VAMPIRE HUNTER D: Message from Mars #1
Written by: Brandon Easton
Art by: Michael Broussard
Cover by: Michael Broussard
Based on the story by: Hideyuki Kikuchi
Publisher: Stranger Comics
Rated: Mature
Format: 36 pages / color
Drawn to Mars by an ancient message from Cecile, a girl who could see the future, D arrives to find a colony that is little more than a blood farm. With Left Hand by his side, D sets out to cleanse Mars of the vampire scourge.
If you are already a fan of Hideyuki Kikuchi‘s Vampire Hunter D series of books, movies, and manga then no matter what I write after this first sentence–whether it sucks, whether its amazing, whether it’s drawn in crayon or two pages long–I know that you’ve already read this comic. This review isn’t for you. In fact, I would love to know what you think of it, seeing as how it came to be in the first place.
For everyone else: A brief overview to help set the stage.
Outside of Kikuchi’s propensity to knock out entire novels as if they were just found lying around his garage, fans have been sadly disappointed out of the series’ more multimedia endeavors. There was the gorgeously drawn, painfully delayed manga series from Saiko Takaki that eventually was outright canceled, slap bang in the middle of a fan favorite two-parter with part two only being released in a handful of places, none in English. There’s the original 1985 film which adapts the first novel into an hour and a half of campy, classic anime fun, which was recently re-recorded and remastered on Blu-ray.
And then there’s Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, released in 2001.
Watch it.
Outside of that there’s a PlayStation 1 game based on Bloodlust and a few radio dramas, and the rest is all conjecture. ‘There’s an anime coming out!’ Years of silence follow. ‘There’s another movie by the team that did Bloodlust!’. Years of silence follow. ‘Now it’s a CGI miniseries!’. Silence. ‘Kikuchi is in talks with Capcom to make a film!’. You can figure out where this is going. The point is that Vampire Hunter D fans are, in my experience, ravenous for content because what little they have is really quite good.
Again, Bloodlust.
Watch it.
As it turns out that some fans got annoyed enough with their series’ nebulous state of affairs. So with the help of publisher Stranger Comics and the generous donations from enthusiastic Kickstarter backers, they put out their own Vampire Hunter D comic book, drawing from one of Kikuchi’s unpublished novels ‘Message from Mars’ as inspiration.
Featuring an impressive combination of talented artwork from both Michael Broussard and Sheldon Mitchell, with Brandon Easton competently adapting an original Kikuchi led story, this issue sets a very high standard for itself straight out of the gate. The theme–fate and one’s own interpretation of it, whether good, bad, or wholly mistaken–is nothing entirely new for the series nor, to be fair, is seeing the titular Hunter bisect demons and super powered vampires with his usual flair for the nonchalant. It is ground that fans will have tread before but as is often the case with Vampire Hunter D adaptations it’s just done so well, so stylishly, so full of obvious talent and a love of the source material that, at the very least, it entertains. Note a certain twist of the wrist at the bottom of page 21, the tight, succinct wording on 12, or the soft orange glow of a Martian sunset throughout and the quality of this book’s construction becomes apparent.
I would also be remiss if I forgot to mention that for the uninitiated the comic comes with a quick, two page primer on the history of the series, a necessary and thoughtful inclusion to help bring people up to speed with this monster of a 25 plus book series. Did I mention this series takes place in a nuclear wasteland with cyborg horses, a parasitic life generator in the heroes’ left hand, and has had vampiric Nobles fly off to space in pre-war rocket ships? This series is anything but ordinary.
Issue 1 isn’t going to set the world on fire, nor is it the be all end all of Vampire Hunter D adaptations, but it’s a solid, smart, and entertaining set up to what I hope will be a thrilling 5 part run. If it rises above the usual ‘monster of the week’ formula so much the better. But for my part I would be content to read yet another beautifully rendered chapter of the ever-expanding, seemingly endless, Vampire Hunter D saga.
What was that? Issue 2 is indefinitely delayed? New artists? Possible cancellation?
For ****’s sake.
