Vampire Tale Looks The Business...
Vampires again. I know there`s so many vampire comics in the mix at the moment, that alot of people are getting fed up with them.
I`m not, I like vampires. Or should I say, I like the old-style creatures of the night, not all this teenage, romantic nonsense (shudders). No chance of that in Baltimore: The Plague Ships, these are most definitely `old-style`: red eyed and bestial-looking nosferatu. In fact the whole comic comes across in an atmospheric `old-style` - the art is very appropriate. Set in 1916, the comic had me thinking of old vampire silent movies. Not much colour and looks almost like medieval woodcuts in some panels.
Its a dark,stormy night (of course!) in a coastal French town. A peg-legged man, Lord Henry Baltimore is hunting vampires through the streets. Pale faces with festering sores watch from windows, walls adorned with the slogan `Quarantaine` - it seems the town is in the grip of a plague. Baltimore dispatches a few undead, who are heading for an airship, tethered to the church spire. A streak of lightening fries the vampires and knocks Baltimore senseless, regaining consciousness in the house of an old crone who claims to have summoned the lightening that killed the bloodsuckers. Her attractive young daughter says she can help Baltimore when he explains he is hunting elder vampire, Haigus. However, the thankless locals take Baltimore and sling him in a cell, to await an `inquisition`...
The crone`s daughter appears at the cell-door the following night, she says she can release him if Baltimore takes her along on his quest...
An interesting alternate history with that very likable gothic artwork and an unusual hero. I`d say...worth following.
