Dampyr

IDW is publishing trades of a long-running European horror title called Dampyr. I read the first trade and I was extremely impressed with the series. It had great atmosphere and mood, was genuinely creepy, and had a good story. The setting is an abandoned town during World War II, where vampires have wreaked havoc. Some soldiers that are being stationed there find out what's been going on and call on a local dampyr, half-human, half-vampire, who has really been taking advantage of the superstitious people in the area and performing bogus rites to rid them of their "vampire" problems. I actually did some research of folklore vampires and this had a lot of those elements within the story. Some sort of sickness would spread throughout a community and people would blame it on the recently deceased having been a vampire, and is now terrorizing his old neighbors. The thing is, the people would be kind of right in their assessment, as the person who had died first was usually the origin of the sickness, he just wasn't a supernatural entity. But, this dampyr preys on these superstitious types, unaware of his true origins, and why he was drawn to this profession in the first place. Dampyr is a unique tale that seems really classic in its storytelling. I highly recommend this series to anyone who likes horror or good stories in general.

I also just read the Ultimate Spider-man Annual, where Spidey gets a new girlfriend. Imagine my pleasure when I found out it was Kitty Pryde, my favorite. Patrick kind of made a stab at the girlfriend's identity and he was right. It fits pretty well. Kitty and Peter are both these idealistic types, a little naive about the world, just teenagers with more of a burden than most have. It suits the book. Good call, Bendis.