Adapted from the novel by Laurel K. Hamilton
Drawn by Brett Booth
Published by Marvel
Guilty Pleasures is the first of the many Anita Blake novels written by Laurell K. Hamilton, a series that takes as its central conceit the idea that Vampires are real and plentiful. They inhabit our cities, live alongside us and follow many, if not all of the traditional rules of movie Vampires- fear of sunlight, vulnerability to holy relics, killed by stakes through the heart or decapitation. In the world of Anita Blake, vampires have become such a part of society that they have been allowed the same rights as humans- becoming accepted as another race that support and contribute to the cities they ‘live’ in. Of course, not all vampires are the harmless blood drinkers they’d have you believe, some are more than willing to tear your throat out and devour your soul, which is where Anita Blake comes in.
Like a bail-bondsman (or bondswoman) she is licensed to carry weapons and enforce the law with strict regards to the Undead. Of course, no human prison could hold a vampire- they are stronger, faster and can enrapture human minds to do their bidding. Therefore, if a Vampire kills a human or breaks a law that would land a living human in jail, Anita is issued with a subpoena to hunt and destroy the Vampire responsible. She’s very good at her job too, earning her a fearsome reputation throughout the undead community as ‘The Executioner’. She also earns a living as an Animator, a rare breed of human that can raise and communicate with the dead- a talent that further sets her apart from the society she helps to protect.
Throughout the novels Anita takes on a great number of enemies, enlisting a variety of colourful characters as assistants, who almost invariably end up dead or worse. Of course, these are the tropes of long running genre fiction, there is the illusion of progression but never an actual conclusion- whilst each novel has an ending there doesn’t appear to be any far-reaching storyline encompassing all thirteen (thus far) books. There will always be room for another Anita Blake novel, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
So what of the comic? The challenges that Dabel Brothers have faced producing it are well documented and the (almost inevitable) delays are equally well known to all of the fans who have awaiting this debut issue for nearly half a year. So, the question remains- what of the comic? Well, I have to be honest here, I was as excited by the news that this series was going to be adapted as any teenage Blake fan out there, though when I heard about the choice of artist my hopes and expectations did falter slightly. I’ve never been a fan of Brett Booth, taking pains to avoid any series drawn by him after being exposed to the (quite frankly dreadful) Wildstorm Special: Backlash and Taboo’s African Holiday a few years back. My god, it gives me shudders just thinking about it.
The comic accurately follows the progress of the first novel, that much is true. Sections of prose are lifted verbatim and pasted into those handy little text boxes that are only really used in comic book adaptations nowadays, other (some might say more progressive) comics tending to show rather than tell the story. Of course, not every artist can express emotion and intent within a single panel, which is why the choice of artist must really match the type of comic being produced. I wouldn’t choose Stuart Immonen to illustrate a remake of Watchmen for example, but then I wouldn’t want Dave Gibbons drawing Nextwave. Both are very fine artists, but both use the medium in different ways, to express different styles of writing and intention. And here in Guilty Pleasures we get a fairly text heavy script stuck with an artist who appears to be unable to draw more than one facial shape and two body types (tall, thin, anatomically inaccurate male and tall, thin, anatomically inaccurate female). What we then end up with is a number of static, uninspired panels littered with text boxes (Anita’s thoughts) and dialogue boxes (for when Anita is speaking or being spoken to. Because we can’t ever have a panel where something is simple enough to understand without an explanation, it seems), that serve little purpose other than getting as much of the source material into the damn thing as possible. Even so, there are moments where things are genuinely confusing; at times characters seem like actors who have forgotten their lines, or even whether they’re in a play or a movie. Their faces go blank, save for a vague impression of shock or wide-eyed wonder, and then they do something totally unexpected and unlikely, which in the context of the novel probably made sense, but here just seems sloppy and poorly executed.
In 22 pages of story, we don’t actually progress that far into the meat of the first novel. I’d say we almost scratch the surface of the concept (Vampire rights, odd murders, Vampire strip club, etc) but don’t actually see any action or anything even remotely interesting to anyone that hasn’t read the novels first. And that is a crucial mistake. Sure, the fans of the series are going to buy this anyway, providing their interest hasn’t waned due to delays and the like; but what about the average comic-reader, picking up a hot new title for the first time? Is there anything for them?
