“Blood Brothers” is what happens when you put “Dog The Bounty Hunter,” “Interview With a Vampire” and “Animal House” in a blender.
Writers Mike Gagerman and Andrew Waller craft a silly take on the buddy comedy that chock full of witty moments. Main characters, bounty hunters and vampires, Tree and Nick have an almost Laurel and Hardy, meets Mel Gibson and Danny Glover type of relationship. Tree is more the troublemaker and nymphomaniac, while Nick wants to find some semblance of normality in his life. Unlike Tree, Nick is even in a committed relationship with a woman he loves. More than anything, you get the feeling Nick would be happy with an average life.
But that’s kind of hard to have when you’re a thousand-year-old vampire that has done everything from watch the signing of the declaration of independence participate in an orgy at the Sistine Chapel with Michelangelo.
These important moments in time are brought alive by artist Evan Shaner with the type of detail that does the written word justice, but adds a flavor of its own. While the context of the comic is whimsical at times, Shaner is able to add the grit and depth to make the characters “pop.” His facial expression in particular is stellar. From the rage in the eyes of the baddies to Nick’s quite desperation, Shaner’s work in issue one is an added bonus to the TV worthy story.
With elements of comedy, suspense and some cool fight scenes, “Blood Brothers” quickly makes itself a great change of pace read for those who enjoy a wide variety of pop culture goodness. It’s smart and sexy too, but never so much that you forget to laugh. Like any solid comic book, it makes its case often. Equally as comfortable on top of the toilet bowl as it is on the living room table, it’s a fun excursion that deserves to continue for a while.
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.
“Blood Brothers” is what happens when you put “Dog The Bounty Hunter,” “Interview With a Vampire” and “Animal House” in a blender.
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