Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales of the Vampire #1
Reviewed by David O' Leary
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales of the Vampire #1
Cover Date: August 2009
Story by: Becky Cloonan
Art by: Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba & Jo Chen
Colours by: Jo Chen
Letters by: Vasilis Lolos
Cover by: Fabio Moon
Publisher: Dark Horse
Cover Price: $2.99
Reviewed By: David O'Leary
Book Summery: In a small town in Massachusetts, a young man named Jacob goes about his day as usual -- wakes early, eats breakfast with his mom, and heads to school. He's a hard worker and a reliable friend to Alexia, an athletic and headstrong young woman. But at night Jacob likes to cut loose at the local arcade, where he's befriended a reckless gang of vampires who enjoy drinking his blood. Jacob craves the high and the easy escape from the monotony of his life that this "bloodletting" provides.
Enter the mysterious and sultry May, who can help Jacob leave those high-school days behind -- that is, if Alexia doesn't stop her first.
At this stage of the series I have to find myself asking, are Dark Horse trying to shoot themselves in the foot or something when it comes to momentum on this series Again, just when the main title is picking up the pace it is stopped dead in its tracks. On one hand it is a cunning ploy to make the reader forget that there is no Buffy this month because Georges Jeanty needs a breather and that's okay, the guy needs it and deserves it. But on the other hand if there were no book this month from the main series, would we be at all worried about it? Do we need a one shot issue to ensure that there is a Buffy book on the shelf this month. Well, that's hard to call.
This is my first exposure to Becky Cloonan in quite a while. I haven't picked up anything with her name on it since the superlative Demo with Brian Wood and in this book she attempts to tap into the state of mind of the protagonist similar to what Wood did with his cast on Demo. The loner teen lost in a world with no direction, desperately looking for a crowd to fit in with. Although the underlying story feels a little cliched, Cloonan does just enough for me to feel for the kid a bit while at the same time making me feel like I don't really like him all that much. The pacing of the story and the overall tone that she conveys in her narrative are a million miles removed from the main title and she tries to make this book feel like it has its own identity in the overall Buffy-verse. Only a brief mention of the slayers being outed to the world and Jacobs female interest are the only indicators that this book is in any way connected to the Buffy book at all. Instead she makes the book seem like a compact peek at a small town situation where the overall significance of the impact of the actions of those involved are not that big on the grand scale. And she does it rather well.
The art is grand for what it is. Like the writing, where the story is part of the Buffy-verse but not connected to what is going on in the main title and that is exactly what is happening here. The art can be taken at face value and what is pulled off is the sense of emptiness that the town holds for Jacob. It is amazing how when I finished the story and I was thinking about the book how in my mind the art stood out as having a great impact. You an really get a feel of what Jacob was thinking of at the half empty arcade, a big feeling of just how much empty the town is to him.
This book is hardly essential to the overall story. If I were to compare it another book it would be like the Secret Invasion web comic that ran on the Marvel web site during the Secret Invasion event. I bought that in trade and when I finished it, although it had connections to the main story it was hardly essential. That is exactly what we got here, a story with its own merits but hardly essential. Pick it up if you want but I shouldn't expect you will see it in trade.
Rating the Issue
| Story Story: Overall 6.33 Concept - 6 out of 10 Plot - 7 out of 10 Dialogue - 6 out of 10 |
Art Art: Overall 7 Style - 7 out of 10 Storytelling - 7 out of 10 Colour/Tones - 7 out of 10 |
Importance Importance: Overall 5 To the Title - 5 out of 10 To the Company - 6 out of 10 To the Medium - 4 out of 10 |
Take a Look Inside
Reviewer Bio
Name: David O' Leary
email: idwfan@yahoo.co.uk
Been reading comics: for about 12 years now.
Review Bio: I am a 26-year-old Hotel Manager from the west coast of the Republic of Ireland and think this is a great way to talk to others about this cool medium. I am a husband to one wife and father to one girl (so far).
Favorites: ONI's Whiteout, Vertigo's Scalped and Garth Ennis Preacher and Punisher in Trades. In comic form I am reading a lot of Marvel and a bit of IDW, Dark Horse & WildStorm among others.
Website: Sorry, I don't have one!
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