In short, unless they’re already a big Booth fan, then no. There are no action scenes to satisfy the Horror demographic, and no scenes of emotional drama to appeal to fans of the independent comics scene. Even the eroticism of the novels (they get progressively steamier, something Marvel will have to take care with if the comic series survives up to book five and beyond) is missing- we’re told the vampires are irresistible, but then Anita resists them! True, they do work their mind-games on her, but they are hardly the seductive masters of forbidden desires that Stoker and Rice would have us believe. Here they are little more than dangerous, well built strippers. Who all look alike. I mentioned the fact that there only appears to be two different people in this comic earlier, but I feel I should mention it again (and perhaps justify my claims a little) to really drive the point home. Everyone Brett Booth draws looks identical. Not just similar, but actually identical, as if he’s only using one model as a reference and all other characters are that model but with different hairstyles. The oval face, expressionless and devoid of identifying features sits under either a) long flowing locks of hair, b) short and slicked back hair or c) short, but tidy hair.
On those few occasions where the text boxes allow more than one character to be visible, it can be quite difficult determining who is whom, not that they’re really saying anything interesting anyway. Occasionally a few worry lines appear or an eyebrow is raised, but don’t fret- it’s only for a single panel before all features are properly re-arranged into the most default expression imaginable. And every single character is tall and gangly, at pretty much the exact same height; apart from one tiny panel on page 7 where we can see that one of Anita’s friends is incredibly tall (judging from the scale of the cars in the foreground and the building in the background I’d have to estimate her height at about seven feet two inches). Of course, proportions and anatomy are usually important in determining scale. but when everyone is the same, it doesn’t really make much of a difference does it? It’s the legs really, everyone is drawn with these ridiculously long calves that join onto these ridiculously long thighs- they look like the body-types you can find in those ‘How to draw’ reference books, where basic scale is introduced for the first time and exaggerated to enhance its effect.
Anita Blake Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures is going to sell quite well at first, but it won’t set the comics world alight. The people who have already read the novels might enjoy seeing their favourite characters depicted (however badly) on the page, and it’s always good to see how the stories you know and love can be transferred successfully (or not) to another medium. But ultimately, I can’t help but feel that this was a missed opportunity. The novels, whilst not genre shattering works of literature are nevertheless well written and enjoyable. This first issue is clichéd, mundane and at best an example of an average adaptation of a popular novel. At worst it’s a trite money making exercise, tying in a successful franchise to the currently in-vogue world of comics. On paper it might make sense- take long running series of books that sell year in, year out; hire some desperate comics artist to illustrate and just slap on some text boxes to cover up as many blank spaces as possible. The initial outlay (acquisition of the rights) is going to cost the most, but the guaranteed sales from the first few issues will cover those costs right away. Artists work for more or less nothing anyway and by teaming up with a credible comic book publisher like Marvel you open yourself up to lots of potential advertising and merchandising as well. Not to mention the free press from reviews and on-line discussions, wondering what the hell is going on at the House of M. The only problem is if the end result isn’t good enough to bring new readers in, or even keep fans of the series coming back for more. And truth be told, I don’t think this is going to last more than the adaptation of the first novel- it’s too tied to the text, with not enough individuality of its own to be interesting. If the art was halfway decent it might be worth looking at on those merits, but as it stands it just further detracts from what it could have been. Comics are their own medium, with their own rules and conventions, and by just copying a work from another medium, all of the things that people love about comics are ignored. The beats don’t fall in the right places, like a rock version of a jazz or blues number- you can tell what it once was, but it just isn’t as good as the original. All of the originality, the verve, the love is missing, leaving the end result nothing more than a hollow and empty shell.
Adam is the Manager of the Travelling Man Comic Book and Hobby Games Store in Leeds, UK. He’s a self-confessed über-fanboy and loves nothing more than chatting about the obvious superiority of the old-skool JSA over “Those damn glory-hogging kids, the Justice League”. He’s also a massive fan of small press indie comics, and loves reading new and exciting books that haven’t had all of the soul sucked out of them by the mainstream (yet). He also over-uses parentheses and hyphens, but likes the attention it gets him.