Bleed Them Dry 02 (featured image) Reviews 

“Bleed Them Dry” #2

By | August 7th, 2020
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

With great art and plenty of action, “Bleed Them Dry” #2 starts strong, but can’t quite maintain the pace once the worldbuilding starts. (Warning: may contain minor spoilers.)

Cover by Dike Ruan

Written by Hiroshi Koizumi
and Eliot Rahal
Illustrated Dike Ruan
Colored by Miquel Muerto
Lettered by AndWorld

The streets are in a panic. Every cop in Asylum is on high alert. And Detective Harper Halloway is sick. If her condition gets any worse, she’ll die her first death and become a vampire convert. Now it’s up to the mysterious Ninja Vampire to keep the infection from spreading with basic supplies in a seedy motel. He knows he has to be careful. The entire city’s thoughts and prayers are with Detective Atticus Black, who clings to life, undergoing experimental surgery after being nearly cut in half.

The marketing blurb on the cover of Vault’s “Bleed Them Dry” suggests the story within is “A Vampire Ninja Tale.” A bit gimmicky sounding, perhaps, but if anything, the book’s debut issue took that pithy premise and blew it out of the water. Deftly avoiding the trap of too much worldbuilding right off the bat, creator Hiroshi Koizumi, writer Eliot Rahal, illustrator Dike Ruan and the rest of the creative team simply leapt right into the story, not bothering to check if we were along for the ride. In the process, they delivered a futuristic, hard-boiled dystopian thriller with elements of horror, fantasy and cyber punk – not to mention vampires and at least one kick-ass ninja.

Yeah. I guess that’s why I don’t write comic book marketing blurbs.

As long and meandering as that description might sound, however, “Bleed Them Dry” #1 totally pulled it off, unapologetically, without ever feeling forced or the least bit gratuitous. All in all, it simply worked: a tightly written, well-balanced first installment that featured a ton of action while also giving us a decent amount of character development. Even better, it piqued our interest, set the story in motion and raised the best kind of questions. Namely: what the hell happens next…?

Rest assured, the first 10-14 pages of “Bleed Them Dry” #2 takes all that momentum from the debut and somehow kicks it into even higher gear. There’s captivity, lots of gore, cold-blooded betrayal, a high-tech “plastic coffin” and one very unlucky hamster – just to hit the high points.

There’s also some great dialogue, including several consecutive panels in which Detective Harper Halloway simply says the word “No,” wildly working her way through a kaleidoscope of emotions: concern, disbelief, shock and finally, acceptance. And it works beautifully.

Later, in a brief moment of respite from the proverbial pulse-pounding action, Rahal hits us with some narration that damn-near reads like poetry – “This city is my sibling. A long lost sister….” – as our eyes linger over Ruan and Muerto’s gorgeous cityscape that wonderfully incorporates inescapable “Blade Runner” vibes while keeping things fresh and different. It’s futuristic, but dark. Curvilinear and high tech, but a bit too sketched-out and seedy. Plenty of curves and spirals and clean lines, but also a dinginess you can almost feel burning the back of your throat and biting into your lungs.

Truth be told, virtually all of the visual elements have a distinct air of familiarity to them. That said, the power of Ruan’s illustrations is how they recombine and remix the urban sci-fi vernacular to create something distinct and unexpected. The lines are clean and bold and Muerto’s colors make everything pop. The balance of warm and cool tones, in particular, is nothing short of spectacular. Deep purple-blues and aqua-greens contrast against fiery magentas and neon pinks to create a timeless world that ostensibly exists far in the future, yet also feels old and decrepit – simultaneously at the dawn and sunset of time. A high-tech world that hit its peak long, long ago, but will steadily keep declining for centuries to come.

Ruan’s soft focus technique and brilliant use of negative space ties it all together flawlessly, giving his panels and page layouts an organic, seamless quality that guides your eye with precision and great timing. The 2+ page sequence with the aforementioned hamster, for example, is simply stunning – not to mention an emotional gut-punch.

Continued below

Unfortunately, the book’s low-point comes quick on the heels of that killer scene. Naturally, after such a climactic moment, there’s an inevitable letdown. In the hospital sequence that follows, however, things come screeching to a halt.

I’m sure there will be a payoff somewhere down the line, but the big chunks of dialogue from the surgeon feel overly technical and a bit too tedious. Even more bothersome, once the pace slows down, it seems to linger there, buried beneath the weight of worldbuilding and wordiness. Damn. There’s more great dialogue in here somewhere, but it gets too lost in the shuffle. Perhaps it’s a question of page count. If the scene between Captain Chase and Mayor were two pages instead of one – with more time and space to breathe – the drama and the humor might shine through a bit more. Instead, as it stands, it tends to feel rushed and crowded. As do the flashback scenes and much of the information packed into the final pages.

Of course, it’s not my budget, so I can be glib like that. Still, it’s nice to imagine how this installment might have played out over the course of a book-and-a-half, rather than what it’s been given. All of which is to say, if marketing mash-up phrase “A Vampire Ninja Tale” didn’t grab you right away, trust me, there’s something here. It’s mysterious, creepy, suspenseful and will keep you turning pages to see what’s going to happen next.

Final Verdict: 8.5 For the most part, “Bleed Them Dry” #2 keeps the momentum going, mixing and remixing elements from various genres to create something fresh and new.


John Schaidler

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