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Vampire The Masquerade: Winter's Teeth #1-5
Vampire: The Masquerade — Winter’s Teeth, Vol. 1
Immerse yourself in the hit comic series based in the world of the international best-selling tabletop role playing game, Vampire: The Masquerade!
When Cecily Bain, an enforcer for the Twin Cities' vampiric elite, takes a mysterious new vampire under her wing, she's dragged into an insidious conspiracy.
Will she be able to escape with her unlife and protect her aging, Alzheimer's-afflicted sister, or will she be yet another pawn sacrificed to maintain the age-old secret: that vampires exist among the living.
Collects Vampire: The Masquerade #1-5
When Cecily Bain, an enforcer for the Twin Cities' vampiric elite, takes a mysterious new vampire under her wing, she's dragged into an insidious conspiracy.
Will she be able to escape with her unlife and protect her aging, Alzheimer's-afflicted sister, or will she be yet another pawn sacrificed to maintain the age-old secret: that vampires exist among the living.
Collects Vampire: The Masquerade #1-5
160 pages, Paperback
First published March 3, 2021
48 people are currently reading
209 people want to read
About the author
Tim Seeley
1,599 books590 followersTim Seeley is a comic book artist and writer known for his work on books such as G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, The Dark Elf Trilogy, Batman Eternal and Grayson. He is also the co-creator of the Image Comics titles Hack/Slash[1] and Revival, as well as the Dark Horse titles, ExSanguine and Sundowners. He lives in Chicago.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 64 reviews
July 10, 2023
I didn't realize this was based on an RPG until I got to the back of the book.
So, bonus points for Seeley for writing a comic that made sense outside the fandom!
Both of my boys recognized the name as soon as I asked them about it. They've never played but apparently, this RPG is a big deal and has a lot of fans. So.
Obviously, if you're a huge fan who has been playing the game for years, I have no idea how this will hold up for you, but from my POV it seems like this was made with a lot of love and respect.
For those of you who might just want to read a vampire comic, this is pretty cool.
The gist is that there's some kind of a coup brewing in the vampire world. Because of course there is.
In the first panels you're introduced to a seemingly heartless enforcer named Cecily Bain who ends up taking in and protecting a newly made vampire. There is also another group of sad sack vampires running around together that you meet and end up rooting for, as well.
All of these guys, plus a bunch more over the top vampire-y characters fill up the pages and actually end up making for quite a decent story.
I thought the art was serviceable but nothing special.
Recommended for fans of Nosferatu.
So, bonus points for Seeley for writing a comic that made sense outside the fandom!
Both of my boys recognized the name as soon as I asked them about it. They've never played but apparently, this RPG is a big deal and has a lot of fans. So.
Obviously, if you're a huge fan who has been playing the game for years, I have no idea how this will hold up for you, but from my POV it seems like this was made with a lot of love and respect.
For those of you who might just want to read a vampire comic, this is pretty cool.
The gist is that there's some kind of a coup brewing in the vampire world. Because of course there is.
In the first panels you're introduced to a seemingly heartless enforcer named Cecily Bain who ends up taking in and protecting a newly made vampire. There is also another group of sad sack vampires running around together that you meet and end up rooting for, as well.
All of these guys, plus a bunch more over the top vampire-y characters fill up the pages and actually end up making for quite a decent story.
I thought the art was serviceable but nothing special.
Recommended for fans of Nosferatu.
February 26, 2021
Cecily Bain is the enforcer for the vampiric clan running the Twin Cities. She finds a newly sired vampire and offers to take her under her wing. Soon, the two of them get embroiled in a plot to overthrow the current head of the clan. Seeley provides enough intrigue to keep me interested. I've never played Vampire: The Masquerade before. That didn't lessen my enjoyment at all. I didn't know what some of the terms used for, but I was able to figure them out with the given context clues.
There's also a backup story by Blake and Tini Howard involving some hick vampires headed to Minneapolis. It was solid. Also included is about 25 pages of RPG materials for the game this story is based in.
Received a review copy from Vault and Edelweiss. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by the aforementioned.
There's also a backup story by Blake and Tini Howard involving some hick vampires headed to Minneapolis. It was solid. Also included is about 25 pages of RPG materials for the game this story is based in.
Received a review copy from Vault and Edelweiss. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by the aforementioned.
January 18, 2023
VAMPIRES!! Vampires vampires, who doesn't love vampires - me.
And here I am yet again, reading a vampire comic with Mrs. Robert Pattison, Kadi.
And it's okay. There's a main story and there's a b-plot story, both of which dovetail nicely into eachother towards the end.
And there's vampires. A LOT of vampires. Thank you for reading the dullest review on Goodreads ever.
And here I am yet again, reading a vampire comic with Mrs. Robert Pattison, Kadi.
And it's okay. There's a main story and there's a b-plot story, both of which dovetail nicely into eachother towards the end.
And there's vampires. A LOT of vampires. Thank you for reading the dullest review on Goodreads ever.
