Vampire: The Masquerade and Three More Ghoulish Comics to Read Before Halloween – CBR – Comic Book Resources

Vampire: Winter's Teeth, Dracula, motherf**cker! Bleed Them Dry and Fangs are perfect spooky vampire comics for Halloween.

The past few years have been great for vampires. What We Do in the Shadows was renewed, Vampire: The Masquerade is in the middle of a push that's seeing new stories released in all kinds of different media, the BBC's adaptation of Dracula and a flurry of other bloodsucker-related stories joined streaming platforms, and there are plenty of quality vampire entertainment options in comics too.

With Halloween around the corner and vampires having a revival moment, it's the perfect time to take a look at the most interesting nocturnal releases for the fall. These four titles reimagine the myth of the vampire, either by making them the protagonists of their own story, exploring mature romance between supernatural creatures, plunging Dracula in the '70s, or by sending these classy leeches into the far future.

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Vampire: The Masquerade - Winter's Teeth and its companion comic, The Anarch Tales, are part of the revival of the World of Darkness franchise. Join Cecily Bain, a hard-boiled Twin Cities Camarilla enforcer, on the night she stumbles upon a lost and confused fledgling and she decides, on a whim, to take her under her wing and teach her the ropes of the Masquerade. Meanwhile, the Prince of the Twin Cities is preparing for a coup, something or someone is killing Kindred, the Second Inquisition is hunting vampires, and, on the wrong side of the suburbs, a down on their luck coterie of downtrodden vampires are living blood bag to blood bag. Both stories will converge at a later point.

Winter's Teeth is drawn with the grungy abandon of classic goth-punk old World of Darkness style, and it has some of the most ingenious coloring techniques to convey paranoia, inclement weather, and claustrophobia. The same colorist works on The Anarch Tales, which has a much more contemporary, clean lines with character designs slightly closer to Disney cartoons than its big sister. And, as a bonus, at the end of each issue, there are character sheets and RPG scenarios to recreate a Vampire: The Masquerade campaign in the Winter's Teeth universe.

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Fangs, by Sarah Andersen, is a love story between a werewolf and vampire, both of them with certain issues. Elsie is over 300 years old and has been badly burned by past lovers, and Jimmy is a werewolf who loves running under the moon and shaking his fur after a bath.

Both of them carry all the classic vampire and werewolf tropes with grace; Elsie cannot see her reflection, she only drinks blood, is cold to the touch, and would burn under the sun. Jimmy transforms every full moon, whether he wants it or not, runs wild for days with his pack, and is extra warm. Instead of delving into the differences, Fangs explores how they complement each other and find solutions to enjoy their time together, tonight and forever.

Dracula, Motherf**ker!

Dracula, Motherf**ucker! by Alex de Campi and Erica Henderson is a fantastic reimagining of Bram Stoker's Dracula if instead of heading for Victorian London, the Count was reaching for the starlets in 1974's Hollywood. This graphic novel follows the misadventures of crime scene photographer Quincy Harker, who has a knack for hitting the places where Dracula or his new brides sated themselves. Harker is a great guile hero, facing a bloodsucking monster as far from the romantic visions of Coppola's Vlad Tsepes as a velociraptor is from a swan.

The pace and the coloring are fantastic, but what really brings this to life is its double-spread splatter pages and the artists' ability to capture the gritty, dirty, and colorful vibes of '70s L.A.

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Created in association with Lotus, Nagoya TV, and F.J. DeSanto, Bleed Them Dry was created by Hiroshi Koizumi, written by Eliot Rahal, illustrated by Dike Ruan, colored by Miquel Muerto and designed by Tim Daniel.

The year is 3333, and humanity is still rebuilding after a catastrophic event that took place one thousand years ago. Things have changed -- Asylum City is one of the last bastions standing, vampires exist and they use their powers and immortality to work among humans, and the cybernetic industry magnifies the physical abilities of the living or unliving. Bleed Them Dry kicks when Detective Harper and her partner, white-haired vampire Detective Black, start investigating a series of gruesome murders targeting vampires. A bloody incident will set the partners on opposite sides of the law, with Detective Black rising through the ranks to catch the killer and Harper forced to work with the immortal ninja that insists on dismantling society as humans have known it for millennia, no matter what the cost.

Bleed Them Dry is what would happen if Blade, Vampire: The Masquerade, and Cyberpunk had a baby -- expect moody panels filled with futuristic architecture, Blade Runner character designs, neo-noir vibes, and incredibly attractive -- and devious -- heroes and villains. The underlying topics are scary enough -- unquestioned white supremacy and colonialism come to mind -- but it is the gorgeous action scenes interspersed with quiet, sinister close-ups worthy of the best shonen anime what take the palm.

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Bea is a European transplant currently living in Toronto.You can endure her shameless self-promotion by joining her five Twitter followers at @BeaCaicoya.

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Vampire: The Masquerade and Three More Ghoulish Comics to Read Before Halloween - CBR - Comic Book Resources

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero