Review: Penny Dreadful #1
“Yes my sweet drink deep…you will earn it.”
Titan comics has acquired the license to produce comics based on John Logan’s Penny Dreadful and the first issue packs a big punch. In the first scene we witness Mina Harker drinking blood. Definitely not for the squeamish.
Mina meets with her sister Vanessa and reveals that she knows a lot more than anyone could ever suspect. She tells her sister that the master feeds on her blood. She then asks for her help and disappears.
Vanessa seeks help from Malcolm Murray, her father. Murray promises to help Vanessa save Mina from the demon, even promising to descend into hell itself to save her.
Kristy Wilson-Cairns seems to have a handle on this type of storytelling. Most comics now-a-days that use classic horror monsters rely on humor to tell their tales. And I love a good horror/humor fusion, as anyone who reads my Karl Vincent series can attest to. But it’s good to see someone that has a feel for telling a decent gothic horror tale in this medium. Cairns seems to be a big fan of the genre and her story unfolds with a feel for a good scary tale. A must read for people that like Bram Stoker or Anne Rice style horror.
Louie De Martini’s art takes a bit of getting used to, but once you’re used to it you realize that his style is perfect for this type of tale. It has an abstract gothic style that reminds the reader of rotoscope animation. I immediately thought of Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings or Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly. It’s abstract, it’s gothic and it’s fun. Definitely different from most comic art today.
Script: Krysty Wilson-Cairns
Artist: Louie De MartinisOngoing – 32pp – FC – $3.99 – On sale: 04/05/2016
About the Author
Kevin Given Kevin Given has studied with "Longridge Writers Group" and "Writer's Boot Camp" a speech/communications major from the University of Maine Presque-Isle/Orono sites. He has created the "Karl Vincent Vampire Hunter" franchise which includes 2 novels and 8 comic books. They can be found on amazon, Indyplanet and Kindle. For a limited time you can get digital copies of "Karl Vincent: Vampire hunter" #1 and "Files of Karl Vincent" #1 for free on Indyplanet. Kevin is producing the third novel in the series "Dracula Rising" (working title) and developing "Foul Blood" into comic book form.
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