Comic Review: Dark Red #1

Dark Red #1

AfterShock Comics

Writer: Tim Seeley

Artist: Corin Howell

This week we got the first issue of the series that promises to tell a different vampire story. Dark Red tells the story of Charles “Chip” Ipswich who works the last shift at a gas station in a country-side little town where people still have some outdated and prejudicial thoughts. Chip lives a dull and boring life, but things are about to be shaken up.

This issue presents us with some characters that might come up later in the story, focusing mostly on showing us how Chip lives his life. A life in which Chip counts with Evie Keen, who suffer from a medical condition which causes her to produce too much blood. That being, Chip and Evie help each other, her serving as a food source and him helping her to dispose of some of that extra blood. This chapter also presents a nameless woman, who is looking for our protagonist and feeding on citizens in the meantime.

Tim Seeley’s writing conducts the story smoothly, showing many of the complications that Chip faces in his day-to-day life as an undercover vampire. Those nuisances range from having to keep up with the thoughts and slang of present days to clocking out of his job on time so that he doesn’t get scorched by the sun on his way home. Seeley also succeeds in presenting both Chip and Evie with amazing depth considering that there is almost no exposition whatsoever. The writer relies on presenting those characters through a dialogue between the two of them about their daily blood sharing routine and the hypothesis of a life-changing decision serving to show how different these characters are despite their friendship.

Corin Howell’s artwork does its job finely. The artist provides us with accurate facial expressions without relying on exaggeration. Her scared faces are as much convincing as are her worried and sad ones, all of those being portrayed incredibly focusing on small details on the character’s eyebrows and mouths. Plus her scary faces are also tremendously… well, scary! Sticking with the realistic approach portraying those faces as if the characters’ facial muscles are being pushed to their max. Howell’s main skill appears to be such unperceived details since she also applies them to the backgrounds making them feel realistic without being saturated. Howell’s characters designs are also noteworthy since every character’s appearance bears a different personality reflected in the writing perfectly.

Dark Red appears to be an exciting new series displaying great quality in both writing and artwork making for something that promises to be a thrilling read every issue.