Welcome to Hoxford

I like werewolves. I have to admit they're not as sexy as vampires. It's hard to make something appealing about turning into a blood thirsty killing machine under a full moon. Drinking blood and luring young virgins into depravity is practically heroic in comparison.

Ben Templesmith is the mind behind Wormwood. It is a twisted and dark place. Somewhat like 30 Days of Night (of which Templesmith was the artist), it puts werewolves in a confined space and lets them loose. It also pairs them with the worst that humanity has to offer. If Templesmith were a better writer it might have been a story of which monsters to call the heroes; but he's not so it's mostly about gore and violence. Lots of both.

I didn't really like the characterisation of the werewolves in Hoxford. In my opinion he chose to ignore what can lead to interest in werewolves: pack mentality, the curse and the dichotomy between the human and the animal. Instead they were a pack of mindless killers of the same caliber as the serial murders and the rapists that populated Hoxford. I was hoping for more.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 1910

When I read The Black Dossier I complained that there were (essentially) too many words and not enough action. 1910 corrects that. It even elaborates on some of what was only hinted at in The Black Dossier and was a much more enjoyable read. I'm still running into the problem that I may have not quite read enough Victorian literature to fully appreciate Moore's narrative but I didn't feel as far out of the loop with this one. I think there was simply more narrative context for me to be able to connect the dots.

Chibi Vampire Volume 14

It's done. This book completes the story that is Chibi Vampire and I have to say... I'm a little disappointed. Sure the idea behind what Karin means to the vampire community is neat but what her family decides to do with her made me shake my head. It's nice that it's something of a happy ending in that Karin and Kenta get to live happily ever after, but to never see her family again or to even not have any memory of them? I didn't like it.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Predators and Prey

There's not much in this arc that feels connected to the other stories in the volume. It kind of feels like mid-season Buffy where there are few episodes with a tenuous connection to the season's Big Bad but mostly there for fun. I guess the theme could be that appearances may be deceiving - from Harmony's story of a reality TV vampire to what's up with Dawn. Like the mid-season of the show Predators and Prey is mostly just OK. It's getting a 3.