The first issue of Mike Mignola, Gabriel Ba and Fabian Moon’s BPRD: Vampire is so sleek that it may slip through your fingers while you read it. The sense of the upcoming action, combined with a solemn main character is enough to keep you around for the rest of the five-issue mini-series.
Set after WWII, Simon is an officer in the BPRD experiencing chilling dreams. Torn by these life-like hallucinations, the dark, brooding character prepares himself to take out the very vampires that haunt his sleep. The cast of characters that support Simon range from Hellboy favorites to scary and sexy vampires. If you’re a fan of the universe, you’ll feel right at home with. If not, you’ll quickly become immersed. Something is definitely about to go down. you can feel it. The anticipation alone is what sells this issue.
If the plot setup seems thin for issue one, it should, because it is. More background than fleshing out, the opening chapter of this tale is a sexy tease. With no wasted motion, Mignola, Ba and Moon drop the breadcrumbs of the story and hope you’ll want to follow. Make no mistake, this is done on purpose and it succeeds. Simon is a badass character and is legitimately recognized in the universe. With credibility through the small moments of defining dialogue out of the way, Simon is set to make due on his desires. Vampires will die in issue two. It’s a safe bet to make.
The art is gory, but done beautifully. The suspense created by the trail of blood and bodies in the beginning sets up the narrative to almost perfection. While Moon and Ba’s art is stellar, the attention to color, courtesy of The Goon’s Dave Stewart, extends the beauty of the pencil and ink work. Reminiscent of early issues of “30 Days of Night,” the look of issue one hits the mark.
With a deadly protagonist and top-shelf art, BPRD: Vampire is a sleeper release that offers a surreptitious bite of vampire adventure goodness.
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports.
Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders.
His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023.
Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief.
Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale.
Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.
The first issue of Mike Mignola, Gabriel Ba and Fabian Moon’s BPRD: Vampire is so sleek that it may slip through your fingers while you read it. The sense of the upcoming action, combined with a solemn main character is enough to keep you around for the rest of the five-issue mini-series.
Leave a Reply