Read
February 17, 2021Vampire: The Masquerade was a more formative influence on me than I'm entirely comfortable admitting, right down to the fact that it has coloured my phrasing when I say that I haven't played the game this millennium. Not only that; although, as with so many games, I have enormous bundles of the PDFs, I haven't even read them much* – possibly because it is so firmly linked in my mind with that awkward transitional phase of youth. But when I saw a tie-in comic pop up on Netgalley; and that it was written by Tim Seeley, who has promising past form with the undead in Revival; and that the covers were by Aaron Campbell and David Mack, both of them perfect matches for that old White Wolf aesthetic...well, I could hardly resist. Alas, the first stumbling block was that Devmalya Pramanik's interior art was not on the same level; it gets the scratchy nocturnal feel of the world down, but the characters' anatomies and likenesses are inconsistent to the extent that I'm not even sure how old some of the key players are meant to look (something that is important to the story, when you have a vampire lead still interacting with her mortal family). Nor is it exactly letting down top-notch writing. The setting is the Twin Cities, which obviously fired me off on a whole mental tangent of Hold Steady songs reworked to be about vampires**, and it's explained in a very 'As you know, Vlad' page of exposition that after a long time with the two cities run by one vampire Prince, there's now a movement to split. Our lead, an enforcer whose Brujah tendencies extend only as far as not wanting an official title, is meant to help stop that from happening. Oh, and also the vampire civil war is over and there's a Second Inquisition which somehow involves the CIA but this is a bother rather than a crisis? I don't know, maybe this is all part of the standard setting now, the only changes I was really aware of were the ones where they made three of the clans less spectacularly racist***. But judging from the RPG material giving stats &c for the characters which is included as backmatter (a nice touch, that), even some of the basic attributes have changed, never mind the format for NPC descriptions. That said, one of them does describe a character as "a dilatant poseur" and, while I am intrigued by the notion that vampires, like cats, are non-Newtonian fluids, I'm 99% sure they mean 'dilettante', so maybe it's just shoddy editing. Anyway, I digress. The story is trying to be an Ellroy-style murder mystery which leads into a conspiracy thriller, and it makes some interesting choices (including antagonists who are not the obvious choice to an extent they seems a weird place to start and could almost be considered cheating), but for me it never rose past readability to ever grip per se.
Tini Howard (some of whose other stuff I've enjoyed) collaborates with Blake Howard on a back-up strip about anarchs, illustrated by Nathan Gooden, and set near enough that we can assume the two will dovetail at some point, as they duly do. This gets points for the deeply 2020s line "I'd always heard 'Life sucks, and then you die.' But the truth is, you die, and it just gets worse." Beyond which, it's just sort of there, really, contributing to the mood but with even less urgency than the main story.
*RPG stuff I have been reading lately includes doomy supplements to the last wave of Warhammer 40K roleplaying, which scratch my itch for that world and its gothic strangeness in a way the core game's increasingly silly attempts to flog plastic no longer can; Troika, essentially Fighting Fantasy as reworked by surrealists; and the new edition of Torg, a game I always used to covet but have never previously read, which in some ways shares a kitchen sink aesthetic with Rifts but seems to execute it all so much more elegantly.
**They'd do it as the Hold Undeady, obviously. The album is called Almost Killed Me (But Then Brought Me Back). The main track in my head is Your Little Gangrel Friend, but with something like How a Resurrection Really Feels you don't even need to change it.
***Between this and the current Whedon shitstorm, nineties vampires seem to be the new seventies pop when it comes to a sea of awful on which floats the plaintive excuse 'You have to remember, it was a very different time'.
Tini Howard (some of whose other stuff I've enjoyed) collaborates with Blake Howard on a back-up strip about anarchs, illustrated by Nathan Gooden, and set near enough that we can assume the two will dovetail at some point, as they duly do. This gets points for the deeply 2020s line "I'd always heard 'Life sucks, and then you die.' But the truth is, you die, and it just gets worse." Beyond which, it's just sort of there, really, contributing to the mood but with even less urgency than the main story.
*RPG stuff I have been reading lately includes doomy supplements to the last wave of Warhammer 40K roleplaying, which scratch my itch for that world and its gothic strangeness in a way the core game's increasingly silly attempts to flog plastic no longer can; Troika, essentially Fighting Fantasy as reworked by surrealists; and the new edition of Torg, a game I always used to covet but have never previously read, which in some ways shares a kitchen sink aesthetic with Rifts but seems to execute it all so much more elegantly.
**They'd do it as the Hold Undeady, obviously. The album is called Almost Killed Me (But Then Brought Me Back). The main track in my head is Your Little Gangrel Friend, but with something like How a Resurrection Really Feels you don't even need to change it.
***Between this and the current Whedon shitstorm, nineties vampires seem to be the new seventies pop when it comes to a sea of awful on which floats the plaintive excuse 'You have to remember, it was a very different time'.
December 31, 2022
(Buddy read with Alexander Vampirehans)
A middling comic that tried and failed to incorporate it's game lore into the story. The problem was that the story did not have have enough body—nor the characters enough personality—to hold up against the heavy weight of the pre-established game lore. And that left us with mish-mash of a story followed by 30 pages of game information that showed more forethought than the entirety of the other 160 pages.
On top of that, the deaths upon deaths were emotionless as characters were introduced about 5 pages before they were brutally murdered. Although there was some nice character progression for the protagonist, her incessant singing and self-hatred were cringe-inducing. Her relationship with her protege was actually sweet to see, so it wasn't all bad. There just wasn't enough of it to save the rest of the comic from sinking into the pit of mediocrity. And the underwhelming ending suggested their relationship wasn't going to continue progressing in Vampire: The Masquerade Vol. 2: The Mortician's Army, anyway.
