takes full advantage to the stark black and white areas to satisfying effect. His backgrounds are full of well rendered detail and in-jokes.

Those references tucked away in the art are a lovely touch in themselves and I’m sure that I only clocked 75% of these vampire and horror related Easter Eggs. There’s even some great ‘Young Ones’ references that I enjoyed!

Cadwell has a good handle on how to best tell a story through pictures… with only a couple of missteps in the whole story.

Vince himself comes across as a lovable loser character much like Simon Pegg’s character from ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and it’s nice to see him actually having a proper character growth during the course of the six issues.

The style of this reminded me quite strongly of the early episodes of the British version of the TV series ‘Being Human’, since it portrays the main monstrous cast trying to keep their heads down and lead (what for them is) a normal life. It has a similar mix of unsettling horror and humour.

I loved the set-up here and would love to see more of the Blood Blokes. Who knew Manchester had such a thriving vampire scene?

John A. Short