Vault Comics 2020
Written by Eliot Rahal
Illustrated by Dike Ruan
Coloured by Miquel Muerto
Lettered by Andworld
The streets are in a panic. Every cop in Asylum is on high alert. And Detective Harper Halloway is sick. If her condition gets any worse, she'll die her first death and become a vampire convert. Now it's up to the mysterious Ninja Vampire to keep the infection from spreading with basic supplies in a seedy motel. He knows he has to be careful. The entire city's thoughts and prayers are with Detective Atticus Black, who clings to life, undergoing experimental surgery after being nearly cut in half.
One thing I did notice or rather the realisation I came to is that this is American Manga. The style may not be the same visually but this is very much how I felt reading this, the vampires, the police and the way we see the system it feels like a new form of Manga that originates in the United States, by Eliot himself. I haven’t felt this way about anything else so for me it’s a first of its kind and a true unique original. At least that’s according to me.
I like the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is laid out beautifully. With the way we see this all happening and how it’s presented both in words and visuals is done in such a way that really leaves its mark on the reader. The character development we see is pretty amazing. How we see this happening through the situations and circumstances that keep arising thanks to the way the first issue ended. OH and that was a doozy! The pacing here is superb and as it takes through the pages revealing the twists and turns along the way we see how everything is working together to create the story’s ebb & flow.
While I have been a fan of Eliot’s since I read my first book he wrote and as I have watched him grow and progress he continues to find new ways to surprise and impress me. The way this is unfolding, the way it’s structured and the layers and subplots throughout are done in this masterful way that build suspense and intrigue with crescendos and decrescendos to make beautiful music.
The interiors here are absolutely stunning! The linework is exquisite and how we see the varying weights being utilised to showcase the attention to detail here is amazing. The fact that we see all those parts of Black’s body but it is tasteful and not gory and that’s an important difference. How we see the backgrounds being utilised and how they do more than simply enhance the moments but it gives us this depth perception, sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the book. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show this amazing eye for storytelling. The colour work is utterly brilliant and completely on point. That opening with the neon and the muted bright colours, which coincidentally looks like a colour make-up palette, is quite phenomenal to see. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is rendered so extremely well.
I like this book. I liked it from the get go but there is something about this that keeps getting more and more interesting as the depth of the story unfolds. This is engaging, thoughtful and filled with moments that make you want to scream at the book in shock and outrage, we all do it to the television be it for film or a series. The range of what we feel and the emotions that stirred from even the most subtle of moments make this one hell of a great book.