World of Darkness: Crimson Thaw #1
Vault Comics
Writer: Jim Zubb
Artist: Julius Ohta
I’ve always been curious about The World of Darkness. I’m not just talking comic books here. For anyone who plays Tabletop (or Pen and Paper) Roleplaying games, you’ll have least heard of World of Darkness, namely Vampire: The Masquerade. It’s not the juggernaut to ttrpgs that Dungeons & Dragons is, but it fills the space of urban fantasy/horror. I’ve always been curious what the world is like, so I took the kickoff of this new arc as an excuse to educate myself. Also, Jim Zubb wrote it, and I’ve always liked his D&D comics, so I figured–what the heck.
The first thing that struck me about this first issue is the number of characters. From the off, there is a narrator, main character, some lackies, and they just multiply from there. It’s not that there are so many characters, but rather that they all seem to already have formed and defined relationships that threw me off a bit. Then on page 7 there’s some dialogue with an asterisk and at the bottom of the panel a footnote. An actual footnote in a comic! Wut? “See Vampire: The Masqeurade #9–Tay.” And it made a lot more sense. I scrolled up to the issue number. It was definitely a #1. But it also certainly pulls from previous storylines in substantial ways. This gave me a feeling of distance toward the characters simply because I didn’t know their histories–it didn’t feel like this was a beginning, but rather a middle.
Maybe it is a middle? I don’t fully understand this world yet, but the main character is hearing voices–the voices of a Hunter. She’s also not a politician, yet she’s taken a title that makes her such. To make things worse, there’s a werewolf in her territory and it feels as though the protagonist, Cecily, has a bit of a death wish as she plays the lone wolf card, pun intended. Even a novice in the World of Darkness knows a vampire can’t take down a werewolf alone. Cecily will need some help.
The art. Where to begin? At times it flourishes with amazing close-ups that build tension and convey fear. I’m thinking specifically of page 10. There are some well-rendered terrified eyeballs on that page. But then other panels shift into more impressionistic styles. It feels like this issue is caught between what it wants to be, art-wise; a realist terror show, or an impressionist’s nightmare. Lastly, the lettering isn’t a detriment to this issue, but neither is it a boon. Despite the fact that there is a LOT of dialogue in this issue, I didn’t think about the letters a lot, other than it was quite the undertaking to fit that many words into a single panel.