So, whilst the art was nice, on the whole the potential in this comic was wasted. And that was a shame because the ideas themselves could've led to a great comic if only it had had better execution.
A middling comic that tried and failed to incorporate it's game lore into the story. The problem was that the story did not have have enough body—nor the characters enough personality—to hold up against the heavy weight of the pre-established game lore. And that left us with mish-mash of a story followed by 30 pages of game information that showed more forethought than the entirety of the other 160 pages.
On top of that, the deaths upon deaths were emotionless as characters were introduced about 5 pages before they were brutally murdered. Although there was some nice character progression for the protagonist, her incessant singing and self-hatred were cringe-inducing. Her relationship with her protege was actually sweet to see, so it wasn't all bad. There just wasn't enough of it to save the rest of the comic from sinking into the pit of mediocrity. And the underwhelming ending suggested their relationship wasn't going to continue progressing in Vampire: The Masquerade Vol. 2: The Mortician's Army, anyway.
So, whilst the art was nice, on the whole the potential in this comic was wasted. And that was a shame because the ideas themselves could've led to a great comic if only it had had better execution.
April 18, 2021
3.5/5
I gotta be honest, I didn’t know this was a game before reading it so I went blind with this comic. And my god, I’m so glad I did.
We follow Cecily Bain, a vampire who’s basically the one taking care of the ‘dirty work’ in the Twin Cities ruled by Prince Samantha. To me, The Masquerade sounds like a clan that gathers smaller clans. All vampires belong to a different family, and elderly vampires have special abilities such as controlling the pacing of time, super strength or ultimately, they use their own blood magic to control pretty much everything.
This volume has action packed scenes and I feel mad at myself because it took me so long to grab it when it’s really good! Cecily is a great MC and I instantly liked her! I’m also intrigued of what will happen with Ali, Cecily’s adopted childe, whose past seemed darker than I thought it would be. The side character’s stories were interesting too and I’m wondering what the anarchy group will do now that the Cities don’t have a governor per se.
Last but not least, the art is quite good and I think they did an amazing job coloring the different scenes, giving them adequate atmospheres. Honestly, this was such an interesting comic that I hope we see more of Cecily and Ali in the future! Totally recommend it!
I received an e-book ARC in exchange for an honest review via Diamond Comic Distributors and NetGalley.
I gotta be honest, I didn’t know this was a game before reading it so I went blind with this comic. And my god, I’m so glad I did.
We follow Cecily Bain, a vampire who’s basically the one taking care of the ‘dirty work’ in the Twin Cities ruled by Prince Samantha. To me, The Masquerade sounds like a clan that gathers smaller clans. All vampires belong to a different family, and elderly vampires have special abilities such as controlling the pacing of time, super strength or ultimately, they use their own blood magic to control pretty much everything.
This volume has action packed scenes and I feel mad at myself because it took me so long to grab it when it’s really good! Cecily is a great MC and I instantly liked her! I’m also intrigued of what will happen with Ali, Cecily’s adopted childe, whose past seemed darker than I thought it would be. The side character’s stories were interesting too and I’m wondering what the anarchy group will do now that the Cities don’t have a governor per se.
Last but not least, the art is quite good and I think they did an amazing job coloring the different scenes, giving them adequate atmospheres. Honestly, this was such an interesting comic that I hope we see more of Cecily and Ali in the future! Totally recommend it!
I received an e-book ARC in exchange for an honest review via Diamond Comic Distributors and NetGalley.
March 11, 2021
4/5
http://booknest.eu/reviews/charles/21...
VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE: WINTER'S TEETH VOLUME 1 is a collection of the first five issues of the Vampire: The Masquerade comic book by Tim Seeley, Blake Howard, and Tini Howard. It is set in the World of Darkness universe, popularized by the Vamire: The Masquerade tabletop and video games. We've been reviewing all of the issues here at Grimdark Magazine and think it would be inappropriate not to cover the graphic novel that was recently released. So, how is it?
In general, Winter's Teeth is a very solid and entertaining throwback to the Nineties Gothic Punk genre that eventually spawned things like Underworld as well as True Blood. It is a masqued world where the supernatural do their best to protect themselves from the prying eyes of mortals while carrying out sinister plots against, well, mostly each other. Vampires are fiercely competitive with one faction (The Camarilla) having a feudal structure and the other faction (The Anarchs) being, well, anarchic.
The comic is set within the Twin Cities of Saint Louis and Minneapolis. The cities have traditionally been considered seperate domains but there's movement to combine them under one single Prince who will rule them all. Completely uncaring about these politics is protagonist, Cecily Bane, who is a former Anarch who has allowed herself to become a traitor to the cause in order to look after her ailing geriatric sister.
What follows is a complicated and entertaining set of events that reminds me very much of my tabletop RPG sessions for reasons both good as well as bad. There's a lot of really interesting storytelling going on but I also feel like the Storyteller (Tim Seeley in this case) occassionally throws in ramdom crazy stuff to spice things up. At one point, a bunch of organ-harvesting cyborgs show up and I wondered if someone had been using their homebrew Mage/Vampire crossover material.
