Living in Canada’s largest city, my comic book loving pals and I are blessed with what seems like regular weekend occurrences of comic book conventions. Of course, they don’t happen every weekend. No, it only seems that way – especially as spring edges ever closer. Comic book conventions, you know, are a precursor to tulips.
Anyway, alongside this site’s Editor-In-Chief, Andy Burns, making out way through the aisles of long boxes, trades and hardcovers, t-shirts, toys and posters, I spied the trade paperback publication of volume one of DC Comics’ fantastic vampire tale, I, Vampire. It’s one of my favourite ongoing monthly reads right now. But like all good things, the series is about to come to an end. By next month, I, Vampire will be dead.
Today, with the publication of its second trade collection, I, Vampire is very much alive. Nay, it’s more than alive. Why, it’s very much transcendent!
And you need to discover why…
I, Vampire Vol. 2: Rise of the Vampires
Written by: Joshua Hale Fialkov and Peter Milligan
Illustrated by: Andrea Sorrentino and Daniel Sampere
Published by: DC Comics
Yep. Transcendent.
Series writer Joshua Hale Fialkov had a plan from the very first issue of I, Vampire. When DC Comics started up their “New 52” initiative in 2011, not many, Fialkov included, would have given the obscure and niche title a chance to last a year. In response, the writer went nuts, having fun with his characters, their history and their future. Here, in I, Vampire: Rise of the Vampires, Andrew Bennett, our enduring protagonist, is, finally…dead.
No, my tongue is not in my cheek. The man is D.E.A.D. Literally and figuratively. But only in Bennett’s death does he actually find his true life’s purpose. And that, of course, includes the vampire pilgrimage and the return of an old enemy – the Van Helsings! Believe me when I say that they are nothing like you’d ever expect. Ever.
Alongside the beautiful, gothic-tinged artwork of Andrea Sorrentino, Joshua Hale Fialkov has written a story for the ages. You know how you think highly of certain story arcs from when you first started reading comic books? (J.M. DeMatteis’ run on the Spider-Man series in the 1980’s as well as his Dr. Fate series in the early 1990’s comes to mind.) Well, in twenty years time, Fialkov’s I, Vampire series will be thought of in the same way: something very special. Which is fascinating because DeMatteis is co-creator of the character!
Fialkov and Sorrentino have done something virtually unheard of in today’s day and age: they’ve added something innovative to the vampire mythos. I, Vampire is new and fun and haunting and loving and enthralling and absolutely wonderful storytelling.
A final volume, the series’ third, is sure to be released later this summer or fall. If you haven’t read volume one yet – go pick it up. In the meantime, rise early, fear not the sun, and make the run to your comic book shop today. Pick up I,Vampire Vol. 2: Rise of the Vampires.
Find out what I’m talking about. You know, live a little.
Every Wednesday, JP makes the after-work run to his local downtown comic book shop. Comics arrive on Wednesdays you see and JP, fearful that the latest issue will sell out, rushes out to purchase his copy. This regular, weekly column will highlight a particularly interesting release, written in short order, of course, because JP has to get his – before someone else does!
