Nosferatu Wars

Published by: Dark Horse Comics
Released on: Mar. 12, 2014
Writer: Steve Niles
Artist: Menton3
Cover: Menton3

Two vampire lovers surviving in the Dark Ages during the Black Plague make a mistake when they visit the house of a Lord, whose family has remained under self-quarantine and remains untouched by the plague. Tarquin is Roman and Moira is English, and they got together long after they both met their unnatural deaths at the hands of some vampire or another.

Now they make their way to Lord Mattering's house/fortress, and on the way the story of how they met and the love they have for one another unfolds. Along their journey they bump into a few characters, some in masks, while others thump a Bible. As to what purpose these characters serve it's not exactly clear, other than to perhaps show how nasty and evil the two vampires can be, when not staring into one another's soulless eyes.

This one-shot comic reprints a story told in four installments in the pages of Dark Horse Presents issues 26 through 29. Right off the bat, the artwork brings a unique style and an incredibly appropriate mood to the story by Steve Niles, he of “30 Days of Night” fame. Mr. Niles appears to dig nasty vampires and that suits this reader just fine, but back to the art for a moment. Menton3's got a style that can be summed up by a number of single words, but one of them is “haunting”. His lack of backgrounds and colors give his panels an otherworldly sense which bodes well with Niles' script, and in more ways than one. His vampires are demonic in appearance and the atmosphere he creates oozes off the page.

The story itself seems little more than a teaser for what's to come, rather than an actual story. At only 32 pages for such a story that has to be a big one, and the way that the book ends, there would appear to be little doubt that we'll be seeing more. This book contained no wars of Nosferatu, although it alludes to a war in the beginning and the end of the comic. And the end is kind of a “huh?” moment at first until it quickly sinks in and then turns out to be pretty darn cool. A couple of the characters make little sense in the story, at least to this reader, so again there just has to be something coming by way of more books. Here's hoping that happens because as it stands in this one-shot, it just isn't enough.