Cecily is a character that bounces between incredibly unlikable and entertaining in equal measures, which I think is the intent. She's someone who has become jaded on the conflicts of Anarch vs. Camarilla and it has burned her out. Unfortunately, that means she's unwittingly making enemies and does a few things that are just genuinely evil. Very true to the game but sometimes I felt like I wanted to see Cecily staked and left out for the sun.
Despite my issues, I absolutely did love the Byzantine plots and betrayals that fill up the story. Cecily recruits a young fledgling in hopes of restoring some of her lost humanity but secretly having let a snake into her home. There's a lot of humor to be had from the fact Cecily doesn't know how to deal with someone from the modern world even though she was Embraced in the Eighties.
Really, I actually enjoyed the back-up stories a bit more than the main story and I didn't dislike the main story. The Anarchs are a wonderful collection of oddballs and misfits trying to find their place in the world. Colleen is a fantastic Thin Blooded vampire (basically more human than monster) that is trying to serve as den mother to a bunch of dysfunctional monsters.
In conclusion, I really do recommend this book but with some caveats that a slower pace might have actually been better. I wanted to follow up Cordell's vengeance scheme and get to know the Prince more. Vampire: The Masquerade is frequently about getting to know the major players of a single city. Even so, I very much enjoyed this and will be picking up the series as it continues on.
http://booknest.eu/reviews/charles/21...
VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE: WINTER'S TEETH VOLUME 1 is a collection of the first five issues of the Vampire: The Masquerade comic book by Tim Seeley, Blake Howard, and Tini Howard. It is set in the World of Darkness universe, popularized by the Vamire: The Masquerade tabletop and video games. We've been reviewing all of the issues here at Grimdark Magazine and think it would be inappropriate not to cover the graphic novel that was recently released. So, how is it?
In general, Winter's Teeth is a very solid and entertaining throwback to the Nineties Gothic Punk genre that eventually spawned things like Underworld as well as True Blood. It is a masqued world where the supernatural do their best to protect themselves from the prying eyes of mortals while carrying out sinister plots against, well, mostly each other. Vampires are fiercely competitive with one faction (The Camarilla) having a feudal structure and the other faction (The Anarchs) being, well, anarchic.
The comic is set within the Twin Cities of Saint Louis and Minneapolis. The cities have traditionally been considered seperate domains but there's movement to combine them under one single Prince who will rule them all. Completely uncaring about these politics is protagonist, Cecily Bane, who is a former Anarch who has allowed herself to become a traitor to the cause in order to look after her ailing geriatric sister.
What follows is a complicated and entertaining set of events that reminds me very much of my tabletop RPG sessions for reasons both good as well as bad. There's a lot of really interesting storytelling going on but I also feel like the Storyteller (Tim Seeley in this case) occassionally throws in ramdom crazy stuff to spice things up. At one point, a bunch of organ-harvesting cyborgs show up and I wondered if someone had been using their homebrew Mage/Vampire crossover material.
Cecily is a character that bounces between incredibly unlikable and entertaining in equal measures, which I think is the intent. She's someone who has become jaded on the conflicts of Anarch vs. Camarilla and it has burned her out. Unfortunately, that means she's unwittingly making enemies and does a few things that are just genuinely evil. Very true to the game but sometimes I felt like I wanted to see Cecily staked and left out for the sun.
Despite my issues, I absolutely did love the Byzantine plots and betrayals that fill up the story. Cecily recruits a young fledgling in hopes of restoring some of her lost humanity but secretly having let a snake into her home. There's a lot of humor to be had from the fact Cecily doesn't know how to deal with someone from the modern world even though she was Embraced in the Eighties.
Really, I actually enjoyed the back-up stories a bit more than the main story and I didn't dislike the main story. The Anarchs are a wonderful collection of oddballs and misfits trying to find their place in the world. Colleen is a fantastic Thin Blooded vampire (basically more human than monster) that is trying to serve as den mother to a bunch of dysfunctional monsters.
In conclusion, I really do recommend this book but with some caveats that a slower pace might have actually been better. I wanted to follow up Cordell's vengeance scheme and get to know the Prince more. Vampire: The Masquerade is frequently about getting to know the major players of a single city. Even so, I very much enjoyed this and will be picking up the series as it continues on.
January 3, 2025
Ya había leído los cuatro primeros números en grapa y ahora estoy deseando que saquen el segundo tomo para seguir disfrutando de esta historia de VtM.
¿Una "sheriff" Brujah? ¿Complots de la Camarilla? ¿Anarquistas molonérrimos?!
¡¡Dentrísimo!!!
P.S. Ha sido como volver al pasado y jugar 🖤🖤🖤🦇🦇🦇
¿Una "sheriff" Brujah? ¿Complots de la Camarilla? ¿Anarquistas molonérrimos?!
¡¡Dentrísimo!!!
P.S. Ha sido como volver al pasado y jugar 🖤🖤🖤🦇🦇🦇
February 26, 2021
I was granted eARC access to Vampire: The Masquerade Volume 1 by the publisher via NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.
