Graphic Novel Review: Dusk by David Doub

Dusk (2009) is a self-published graphic novel written by David Doub and illustrated by four different artists, three on pencils and two doing inks. Although the story and concepts are interesting, the execution is uneven and falls short of the creators' ambitions. Drawn in the heavily chiaroscuro style typical of black and white comic art in general, the art does not always serve the story or the reader in the ways that it needs to.

The book consists of four stand-alone stories that are not obviously sequential in either narrative or timeline. In Chapter One, we meet Eve, an "enhanced" human who works for a vampire named Ash. Ash is a benevolent if somewhat avuncular figure whose interest in Eve seems wholly paternal. Eve herself acts in the capacity of a slayer or enforcer, à la Buffy or Anita Blake: petite and feminine (and appearing younger than her years, according to dialogue in Chapter Three) but able to kick plenty of butt. She is addicted to drinking small amounts of vampire blood, which in Doub's universe apparently doesn't turn a human into a vampire in and of itself. Ash reluctantly supplies her with blood, but it's unclear whether this elixir is responsible for her powers or not. In Chapter One, Eve is sent to track down a rogue vampire, with unhappy results.

Chapter Two shows us more of Eve's history, current living situation with Ash and past relationships. Ten years ago, she fled an abusive husband only to fall into the clutches of an evil vampire who enslaved her. I found the ending of this story rather touching, but it mostly serves as a retrospective on Eve herself. I wish we could have learned more about her experiences with her evil master, Van Kraken, and what happened to him. I really wanted to know more about Ash's "business trip" somewhere deep "beneath the Swiss Alps" (where he still has cell phone service).

In Chapter Three, Eve joins forces with another mortal hunter to stop a rogue vampire. We get more hints here about the vampire subculture which Eve and Ash apparently serve, but very few details.

In a story quite different from the previous three, Chapter Four deals with a bullied high school student who dabbles in black magic. Here, Eve displays a gift for the magical arts as she tries to stop the student from pulling a Carrie on his high school tormentors.

Artist Maki Naro (inks by Chris Scott) makes the most creative use of layout and composition in Chapters One and Two. However, sometimes creativity interferes with comprehension, and it's a little hard to follow what's going on. This is especially true in a couple of the action/fight sequences. The panels tend to have too much solid black, so that the black overwhelms the imagery rather than highlighting it by contrast.

Chapter Three, with pencils and ink by Jerry Gonzales, almost lost me completely. The art is a muddled mess, with characters who are indistinguishable from each other and long action sequences in which I couldn't figure out what the heck is going on. Blasting guns don't translate well to static graphics for panel after panel. Whole panels of dialogue are in unelucidated Italian or German, as well, and I'm afraid I'm a bit rusty in those languages. I'd have appreciated subtitles.

I'm glad I kept reading, however, because Chapter Four is the best of the book. Artist Franc Czuba (inks by Chris Scott) does a fine job here, albeit with a slightly jarring inconsistency with the interpretations of the characters in the previous three chapters. By the time I got to the very end of Dusk, which is not paginated, and saw Czuba's "Eve/Ash cover" full page graphic, I thought, "Wow. If only the whole book was that good!" I have no idea why Doub used multiple artists for this short work, or how he selected them, but he definitely did not get uniform results.

To the extent that I could tell from the stories, Doub's fictional universe is intriguing, and I'd like to learn more about it. Ash is an interesting character, and Eve herself is complex and multi-layered. The vampire protocols avoid cliché and establish some refreshing new conventions, and I'd love to have seen more explanations and details (and less gunfire for panel after panel). Doub is planning a second volume, and I hope that the artwork improves in consistency and clarity. I see a lot of potential in Dusk and its characters, and they deserve further development. Readers can keep updated on Doub's work at his page on Comicspace.com.

Anti-Vampire Hate Speech in Pittsburgh

On September 14, 2008, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review published an op-ed piece titled, Don't let your children grow up to be..." by an anonymous writer identified only with the explanation, "Dateline D.C. is written by a Washington-based British journalist and political observer."

