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Sunglasses After Dark: Full Blooded Collection

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    Todd Jordan
    Smut is good.

  • Sunglasses After Dark: Full Blooded Collection



    Published by: IDW Publishing
    Released on: January, 2015
    Writer: Nancy A. Collins
    Artist: Stanley Shaw
    Cover Artist: Stanley Shaw
    Purchase at Amazon

    The 1990s independent comic explosion produced some great material that got buried amongst a sea of garbage, and the implosion of the comics market later in the decade resulted in so many great stories being overlooked and neglected or even altogether forgotten. Musician Glenn Danzig had his own publishing company, Verotik, and they produced books geared toward the more mature comic readers with over-the-top violence very adult sexual content. The publisher was not innocent of producing some less-than-stellar material anymore than the other comic's companies, including the big ones, but their material was at least visually appealing, went for the nut-punch, and they employed some serious talents. One such talent was Nancy A. Collins, coming off a two-year run on DC's Swamp Thing title, and she was approached by Verotik to adapt her 1989 vampire novel Sunglasses After Dark. Armed with artist Stanley Shaw she translated her own novel into comic book format and a 6-issue series was born.

    IDW Publishing has reprinted the 6-part series as a slick looking hardcover collection and with a couple decades gone by this comic story has a chance to reach many more readers that may not have even heard of the comic. This new collection isn't an exact reprint though, so those who have read the series in the past should take note. The biggest and most noticeable difference is the coloring scheme. According to Nancy Collins' introduction, a dispute over rights and ownership and such put the reprint publisher in a position of needing to recolor Shaw's artwork (which Shaw does himself). And to be honest it is miles better than the coloring job as it is in the originally published books. The Verotik comics were much more colorful whereas this hardcover version has a much more subdued palette, elevating the mood of the story and making for a far more enjoyable read. Collins also modified some dialogue too, as she also says in her intro to make it flow more like a graphic novel and less like an adaptation, but unless an unnecessary side-by-side comparison is performed or you're a rabid fan of the original printing, it's probably not noticeable. But the coloring work is the real hero here, as it totally changes the impact of the book.

    The story is about Sonja Blue, a punk-looking vampire hunter who is herself a vampire, and she dispatches the bloodsuckers while at the same time hunting down the piece of garbage creature of the night that turned her into what she loathes. That might be an easier task for her, if not for the demon that inhabits her body, she calls The Other, who is always looking for its window of opportunity to take control of meat suit and turn her into the full-blown vampire she's been trying to avoid becoming. She's still a young vampire, and still has maintained half her humanity and she's in constant battle inside with The Other and its incredible power. Through a series of events she learns some information that puts her on the warpath to take down another powerful entity, a televangelist named Catherine Wheele. Her own special abilities give her influence that is far greater than that of other political or religious figureheads, and she exploits those abilities to their fullest.

    Collins fleshes out Sonja Blue's origin throughout the story in pieces and about midway tells the tale of her being attacked in the 1960s, her life as a fetish whore in the 1970s, and life with a psychic named Chaz which happens right up until the beginning of the book, when she finds herself in a straightjacket and in a sanitarium. The remainder of the pages covers her exploits with an orderly named Claude Haggerty, a self-proclaimed loser in life who gets mixed up with Sonja while she makes her escape. There's also one other thing she's got to deal with besides The Other, the maniacal televangelist, and the vampire who turned her, and that would be her parents. Well, the parents of the person she used to be, Denise Thorne. Her wealthy parents have something to do with Catherine Wheele and when Sonja finds out about it she is none too happy.

    Collins' writing makes the non-linear telling of the story easy to follow when it jumps around, which is helpful because at times Stanley Shaw's incredibly busy artwork can get a bit confusing. His style may take some getting used at first, but it quickly fits in even if noses disappear and panels are sometimes tough to decipher. One thing about his art though that makes it work is the little details in the background, mainly by way of words printed on things (signage, posters, t-shirts). He puts in little nods here and there to the particular era being played out or the location events take place in, like London, Paris, and The Big Apple, and it's those little details you should take care to note that make his pictures interesting. And also, as mentioned up above, his re-coloring of his pencils and inks elevates his decades-old work to a far more enjoyable reading experience.

    Extra material is here, such as the issue #1/2 which precedes the six issues in this collection, and shows Sonja in fighting form. After the main story, a quickie tale a story that Collins and Shaw did for the anthology comic Verotika #4 called “Aphra”. That one is about a man with a skeleton fetish and a wife who can't understand. It has absolutely nothing to do with Sunglasses, but it And finally, after that story is a bunch of sketches from the development of the comic rendition of Sonja Blue and supporting characters.

    IDW does a really great job bringing this story back into the world of comics, and aside from the covers for each issue being excluded (legal reasons no doubt) they give the readers everything that was published in one place. The story is 100 percent engaging and with only one of the three Sonja Blue novels getting a comic adaptation, perhaps there are plans for the other two books getting their own series as well. One can certainly hope for such to happen, as her tale is far from over.










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