I was introduced to the World of Darkness properties in my late teens and have played several of them both tabletop and LARP style, but V:TM is the one I'm most familiar with, owing to the fact that my college boyfriend was the local LARP group's storyteller. I've both played genuinely and served as an NPC many times. I've only just started to embrace graphic novels and I was so excited to see a V:TM offering available that I snapped it up and immediately started reading.
The art style is dark, gritty, and beautiful. It's reminiscent of the player manuals, but also has that 80s and 90s Buffy, Lost Boys feel. This is the version of vampires I default to when asked to think of vampires. Bravo to the artist(s), very well done!
I do appreciate the fact that this novel remains true to its source material to the extent that the leader is the Prince even if she's a woman, and every vampire who's every created another is a sire, even if they're women. Vampires don't care about gender enough to have gendered labels. Part of me has always wanted the terms princess and dam to be used and just given equal power, but this simplified way of doing things also emphasizes how old vampire society is. A princess does not outrank a prince, so the leader must be titled prince. Simple.
I do wish this read more like LitRPG with characters levelling up and gaining new skills and abilities as the story progressed. This is built on the lore of an RPG property and we have a brand new vampire learning the ropes. It would have been so easy to do! Aside from that, the story is well thought out and does feel like it could have been a possible play-through of some storyteller's plan, but I wish it had been presented in a more linear fashion. A lot of people get staked and then show up again a few pages later, and I was left unsure which ones weren't staked correctly and which ones were only "alive again" because of timeline jumping.
I love the fact that not all of the vampires are purely former humans. A lot of times people playing WoD properties forget that you can mix and match a bit, and that it's absolutely possible to turn something else into a vampire. It's great to see weres and other creatures, and I love how much fun was had with Mitch's forms. (How perfect that he sleeps in dog form!) I also loved the fact that the artwork turned all of the blood on the page into its own character. It moves, it dances. When vampires use it, it's magic. These illustrations actually show that.
Overall this is darkly beautiful and a great start to an interesting storyline. Despite my wishes for what I thought was lacking, I do intend to read on when future volumes come out, and I'd also love to read graphic novels from other WoD properties. (Changeling, perhaps?) I recommend this to all gritty vampires lovers and to all fans new and old of WoD and similar RPG systems. In fact, I'm going to tell that old college boyfriend who used to run the local V:TM LARP about it next time we chat!
I was introduced to the World of Darkness properties in my late teens and have played several of them both tabletop and LARP style, but V:TM is the one I'm most familiar with, owing to the fact that my college boyfriend was the local LARP group's storyteller. I've both played genuinely and served as an NPC many times. I've only just started to embrace graphic novels and I was so excited to see a V:TM offering available that I snapped it up and immediately started reading.
The art style is dark, gritty, and beautiful. It's reminiscent of the player manuals, but also has that 80s and 90s Buffy, Lost Boys feel. This is the version of vampires I default to when asked to think of vampires. Bravo to the artist(s), very well done!
I do appreciate the fact that this novel remains true to its source material to the extent that the leader is the Prince even if she's a woman, and every vampire who's every created another is a sire, even if they're women. Vampires don't care about gender enough to have gendered labels. Part of me has always wanted the terms princess and dam to be used and just given equal power, but this simplified way of doing things also emphasizes how old vampire society is. A princess does not outrank a prince, so the leader must be titled prince. Simple.
I do wish this read more like LitRPG with characters levelling up and gaining new skills and abilities as the story progressed. This is built on the lore of an RPG property and we have a brand new vampire learning the ropes. It would have been so easy to do! Aside from that, the story is well thought out and does feel like it could have been a possible play-through of some storyteller's plan, but I wish it had been presented in a more linear fashion. A lot of people get staked and then show up again a few pages later, and I was left unsure which ones weren't staked correctly and which ones were only "alive again" because of timeline jumping.
I love the fact that not all of the vampires are purely former humans. A lot of times people playing WoD properties forget that you can mix and match a bit, and that it's absolutely possible to turn something else into a vampire. It's great to see weres and other creatures, and I love how much fun was had with Mitch's forms. (How perfect that he sleeps in dog form!) I also loved the fact that the artwork turned all of the blood on the page into its own character. It moves, it dances. When vampires use it, it's magic. These illustrations actually show that.
Overall this is darkly beautiful and a great start to an interesting storyline. Despite my wishes for what I thought was lacking, I do intend to read on when future volumes come out, and I'd also love to read graphic novels from other WoD properties. (Changeling, perhaps?) I recommend this to all gritty vampires lovers and to all fans new and old of WoD and similar RPG systems. In fact, I'm going to tell that old college boyfriend who used to run the local V:TM LARP about it next time we chat!
March 4, 2021
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
"Vampire: The Masquerade Volume 1" is a twisted tale of vampires, politics, and trying to stay afloat when everything is lost.
First of all, the art style throughout this book was truly stunning. It went well with the story.
There is a huge amount of information that the book gives, but it did a really great job at feeding that information without it being overwhelming to the reader. It was easy to keep up with, and everything made sense without any plot holes or unanswered questions remaining.
While the world-building is amazing and full, the characters were even better. Each and every one of them was complex, and it showed their personality, goals, and struggles enough, that the reader can't do much but care about them and their future.
Overall, it was a really well-crafted and intriguing book, that I'm sure every comic lover with a taste for dark tales will cherish.