This article is being circulated around the vampiric community blogosphere, probably giving it more free PR and linkbacks than it deserves. The anonymous op-ed columnist writes a preposterous piece of fear-mongering nonsense, purporting that young people going to college are at risk of being "recruited" by evil, mind-controlling "cults." His/her examples of such sinister groups include eco-terrorist groups (the kind that, gasp, liberate test animals from labs) and..."Vampyre cults." Below is an excerpt from the column (note the hypothetical victim's name--"Rosemary" as in Rosemary's Baby).

Rosemary was lucky. She could have been recruited by a "vampyre" cult. Vampires, as we call them, are now active in the vicinity of several campuses. They recruit the Rosemarys of the world into their "vampyre" families.

This is not a replay of Bram Stoker's Victorian world of blood drinking, nor in the mewlings of Southern ladies turned writer in the past decade or so. We can't even blame television, because we are facing a 21st-century perversion using AIDS/HIV avoidance as the hook.

Naturally, hormones rage out of control in young people and an older pair or a trio are the leaders and will recruit seven or eight young women and half as many young males. The young ones will all work as messengers, clerks or shop assistants and their money will be pooled by the elders.

The group is sexually active with one another but with no one outside the group -- thus they believe there can be as much sexual activity as they can handle without fear of AIDS/HIV.

And, of course, there has to be a ritual. There's blood drinking -- cranberry juice or, at worst, packaged blood from transfusion kits. Vampire fangs can be inserted over teeth. Contact lenses are used to change eye color. And photographs can make these sordid rituals and couplings look and feel excitingly exclusive -- and become very expensive.

Debt and strange experiences build up and help to ensure that the Rosemarys won't return very quickly to a more normal society.

Police and educational departments in several major East and West coast cities won't comment. But high school teachers know that recruiting for "vampyre" families starts as early as age 12.

I'd like to think that this anonymous writer was trying to write satire--the claims made are certainly outrageous enough. I can't be sure of that, however--this scenario reads like something right out of Chick Comics, and those were dead serious. It doesn't seem to occur to the columnist that if "police and educational departments...won't comment" there is probably a good reason for their silence: namely, that the question is too stupid to dignify with an answer. But as we all know, there are far too many people out there who are gullible and superstitious enough to see "evil cults" behind every tree.

I wrote a response to the newspaper, but had to trim it down to fit their 200-word maximum limit. Here is my reply:

Dear Editors,

I was appalled by the anonymous editorial piece that you saw fit to publish under the title, "Don't let your kids grow up to be..." dated Sunday, September 14, 2008. Opinions are one thing, but even op-ed columnists should be compelled to check their facts.

For the record: there are no "vampyre cults" recruiting college students, high school students, or 12-year-olds. Everything the anonymous writer claimed is utter and absolute nonsense. Real vampires are law-abiding and solitary people who don't have the slightest wish to "recruit followers" or even be known for what they are. In fact, they're generally very difficult to locate or contact, since they're used to being treated with suspicion, contempt and outright abuse. There is a loosely linked, scattered and highly diverse "vampire community," but it could not by any stretch of the imagination be called "a cult." Real vampires are far too busy struggling with their own unique health issues and needs as they hold down jobs, maintain relationships and raise families to “recruit” anybody. I know what I'm talking about, because I've been part of this community for more than ten years.

You’re welcome to check my websites for factual information about real vampires.

Sincerely,

Inanna Arthen, M.Div
Owner, By Light Unseen Media
http://bylightunseenmedia.com
(my address and phone number, as requested to "verify" the letter)

I doubt they'll print my letter or take it seriously, but I sent it. If you'd like to respond to this column, see the Tribune-Review's Guidelines for letters to the editor with snail-mail and e-mail addresses.

I guess pigs are flying!

In this post on March 10, I reported on a snide remark made against "vampire chat rooms" in the "Annie's Mailbox" advice column. I sent the columnists an e-mail, and so did a number of people I know, although many of them are vampire fans, not vampiric people or connected to the OVC.

The columnists must have gotten a lot of well-written, dignified letters--they wouldn't have paid attention to those that sounded like nut jobs--because, to my astonishment, they have printed an apology.

I have to give them credit for that, even if one of the letters still makes a snide remark about the OVC, and even though the columnists can't resist an idiotic crack about "garlic necklaces." (They obviously haven't read Something in the Blood and don't realize that real vampires love garlic!) At least the column backs off from the whole, "woooooo, the Internet is so dangerous!" bullshit.