Oni Press 2018
Written by Lee C.A.
Illustrated by Jack Gross
Lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
There's a new Dad in the cul-de-sac... and he's already sunk his fangs into the neighbourhood! But Robert knows a vampire when he sees one, and he's armed with enough garlic and re-watches of F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922) to get to the bottom of this mystery.
So yeah I know this is like American Yaoi but seriously who is supposed to be the target audience for these? I find them fun, cute and all kinds of damn what is a Gay Melrose Place for single dads? Don’t get me wrong part of me is completely jealous because I don’t live on the cul-de-sac the other part is like this is too silly. So what I am trying to say here is that I love everything about this as it stands the creativity and imagination is top notch and I'll get into a few other things in a bit but I think it’s well past time for a book to just be fun, light-hearted and gay (old meaning).
The opening is interesting and to be honest I wasn’t expecting it. So this actually worked at shaping my thoughts for the story and along with Robert I was a believer until the end. Okay but back to the opening, it is certainly everything you could hope it would be and so much more. It captures the mind, your attention and definitely the imagination of the reader which then can’t get you to go further any faster.
I am pretty darn impressed with the pacing of the book here. One and done issues can be a tricky thing to make work well as you have a limited amount of time and space to tell a convincing story and flesh out the characters so the reader can find a way to connect with them on a personal level. So that Lee is able to do what he’s doing here is fantastic stuff. Robert is a character I could totally get into, that guys guy kind of rough around the edges, aware of his flaws and in the end interesting enough to support a full arc.
Yes the characterisation is great and the opportunities taken to spotlight Robert and Damian have been really well conceived. Their first meeting is kind of brilliant and how it’s presented to the reader is even better! I am not really one for the flowery over the top kind of person that Damian is, his love of all things Victorian and Vampires isn’t my cup of 0 positive but the opposite yet very much the same do tend to attract each other in the end. Still the chase here is half the fun, one playing a role the other lost in his own mind shall we say it’s very fun to see.
Jack well what do ya know I like the work your doing on the interiors. There is some absolutely splendid attention to detail in what we see and the cross or the night vision goggles, or even the stubble on Robert’s face all work really well here. Her style is kind of all-ages and kind of not though the way backgrounds are utilised is not all-ages because we see them, though I wish ever panel had them because I am just that guy who enjoys how they look and how they are able to expand the moment and give us more of a sense of size and scope of the story. The utilisation of page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows a solid eye for storytelling. Oh and that black & white really is Brill girl.
Alright Damian is very much not the kind of guy we might think he was but he and his son have tons of promise and Robert yeah he’s just too much and needs a four issue mini-series of his own. Ladies, Gentlemen and children of all ages this is what you need to get lost for a bit as you have coffee, tea or blood out on the porch in the cool fall weather.