The Webcomics Weekly is back in your life with a straightforward series that offers refined simple pleasures of Vampires and Metal. Throw up them horns and READ!
Vamp Sabbath
Episode 1-75
Updates twice per month
Created by Drunkenfix (Max Monroy)
Reviewed by Mel Lake
Hope you enjoyed our Eisner webcomic coverage! We’ll have to wait until SDCC kicks off next week to see which webcomic wins the prize. And personally, I’ll be curious to see how the SAG-AFTRA strike changes the vibe at the cons this summer. In the meantime … (checks mic) … are you ready to ROCK? Because this week, I’m asking the question that wasn’t on my mind until I happened upon a strip on Tapas’ front page: What happens when you combine vampires with metal? The answer is “Vamp Sabbath.”
Tristan is a musician struggling to make rent and pay his electric bill. Mood. He happens upon a “battle of the bands” flier and decides to try it as a last-ditch effort at making it in the city. Tristan’s inner monologue hints at a checkered past he’s trying to escape. Meanwhile, Lord Lysander, a vampire, has been summoned by a mysterious vampiric council and chastised. His son, Logan, has been consorting with humans and making himself known as a vampire. Logan is the frontman of Vamp Sabbath, a local legend. They’ve won the battle of the bands three years in a row. After shenanigans involving the band’s bassist, Logan decides he wants Tristan to join the band—and he isn’t about to take no for an answer.
“Vamp Sabbath” has a very colorful, bold, fluid style, which matches the energy of the live music performances in the plot. Backgrounds are simple, but the character designs are vibrant and energetic, if a bit cartoony. The style has a “Scott Pilgrim” meets “Lackadaisy” vibe. It’s simple but effective comics work where readers can always tell what’s happening and distinguish characters from one another. Like “Metalocalypse” meets “Powerpuff Girls.” (With vampires. If you’ve been reading this column for a while, you might already know that I love vampires. But if that isn’t obvious yet, I love vampires.) At times, the characters seem younger than they were in the beginning of the strip, but I think it’s just the effect of them becoming more stylized.
This is a fairly typical “oddballs in a band” plot, in which hijinks and found-family vibes are the point, rather than intricate story-telling. But I mean, there’s vampires. And metal. Those two elements mashed together are so classic they formed the basis of Lestat’s revival in the Anne Rice novels of the 80s and Keifer Sutherland’s take on the bloodsucking punk scene in Lost Boys. So while “Vamp Sabbath” doesn’t break any new ground, it’s using tropes that are classics for a reason. I read through all the available episodes in an evening, so there’s lots of fun stuff here. The story is still kicking off, and the three main characters haven’t even played together yet, so the good times are yet to roll.
The worldbuilding is fairly simple, with standard vampire transformation into bats and other monsters, and the need for blood after extending one’s powers. Monroy doesn’t weigh the story down with exposition that explains the rules of the world or the history of Logan’s clan. Instead, the details are given in bite-sized chunks, as needed. Tristan is the fish-out-of-water narrator, learning about the world of vampires and werewolves, and although he’s a pretty flat character in the present, his flashbacks reveal childhood traumas that may come into play in future storylines.
“Vamp Sabbath” is also available in Spanish, and it looks like the creator writes in both languages, which is super cool. If you can’t wait for more Interview with the Vampire episodes or are just looking for a fun, supernatural strip that hints at some darker themes but isn’t full-on horror, “Vamp Sabbath” is an easy read. Just tuck yourself into your coffin with your tablet of choice and put on some headphones so you don’t disturb your day-dwelling neighbors.
