BAD BLOOD #1/ Written by JONATHAN MABERRY/ Art by TYLER CROOK/ Published by DARK HORSE COMICS

Trick Croft once had it all: good looks, popularity and – thanks to his skills as his high school football team’s quarterback – a fully paid college scholarship and a promising future. Then the cancer came. It took away his looks. It took away his health. It scared away most of his friends. And the chances of Trick having a future, much less a promising one, are looking increasingly slim.

Trick thought his life couldn’t get any worse. And then he got attacked by a vampire.

Luckily, the vampire didn’t like the way he tasted. Unluckily, the vampire survived the “poison” in Trick’s veins and swore revenge as he began his preparations to topple the world of the living. With nobody believing his story and the body count around campus rising as Trick’s friends fall prey to a mysterious killer, it will be up to a sickly Trick to save the day. Yet how can he fight a vampire when he’s little better than a walking corpse himself?

Just when you thought the vampire genre was staked for good, Jonathan Maberry has brought it back from the dead. This first issue of Bad Blood is a gripping read and that’s due almost entirely to the character of Trick Croft. Immediately sympathetic because of his situation, Trick also wins the reader over with his twisted sense of humor in the face of adversity.

This humor is played out later in the issue, as Maberry explores just how truly difficult vampire hunting would be. And that’s without taking into account Trick’s emaciated state. One can’t just hang around the cemetery with a stake in their hand and the local goth club is better suited for catching interesting diseases than vampires.

The artwork by Tyler Crook is unusual for a vampire series. There is very little visual darkness in Bad Blood #1 and the inking is very light. Indeed, the palette Crook uses leaves everything looking slightly washed out, much like Trick himself. It’s an interesting choice but an effective one and the use of color throughout the issue is highly symbolic, with all of Trick’s clothing being dull shades of grey compared to the more vibrant clothing of the people around him.

Bottom Line: With a fun script, original concept and unique art, this is one vampire comic you’ll easily be able to sink your teeth into!