Review: The Strain #1

Written by David Lapham, Guillero del Toro and Chuck Hogan
Illustrated by Mike Huddleston

When a Boeing 777 lands at JFK International Airport and goes dark on the runway, the Center for Disease Control, fearing a terrorist attack, calls in Dr. Ephraim Goodweather and his team of expert biological-threat first responders. Only an elderly pawnbroker from Spanish Harlem suspects a darker purpose behind the event-an ancient threat intent on covering mankind in darkness.
* From director Guillermo del Toro and novelist Chuck Hogan (Prince of Thieves)!
* Adapted for comics by Eisner Award-winning writer David Lapham!

Man, Guillermo Del Toro loves his vampires, right? The poster boy for Gothic Entertainment (well, besides Tim Burton) is sharing one of his latest stories in comic format, published, by Dark Horse Comics. The book takes a different sort of approach to the vampire monster, and instead of presenting them as romantic or seductive creatures, makes it into a concept similar to that of the movie Outbreak (this time with 100% less monkeys!).

Follow the cut to see if it catches on like a virus or sucks like Edward Cullen*!

(*no disrespect to Rob Pattinson, who by all accounts seems like a stand up dude)

The book is really set up in two parts, separated into a prologue and the main story. The prologue starts out, somewhat innocently, as a fairytale of sorts. An old grandmother in Romania is telling her grandson about a legend in her home village, telling him about a generous nobleman that went missing and then rashes of child disappearances started happening in the village where she grew up. The disappearances, clearly related, scare the child into eating his dinner, and we cut to the main story, set in present day New York. Our hero Ephraim is introduced, enjoying a video game with his son and horsing around. After some unnecessary discussion with his ex-wife about their family situation, he’s called to his job at the CDC, which sets up the plot for the rest of the book.

I actually like the concept of the book, and it reminded me a bit of Del Toro’s last foray into the world of vampires in Blade 2. The cover of the issue (seen above) reminds me of the genetically engineered vampires that Del Toro created for that film, and it’s not at all unwelcome. The downside to this is that while they’re on the cover, the cover is mostly foreshadowing. We don’t actually SEE a vampire in this issue aside from silhouettes, but that’s a good thing, right? Horror movies succeed because the very idea of the unknown is the scariest thing to any of us. The character introduced in the prologue can be anything anyone imagines at this point, because the only thing we have to go on is that he’s enormous and he’s most likely a vampire. Big and bitey with nothing else to go on? Those are the things nightmares are made of.

Lapham, who is writing the script based on Del Toro and Hogan’s story, does a good job of setting up a possible horror flick here (and that’s the goal of any property like this, right?. He does a lot of moves that are common with horror films: he sets up an ancient big bad with untold power and evil, introduces an affable Everyman to root for and gives us a reason to believe he’s the Everyman we all need, and finally, we end up at the haunted house (or in this case, jet) where the monsters live. It’s all very formulaic, but it’s by no means unwelcome. The only problem I can say I really had with this formula is that his argument with his ex-wife over their child and how he should be parented felt a little forced, especially because, unless Ephraim becomes a character like Hellboy or Harry Dresden (that is, maintaining a series of mini-series’/novels with a continuous narrative), this won’t ever be resolved in the series. If we conclude this, the 4 ½ pages devoted to his familial hang-ups do little more than occupy precious pages that could have been devoted more to the main story. (Note: it appears that the series is in fact a collection of minis, so this might actually have a resolution! Yay!)

I would imagine that when this story was pitched to Lapham and Huddleston, they idea was to make it as cinematic as possible, and that is further evidenced by the choices in the art, rendered by Huddleston. It all has a very moody, 80’s horror film feel to it, from the way the panels are laid out to the way the pages are colored. His style is perfect for the project, and aside from how everything looks (which is pretty phenomenal), he’s an outstanding storyteller in his own right. Where Lapham’s job seems to be in the realm of directing the entire project, Huddleston works as the Director of Photography, camera in hand, making sure everything looks as tight and dynamic as possible. The heacy use of shadows keeps the creepy atmosphere and again helps cement that aura of a classic horror film akin to the original Alien.

The book has a few missteps in my opinion, but it’s still not a bad deal for something that will end up only costing you a single dollar. That’s right! One George Washington gets this in your hands, and that’s not a bad deal at all! I have a feeling that this entire story will read a lot better in trade, however, so I’ll wait and see until next month to see if I’ll be collecting it in single issue format. At worst, I’ll wait for trade like I did with Daytripper. And that’s not bad company.

Final Verdict: 7.0 — Buy (It’s a dollar!)