Written and Illustrated by Tomm Coker and Daniel Freedman
A horror-action tale, equal parts vampire mythology and Chinese folklore, set in modern day Hong Kong. Ex-soldier John Sargent has fallen for a beautiful Chinese woman named Mei. The only thing keeping the star-crossed lovers apart: Mei’s a vampire. To free Mei from the curse, Sargent sets out to destroy the vampire that made her. The only problem: Mei was turned by one of the most powerful vampires in history…
I missed Tomm Coker and Daniel Freedman’s Undying Love when making my pre-orders a couple of months ago. When I caught glimpse of it while looking ahead to what comics were coming out this week, I was intrigued by the book’s premise and decided to give it a flip through.
Was I rewarded, or was I right to not pre-order this new Image title? Follow the cut and see.
For the most part, I was drawn to this book on a visual level. Tomm Coker wowed me a while ago with his work on the interiors for Daredevil: Noir, his various covers (especially that Secret Warriors one), and — most recently — with his outstanding work on the first issue of Peter Milligan’s 5 Ronin. Coker has a gritty, noir-like look to his art that is reminiscent of greats such as David Aja and Alex Maleev, but in a way that is distinctly his. Let me go ahead and say that if I favorably compare you to two of my favorite artists in the industry, then you’re probably doing something right, and probably more than one something. Coker sets a beautiful tone that fits the story (which we’ll get to in a moment) perfectly, and gives everything an energetic feel. Well, for the most part. There were a couple of panels where a character would seem more like a model dummy than an actual person, and for whatever reason this seemed to happen the most with the main protagonist. Still, these panels were few and far between. For the most part, this was an absolutely beautiful book, and would be worth a purchase just to stare at the art (something you will rarely hear me say).
Co-writer and colorist Daniel Freedman deserves a lot of credit, too. A frequent collaborator with Coker, everything I’ve read that featured Coker’s art also had Freedman on colors, and I doubt that Freedman’s color work has nothing to do with how much I’ve loved the look of all of those books. Coker’s inked pages are thick and dark, with significantly more black than white on the page. Freedman puts a lot of bold colors underneath those inks, resulting in a beautiful contrast that completes the tone that Coker sets. You hear of legendary writer/artist duos all the time, and penciler/inker duos to a lesser extent, but linework/colorist teams don’t get enough love for their collaborations, even though guys such as these two prove that they should.
Alright, enough about art. It’s fantastic, you get it. What about the story? Well, as I said earlier, the premise was enough to get me interested. In an age where nearly every creative medium has more than a handful of vampire stories, due to the unfortunate success of Twilight, coming up with a vampire story that can interest someone who tries to avoid “popular” genres in order to preserve their supposed indie cred is no easy task. Somehow, Coker and Freedman did it. The actual story and writing were just as good as the premise suggested. There’s a great, pulpy feel to this book that manages to stay fresh and exciting from beginning to end. The dialogue in particular has that hard edge you would expect in a comic like this. My favorite line? “Whoever wrote the book on killing vampires never shot one with an automatic weapon.”
This first issue was incredibly fun, and I’m excited to read more. Sure, it’s not mindblowingly brilliant, but it’s an enjoyable comic that’s way ahead of the average DC or Marvel comic. If you weren’t planning on buying Undying Love, I recommend that you drop one of those and pick this up instead. You will not regret it.
Final Verdict: 7.7 – Buy it!