"Vampire: The Masquerade Volume 1" is a twisted tale of vampires, politics, and trying to stay afloat when everything is lost.
First of all, the art style throughout this book was truly stunning. It went well with the story.
There is a huge amount of information that the book gives, but it did a really great job at feeding that information without it being overwhelming to the reader. It was easy to keep up with, and everything made sense without any plot holes or unanswered questions remaining.
While the world-building is amazing and full, the characters were even better. Each and every one of them was complex, and it showed their personality, goals, and struggles enough, that the reader can't do much but care about them and their future.
Overall, it was a really well-crafted and intriguing book, that I'm sure every comic lover with a taste for dark tales will cherish.
December 26, 2022
3.5, round up
20+ years ago, in high school, I played Vampire the Masquerade a few times. (Or LARPed, I suppose, would be more accurate.) I had friends who were very into it and were recruiting me to join. I enjoyed it, but role-playing is not for introverts. No, thank you. I was too embarrassed to relax into it, even if I saw the appeal.
When I picked this graphic novel up, I wasn't certain if it was actually the same as the game I played way back. Turns out it is. I enjoyed the story, liked the characters and world, and appreciated the art. I was a little thrown off by there being two story-lines (with different writers and artists). I kept expecting them to intersect, which never happened. But all in all, I was happy to have volume two when I finished this.
20+ years ago, in high school, I played Vampire the Masquerade a few times. (Or LARPed, I suppose, would be more accurate.) I had friends who were very into it and were recruiting me to join. I enjoyed it, but role-playing is not for introverts. No, thank you. I was too embarrassed to relax into it, even if I saw the appeal.
When I picked this graphic novel up, I wasn't certain if it was actually the same as the game I played way back. Turns out it is. I enjoyed the story, liked the characters and world, and appreciated the art. I was a little thrown off by there being two story-lines (with different writers and artists). I kept expecting them to intersect, which never happened. But all in all, I was happy to have volume two when I finished this.
March 13, 2021
Thank you to the publishers and net galley for approving me for the arc. I loved the art to this graphic novel it really suited the theme of the story especially with how gory it got and the details to everything. The storytelling however could have been a bit better. I found myself lost trying to figure out how we got from one scene to another or what the characters were even talking about especially when the character would just be spending a few pages just singing it was meh. I do want to know what's next for the characters now with how things ended it left me asking even more questions. I'm willing to pick up the next graphic novel.
March 9, 2023
Can‘t miss this one if you’re a fan of Masquerade or intrigues and action.
However it may be difficult keep track of all conspiracies and find motivations believable as betrayals pile up.
However it may be difficult keep track of all conspiracies and find motivations believable as betrayals pile up.
March 8, 2025
La idea mola mucho pero me ha parecido un batiburrillo de conspiraciones que llevan a la confusión y a perder el hilo de la historia principal.
Vanpiro esiten
Vanpiro esiten
February 2, 2021
An absorbing tale for long-time fans of the World of Darkness or people new to it. If you're not familiar with the WoD, you get thrown in just like a newly-embraced vampire. Plenty of action, interesting motivations, and vampire politics seen from an interesting POV. It's not all fancy gatherings and high-level manipulation of mortals.
There are two stories. One is of the Prince's "dirty book" Cecily Bain--a former Anarch who does the dirty work of the Camarilla-aligned Prince and Primogen. Cecily is complicated--connected to her human life but with no illusions about being a monster, cold-blooded but with a soft spot, singing one moment and voicing her monster the next. The other story is of a group of vampires not aligned with any faction and doing their best to survive.
The stories show a variety of types of vampires and ways/reasons they were made. They're interesting for me as a fan but also a good example of how varied vampires are. I want to know more about many of the characters and I'm invested in what happens next in the Twin Cities.
There are two stories. One is of the Prince's "dirty book" Cecily Bain--a former Anarch who does the dirty work of the Camarilla-aligned Prince and Primogen. Cecily is complicated--connected to her human life but with no illusions about being a monster, cold-blooded but with a soft spot, singing one moment and voicing her monster the next. The other story is of a group of vampires not aligned with any faction and doing their best to survive.
The stories show a variety of types of vampires and ways/reasons they were made. They're interesting for me as a fan but also a good example of how varied vampires are. I want to know more about many of the characters and I'm invested in what happens next in the Twin Cities.
February 3, 2021
A standard story of a vampire looking after a newly-turned vampire, flooded with lingo to show it's not a phone-in job, but in fact tied to some game I'd never heard of. Oh, and it's interrupted by a different story set in the same Twin Cities area, of a bunch of the undead including a werewolf, on a road trip to do something or other that goes wrong. There is nothing here to lift this from the average, meaning it's for genre completists only. It's better than many a game tie-in book, but Patricia Briggs it ain't.
March 7, 2021
You know what's really disappointing? Trying to adapt a TRPG and failing to do that without needless exposition.
Most of the main story felt really boring. Too much exposition and not enough feeling the rush of being a vampire. The stories that come at the end of each were generally more interesting, but maybe that's because they were shorter.
What's missing from all of it are the sense of improv theater the best TRPG comics have. This felt like the game master was just putting in as much fanservice as possible.
Most of the main story felt really boring. Too much exposition and not enough feeling the rush of being a vampire. The stories that come at the end of each were generally more interesting, but maybe that's because they were shorter.
What's missing from all of it are the sense of improv theater the best TRPG comics have. This felt like the game master was just putting in as much fanservice as possible.
September 16, 2021
As a (re-)introduction to the world of Vampire: The Masquerade, Tim Seeley does an excellent job in this volume. VtM is one of my favorite urban fantasy/horror properties, but it has always been unabashed Americana at its core, and Seeley made sure that the location of Minneapolis–Saint Paul is just as well developed as the characters. The only drawback of the comic is the excessive use of expository dialogue here and there: the back-material is dedicated to location-specific world-building and not the entirety of VtM lore.
April 18, 2022
Makes me want to play a game of V:tM. Interesting characters. Shows vamps of different clans so it's not just all Tremere and Ventrue, or the ones you'd expect for vampire politics.
April 3, 2024
Before we focus on the content of this comic, it is worth mentioning what "Vampire: The Masquerade" is. It is a role-playing game published by White Wolf in 1991 that takes place in the World of Darkness. It is as extensive as probably the most recognizable role-playing game in the world, "Dungeons and Dragons". The World of Darkness is a fantastic vision of modernity in which vampires and similar creatures live hidden from humans. They have their own hierarchies, clans, unique abilities and politics. The manuals for this game have been on my shelf for some time, waiting for me to gather friends to play together.
Many computer games have already been created based on this game, including the most popular and considered classic RPG games: "Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption" (2000) and "Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines" (2004). Fans of the above games have been waiting for many years for the continuation of this series of games, "Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2", the premiere of which has been postponed for another year in a row.
I myself found myself in the World of Darkness thanks to the two games mentioned above, and I admit that, although at the beginning it was difficult for me to find my way in it, because the games are quite complicated and I was a novice when it comes to PC games, I quickly became fascinated by this universe. It was probably thanks to these games that I became interested in the subject of vampires, which later in my life I explored further in the books of Anne Rice (author of the famous series about vampires, with "Interview with the Vampire" at the forefront) and the films based on them, and later in the series about the adventures of Sookie Stackhouse and the TV-series "True Blood" based on them. The above literature and films were the basis for my final speaking exam in high school and bachelor's theses.
I was a bit afraid to read this comic because I had high expectations for it. I wasn't sure if the comic book form would appeal to me. And indeed, it was not easy for me. I'm still a beginner reader of comics and visual novels, so I'm not always able to enter the world presented. The combination of text and still images makes me switch my attention from one to the other, and as a result, I do not fully focus on any of them.
The main character is Cecily Bain, as she calls herself, the prince's dirty shoe. She's the person everyone calls when they need to get rid of someone or something inconvenient. You could say, a woman for special tasks. Cecily has a problem, her sister is human and seriously ill. She could easily solve this problem by transforming her, but she doesn't want to condemn her sister to the same fate as hers. Cecily comes from the Brujah clan, which is characterized by greater strength and speed, but also a short temper and a tendency to get into trouble. And indeed, Bain seems to have a knack for trouble. Formerly an anarchist, now a specialist in dirty work. To make matters worse, Prince Samantha expects her to have a childe (i.e. transform someone). She used to think she would choose her sister, but as I mentioned, she decides not to. She does something surprising... she adopts a vampire, Ali, abandoned by her creator. Will this solution solve her problems? Or maybe it will bring even more? Guess for yourself.
I think this comic is prepared perfectly. The atmosphere of the scenes presented is dark and perfectly fits the criteria of this universe. The hierarchies and intricacies of vampire politics are masterfully prepared. Nothing is random, black or white. Everyone has their own goals that they strive to achieve, often balancing on the edge of morality, which is important when you try to control your inner beast. The graphic design is mature, bloody and even immersed in shadow. The characters, when shown in their full vampire form, look truly terrifying. As for the drawings themselves, I have no opinion. They are not particularly distinctive, but not simple or bland either. They are just OK. The characters have their own character and place in the world, although I admit that I have a slight problem with the main character, whose personality and motivation I still can't figure out. Maybe in the second volume, when we learn more about her, I will be able to understand her better. It's still hard for me to evaluate the script because I don't know the whole story yet. I will come back to this topic after reading the second volume as well. What I can say for sure is that Cecily's story is one of two stories that intertwine. We also follow the fate of a group of anarchists, but, to be honest they did not interest me at all. The concept of jumping between these two story lines was confusing to me at first. I actually turned the pages back to check if the pages were sticking together and I missed something.
To sum up, if you are a fan of "Vampire: The Masquerade", comics dedicated to adult readers, or vampires, this is a book for you. The reasons why I don't give it the maximum rating here are the fact that, as a whole, the first volume didn't give me enough impressions to make me remember it for a long time (this may change with the second volume) and the fact that for me this form and the story were not fully convincing.
Many computer games have already been created based on this game, including the most popular and considered classic RPG games: "Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption" (2000) and "Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines" (2004). Fans of the above games have been waiting for many years for the continuation of this series of games, "Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2", the premiere of which has been postponed for another year in a row.
