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She’s not the female version of Blade if any of you don’t know who author Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter character is. The character has been the title character of quite a few books and she appeals to a whole new crowd of readers as she combines the erotic glamour of the Victorian vampires with the sleaziness of the modern world with the action and violence that was never allowed in novels a hundred years ago.

Blake’s world is more than just vampires, though. She has all kinds of lycanthropic beasts, zombies and ghouls. As a matter of fact, she raises the dead for a living while investigating and hunting down vampires (14 kills at the time of this story adapted from Hamilton’s first book by Stacie M. Ritchie). Now she is being approached by a guy who was a scumbag in life and who is now a vampire wanting to hire her for a very powerful party interested in the deaths that are happening in the vampire district. She is apprehensive to work for the vampires, but is already involved thanks to the police and thanks to her friend’s having a bachelorette party in the very district where the deaths have occurred. It’s possible that the vampire strip club called Guilty Pleasures has something to hide. But, can Anita and her friends resist the alluring and hypnotic temptation that is offered by the dancers who bring them to the stage for their own personal playthings?

The Dabel Brothers have promised this comic book for quite sometime. Due to various reasons, they have now teamed with Marvel Comics to release all of their books and to collect and reprint the stories they were producing at the time of the merger to get Marvel readers up to snuff on what Dabel had to offer. Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures #1 may be a bit late in coming out, but it does make it readily available just as Halloween is starting to gain some momentum.

The art is pretty good. Not as nice as some art from other Dabel Brothers titles but still a lot better than most small publishers. Although I wonder why they keep a lock of hair between Blake’s eyes. Maybe to make her cross-eyed?

They also keep the story rated for Teen + instead of letting loose the way that a real Hamilton book would be. No sense in making this a Marvel Max series if you want to gain a wider audience. This may actually drive away typical Blake readers. But then again they may not be happy with the adaptation. I will say that most of the other adaptations that the Dabel Brothers have produced over the past couple of years have been relatively well done. The first issue of Blake’s story seems to be decent so far although it is a bit sketchy and is jumping around a little. Still, it’s worth a shot to buy it and then see what happens in issue #2.

There is a special edition of the comic to watch for that is done entirely in pencils by artist Brett Booth. It’s the same story and art - just no inks or color. There’s also a special cover by Greg Horn which is gorgeous, but Booth’s wrap cover showing Blake and a bevy of other creatures from her version of St. Louis is pretty awesome.

Brett Booth - Regular and Sketch Covers
Greg Horn - Alternate Cover
Laurell K. Hamilton - Writer
Stacie M. Ritchie - Story Adaptation
Brett Booth - Pencils

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