Vampires and the supernatural are Steve Niles “thing,” and “Nosferatu Wars,” his newest one-shot from Dark Horse comics, will immediately cater to his biggest fans. With a noir edge, it’s sexy and sleek and quick to unfold. But by the end of the quick story, you’ll be more interested in who drew it, rather than the popular writer.
Known only as Menton3, his art work in the one-shot is stellar. Almost like a more rugged, gothic style of great Alex Ross, Menton3 is able to draw supernatural characters in a realistic way that makes them pop. Bringing the reader in more with his art than Niles’ writing, Menton3 does the almost unthinkable here- he outshines one of the best writers in the business.
While the one-shot isn’t Niles’ strongpoint, as he works better when he’s able to make us care about his characters, he never gives us one reason to here. While the vampire lovers encountered in the story are cool, we never have a reason to care about what happens to them. Although there is plenty of backstory, it’s just not intriguing enough. For that reason, the book is only a page turner because of the art.
Although the climax was a surprising one and could possibly set the scene for the series continuing, that too isn’t enough to make up for all of the small mistakes littered throughout the plot. From the lack of emotional connection to the characters, to the flat battles, the story feels too rushed to be taken seriously, even by Niles’ biggest fans.
If not for the art of Menton3, this book may have not had enough blood to drink at all.
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.
Vampires and the supernatural are Steve Niles “thing,” and “Nosferatu Wars,” his newest one-shot from Dark Horse comics, will immediately cater to his biggest fans. With a noir edge, it’s sexy and sleek and quick to unfold. But by the end of the quick story, you’ll be more interested in who drew it, rather than the popular writer.
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