Clyde Benton was the greatest vampire hunter of the ’90s. The problem was, he was too good. He and his team wiped out all the vampires before the pharmaceutical companies could decode their immortal properties. Now, Clyde and his team are reactivated with a single objective: capture the last vampire. Once the pharmaceutical companies have his blood, it’s only a matter of time before all of America is addicted to immortality. 

Sucker Book One: Living After Midnight introduces us to a world post vampire epidemic– one in which specialized police “sucker” units have hunted the fanged monsters so efficiently that vampires are believed to be completely extinct.  As the memory of the epidemic fades, the public has moved on and all but forgotten that vampires existed at all. Meanwhile, a pharmaceutical company hellbent on harnessing immortality jumps at the chance to capture a final new specimen in hopes that he will be the key to eternal life.

The world of Sucker is strange and zany from the get-go. We’re introduced to characters at rapid-fire, from the scummy former vampire hunter Clyde Benton and his holy man partner Harrison to the staff of Frontier Innovations and the last vampire, Bruce Jacobs. The setting is populated primarily by petty criminals and supervillains, and even the presumably innocent are covered in a fine layer of grime, save for a school bus full of children– more on that later. This is the kind of place where a low budget Van Helsing can ride a Harley to a vampire brothel without the reader batting an eye, and the story shines brightest when it fully embraces that level of cheesiness.

The art does a lot for the tone of the story as well, as it borrows a lot from EC Comics and the Tales from the Crypt style of pulp illustration. Be forewarned, the subject matter is very much for mature audiences only as there is heavy gore and nudity throughout, but trust that it’s exactly what you’d expect from a (self-proclaimed but definitely spot on) grindhouse horror story named after a Judas Priest song. The visuals feel dynamic and are great at emphasizing both the action and the over the top gore.

For the most part, Sucker only intends to entertain, and in that it succeeds.  With that said, I can’t help but feel a little bit lost with regard to intent. It feels like there’s a message to be found in Sucker which hasn’t been developed enough yet. It’s as though thematically the creators would like to say something about pharmaceuticals and corporate culture, especially with regards to the way those institutions rely on the ends justifying the means and their willingness to hurt people along the way, but in this first volume there’s not enough time to really expand on that. Instead, we’re left with essentially an entire cast of antagonists for the time being, and while it seems as though the reawakened Bruce Jacobs may in fact be the protagonist, it’s hard to root for a character who kills an entire busload of kids on a whim. I do genuinely feel that a lot of the previously mentioned thematic elements will come into their own with further releases, but for the time being there’s not really enough present to judge either way.

Bottom line, if you’re a fan of horror comics and all they entail, Sucker has you covered. Don’t expect anything cerebral just yet, though I do expect to see some heavier commentary as the series progresses based on the internal monologue of Bruce Jacobs alone. Also, special shout out to the Volume One backer pages at the end of the book, they’re a great final touch and a lot of fun. If you’re interested in Sucker I’d highly suggest checking out the Kickstarter for Volume Two, which also features a slew of options that will net you the first book and keep you up to date on the series, plus there’s a lot of great extra art and incentives for backers.