About.com Rating

The Bottom Line

The Dark Hunters is a graphic novel tie-in to a supernatural romance series by novelist Sherrilyn Kenyon. Maybe that’s the problem: Kenyon’s already filled her urban fantasy universe with so much backstory that it takes most of the comic just to catch the reader up. Maybe if I’d read the rest of the series, I’d be excited when the characters get off-panel help from “a guy named Nick” (the main character in the novels) rather than just a little more confused.

Maybe I’d have some idea what the characters are fighting for and care whether they succeed.

Or maybe it’s just not a very good comic.



Pros

• Greek gods are kind of cool
• So are vampires

Cons

• Greek gods and vampires together are less cool
• Convoluted plot
• Underdeveloped characters
• Self-consciously clever dialogue
• Uneven art

Description

• Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon
  Artist: Claudia Campos
• Publisher:MacMillan / St. Martin's Griffin (US)
• ISBN: 978-0312376871
• Cover Price: $9.99 US / $10.99 CANADA
• Age Rating:T – Teens, Age 13+ despite some bloody violence and sexual references
  More about content ratings.
• Manga Genres:
  • Original English Language (OEL) Manga
  • Romance
  • Paranormal / Supernatural
  • Vampires / Gothic
• US Publication Date: July 2009
  
• Book Description: 208 pages, black and white illustrations

Guide Review - The Dark Hunters Volume 1

In prose writing, say Strunk and White, omit needless words. In comics, omit needless plot. Comics are like movies. They're visually oriented and space is at a premium, so the less time spent on exposition, the better.

The more complicated you make your story, the more your reader has to slog through expository dialogue when she could be enjoying a good sex scene and/or vampire fight.

For example, if you're writing a comic, and your heroine is an accountant, just make her an accountant. Don't make her an accountant with latent psychic powers and eight sisters, all of whom are witches and one of whom is married to an incubus.

If your hero is a vampire, make him a vampire. Not an ancient hero turned into a vampire by the Greek gods, except that he's not really a vampire, he's a completely different category of immortal monster created to fight vampires while looking and acting exactly like a vampire except for a few key differences to be explained at length, and should not under any circumstances be confused with other, separate vampire-like beings also created by the gods. Perhaps this complex myth about Zeus and Apollo will explain things, and then we'll have just enough room to shoehorn in the first of a series of flashbacks explaining how the hero became a not-technically-a-vampire in the first place…

Somewhere in The Dark Hunters is a simple story about a mild-mannered accountant named Amanda and a sexy blond immortal vampire hunter named Kyrian of Thrace (but unfortunately inclined to call himself "Hunter") on the run from evil vampires. But it gets drowned in plot and backstory and tangential details. It's not even clear, by the end of Volume 1, who the bad guys are, because it's taken the whole volume just to explain who Hunter is.

There are other problems. As a general rule, if your hero bears any resemblance to Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you should not have the characters point this out, then try to explain what makes him different from Angel. (Mainly, he's blond.) In fact, try not to mention Buffy at all, especially if it was the obvious inspiration for your attempts at snappy dialogue. And if your hero isn't one of those vampires who suffers personality changes as part of his vampirism (like, say, Angel), decide in advance whether he's the Sarcastic Lone Wolf type of romance hero or the Chivalrous White Knight type, and stick with it.

Claudia Campos's art needs practice. Some of her poses and faces are nicely expressive (Amanda's comical misery while handcuffed to a corpse in the back of an ambulance is lovely), while others look like the first lesson in a how-to-draw-shojo manga guide. The world the characters inhabit is barely sketched in. Since it's supposed to be New Orleans, this is unforgivable.

Then there's the title. When writing comics, if at all possible, avoid any combination of the words "Dark" and "Hunter." Nobody will be able to remember which manga-style graphic novel is yours.



Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.