These days, vampires aren't just en vogue; they're literally in Vogue. They with their tossled hair and their pearlescent skin, immortalized not just in life, but on Burger King fry caddies. In my day, vampires were pasty. More of a matte finish. They looked kind of like Gary Oldman or Martin Landau. They seduced, sure. But they never canoodled. They didn't just get antsy around an exposed neck and the plasma pulsing within. They downright vonted it. They vonted it quite badly.
That thirst hasn't been quenched for a bit.
Dark Horse released this teaser image for the upcoming Baltimore: The Plague Ships series. The mini fills in some nooks and crannies from Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden's illustrated prose novel Baltimore or the Steadfast Tin Soldier, specifically Baltimore's tenure as a vampire harpoonist in the years after the first World War. It's an all-out, one man, one-legged crusade against the blood-sucking terrors of Europe.
These vampires suck, but only in the traditional sense.
As you can see, the book debuts in August from Dark Horse, written by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden, art by Ben Stenbeck, who absolutely knocked it out of the park with last year's Witchfinder mini.
Oh, and a quick look at Mignola's cover for the first issue:
I believe it was S.E. Hinton who said in The Outsiders, "Nothing sparkly can stay."
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YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SECONDED!
Harpooning looks fun!
"Stay sparkly, Ponyboy?"
I believe that’s a wooden leg on the cover of that there comic. Yes sir, I’m on board.
I’ve had that BALTIMORE book for like three years now… I should really read it….
Pre-nazi hats.
@conor – Ditto that.
And this is how something goes from "On the Fence" to "Buy that shit"
Vampires are over done, but this still looks rad.
Mignola’s been doing vampires since most of the people here were in short pants.
I love the complaints about vampire glut among comic book fans.
# of super hero stories > # of vampire stories
Naw, vampires aren’t tired. That’s like saying there shouldn’t be books with cars in ’em anymore. Or books with mustaches. I think we’re all just tired of bad books about vampires. Bad books about vampires where it’s clear the story’s only been greenlit for the buzz word and not on its own merit. Vampires have too great a tradition and legacy in literature, a back catalog of great stories, for a trend to take them all down.
Mignola has the same compostition to every cover, but I loved them all.
@PaulMontgomery I agree with you 137%.
The novel is phenomenal. I fully expect this to be of similar quality. I eagerly await it.
Fuck yes I am tired of Sparkly Vampires. Never read the novel but I am curious for this mini.
@conor- I don’t think it’s the glut of vampire books, it’s the glut of the “One Tree Hill” or “Gossip Girl” presentation of it.
Count me as one of the people saying there’s TOO MUCH vampires. Working at a bookstore for 3 years I cannot tell you how many times I wanted to burn every single vampire related, teeny-bop book on the stands. You seriously have no idea how much I wanted to do that.
@k5blazer: I don’t believe there’s a glut of that, either. But if I’m wrong and there was, it would be easily ignored.
@conor–if you punch the word "Vampire" into Amazon/Books you get over 12,800 tiles. The first few pages all look like Teen Vampire romance books…i think there is a bit of saturation.
I think its a great Archetype, but its being watered down by being the trend of the moment.
If you type the word "detective" into Amazon you get over 132,000 titles. Should we stop making mysteries and/or crime books?
A good book is a good book, regardless of the presense of vampires, zombies, or scary clowns.
I odubt many on this site are reading any Teen Romance books of any sort, so what do we care which books fill their shelves?
That being said: TEAM BALTIMORE!
The book was dope, I’m psyched for more.