Bad Blood TPB
Jonathan Maberry (w), Tyler Crook (a)
Dark Horse Comics

Liz says: It’s no easy feat to find a good modern vampire story these days. I love vampire mythology, but (apart from all things Whedon-related) the recent glut of teen-oriented novels, films and television series seem to have, ahem, sucked all the freshness out of the genre. That’s why I almost didn’t pick up on this series, and that would have been a shame. It goes to show that in the hands of a good storyteller, there’s always a new spin to put on an old tale. Jonathan Maberry (an award-winning novelist) is a damn good storyteller and so is artist Tyler Crook. ‘Bad Blood’ is the story of Trick, a young man coming to terms with the fact that he has terminal cancer. As if that wasn’t bad enough he is attacked by a vampire who murders his best friend but leaves Trick alive, poisoned by his diseased blood. With the knowledge that his blood is so toxic to vampires, Trick seeks revenge against them. He has nothing left to lose… until he meets Lolly, a troubled, vampire-obsessed Goth girl who quickly gets in over her head in Trick’s crusade. Maberry’s characters are instantly worth caring about, and he balances out tragedy with plenty of humor in their razor-sharp dialogue. ‘Bad Blood’ is a vampire story that will engage and surprise you, challenge the tropes of the genre and leave an impression; to my mind, that’s pretty exceptional.