Mythos Comics 2020
Created & Written by Jim Eckels
Illustrated by Emmanuel Bazin
El Banco De Bruno
Bruno and his crew hit up the local blood bank for a pint of the red stuff. But vampire crime doesn't pay. In fact, they've bitten off more than they can chew...errr drink. When it's over, our favourite date-raping, frat boy bloodsucker will never be the same.
I am a sucker for Vampires and even more so when they come from a little small press publishing house. I noticed this thanks to it being recommended to me on ComiXology and I am super pleased that I contacted them and now work with them. This book keeps getting better and better with each issue, of course that’s supposed to happen reight? However, I don’t mean in the traditional ways because the way we see the characters develop into these new ones is done in a way that is exceptionally well. Adaptation and morphing into basically a new life form isn’t something easy but here we see how the influences that surround them work at keeping them in check.
The way that this is being told is exceptionally well done. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented to the reader beautifully. To see the various arcs going on simultaneously and knowing they will converge at some point builds this great tension. It also makes the reader anxious for it to happen already and this is the sign of some stellar writing. The character development I mentioned earlier really is phenomenal stuff. Whether it’s one person’s narration or how a lone human amidst newly turned teenage vampires what we see and how we see this is just mindbogglingly good. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists & turns along the way we see how everything works together to create the books ebb & flow.
The way this is structured and how it has gone from concept to reality is pretty damn marvellous to see. I wasn’t exactly expecting a masterpiece when I started reading this but these boys have very quickly turned this into one of today’s MUST reads. I do like our indentured servant who isn’t popular with the boss’ other employee’s and at first I thought this was his story, now, now I am not so sure and I am thrilled by this turn of events.
The interiors here are absolutely stunning! To me it looks like it is mixed media, in this case pen/ink and watercolour, which takes this to a whole new level. The way this can create the mood, tone and feel of any given moment is spectacular to see. Plus we still get that detail which is so important when it comes to separating them as individuals. Just how we see the gradation, bleeding, blocking and every other technique you can do with colour makes this as intense, moody and dramatic in ways you have to see to believe. How we see the hues and tones within the colours utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is impressive. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows such a strong and talented eye for storytelling. The utilisation of backgrounds is nicely done when we see them, I get some of the reasons we don’t but I would still like to see them utilised more.
This book keeps me on my toes because we have no idea what is around the corner let alone the next page. Yeah this Vegas so that this should be home to some big wig vampire nest well cover me in honey and slap my arse because it’s just not the place you’d expect them to thrive. The writing with how this is layered and how we see things evolving is something I URGE you to seek out and experience for yourself.