Impaler #1 (of 4)

William Harms, Nick Postic & Nick Marinkovich

This is a nice dark and moody book for Halloween. Most of the art is bathed in shadow with gothic images like wolves howling at the full moon and living shadows. Very effective art by Postic and Marinkovich for this type of story. Also very effective are the slithery, oily monsters glimpsed across the pages of this bloody chiller. Impaler is a vampire tale. Beginning in Wallachia in 1460, this book is mostly set in modern day New York City where a cop is retiring in wake of his wife's death at the same time that a ship has been discovered with its entire crew brutally murdered. Like Bram Stoker's Dracula, a diary relates how the crew slowly met its demise via a sickness as equipment was strangely sabatoged. While the book is set full of stock characters and warm bodies to be picked off, the atmosphere and great art, particularly when it comes to the villain designs and death scenes, more than make up for any lack of imagination in the storytelling or characterization. This is a book that knows what it is: a gory, violent thriller with some genuinely frightening scenes. It remains unabashed and unapologetic throughout in its quest to drudge up the horror. And it does so magnificently. If you only have time for a quick read to put you in the spirit of Halloween, this is a good start to get your pulse racing. A