I myself found myself in the World of Darkness thanks to the two games mentioned above, and I admit that, although at the beginning it was difficult for me to find my way in it, because the games are quite complicated and I was a novice when it comes to PC games, I quickly became fascinated by this universe. It was probably thanks to these games that I became interested in the subject of vampires, which later in my life I explored further in the books of Anne Rice (author of the famous series about vampires, with "Interview with the Vampire" at the forefront) and the films based on them, and later in the series about the adventures of Sookie Stackhouse and the TV-series "True Blood" based on them. The above literature and films were the basis for my final speaking exam in high school and bachelor's theses.
I was a bit afraid to read this comic because I had high expectations for it. I wasn't sure if the comic book form would appeal to me. And indeed, it was not easy for me. I'm still a beginner reader of comics and visual novels, so I'm not always able to enter the world presented. The combination of text and still images makes me switch my attention from one to the other, and as a result, I do not fully focus on any of them.
The main character is Cecily Bain, as she calls herself, the prince's dirty shoe. She's the person everyone calls when they need to get rid of someone or something inconvenient. You could say, a woman for special tasks. Cecily has a problem, her sister is human and seriously ill. She could easily solve this problem by transforming her, but she doesn't want to condemn her sister to the same fate as hers. Cecily comes from the Brujah clan, which is characterized by greater strength and speed, but also a short temper and a tendency to get into trouble. And indeed, Bain seems to have a knack for trouble. Formerly an anarchist, now a specialist in dirty work. To make matters worse, Prince Samantha expects her to have a childe (i.e. transform someone). She used to think she would choose her sister, but as I mentioned, she decides not to. She does something surprising... she adopts a vampire, Ali, abandoned by her creator. Will this solution solve her problems? Or maybe it will bring even more? Guess for yourself.
I think this comic is prepared perfectly. The atmosphere of the scenes presented is dark and perfectly fits the criteria of this universe. The hierarchies and intricacies of vampire politics are masterfully prepared. Nothing is random, black or white. Everyone has their own goals that they strive to achieve, often balancing on the edge of morality, which is important when you try to control your inner beast. The graphic design is mature, bloody and even immersed in shadow. The characters, when shown in their full vampire form, look truly terrifying. As for the drawings themselves, I have no opinion. They are not particularly distinctive, but not simple or bland either. They are just OK. The characters have their own character and place in the world, although I admit that I have a slight problem with the main character, whose personality and motivation I still can't figure out. Maybe in the second volume, when we learn more about her, I will be able to understand her better. It's still hard for me to evaluate the script because I don't know the whole story yet. I will come back to this topic after reading the second volume as well. What I can say for sure is that Cecily's story is one of two stories that intertwine. We also follow the fate of a group of anarchists, but, to be honest they did not interest me at all. The concept of jumping between these two story lines was confusing to me at first. I actually turned the pages back to check if the pages were sticking together and I missed something.
To sum up, if you are a fan of "Vampire: The Masquerade", comics dedicated to adult readers, or vampires, this is a book for you. The reasons why I don't give it the maximum rating here are the fact that, as a whole, the first volume didn't give me enough impressions to make me remember it for a long time (this may change with the second volume) and the fact that for me this form and the story were not fully convincing.
October 10, 2021
My rating: 3 stars for the experience, 4 stars for potential
Okay, I'll lay it out there: I've never played a game of Vampire: The Masquerade. I never even got very far in that podcast (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...) they have because... well, the whole thing admits of little irony, so any unscripted character illustration gets real cringey real fast.
And yet!
And yet I own a sourcebook and have read through it more than once and I follow V:TM social media accounts and the whole thing just feels like it *ought* to be Goth!Game of Thrones for my exact type of nerd.
So I've been keeping an eye open for media set in the world. When I saw an issue of this at Phoenix Comics, my esteemed local store, I knew I had to get volume 1.
How does it deliver?
Well, on the Sandmanesque moral quandarizing it's exactly as you'd expect, and the political machinations central to the comic were just what I wanted them to be! The characters were interesting enough, in a fairly Sandmanny way, and I'm looking forward to the continuation. Four stars for continued potential.
There is hilariously clunky exposition at the beginning. So clunky. I do not for a second believe it couldn't have been done better.
The art style suffers a lot from muddy digital coloring. It really looks like it was designed to look good on a screen, and like they were shooting for "dark". Most of the pages don't exploit a range of values well, which is made painfully obvious by the glowing blimp-like dialog balloons, stark white against the mud. If you can squint through the dark tones, you can see that the inking has a lot of character and good texture to it, which makes the coloring more annoying.
While it's less obvious in this regard, it reminds me of Stagtown (https://www.webtoons.com/en/horror/st...). That webtoon is being done by M. Alice LeGrow (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._Alic...), the stunningly talented author-artist of Bizenghast (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bizenghast). Even in the less-detailed style appropriate for a webtoon, you can tell the black and white art is the heart and soul of the thing... but because full color art is expected, there's some awful light coloring that only detracts from her inking.
Here, too, I think the art would have been far more effective in a pared-down palette. Black and red and tones of each perhaps? Or with some other accent color that could change from page to page? I'm sure this is ultimately the fault of consumer expectations, but it irritates me that the pressures lead to this.
If I'm understanding the credits correctly, I prefer Devmalya Pramanik's work to Nathan Gooden's, but not to a huge extent.
I hope they incorporate more localism of the Twin Cities, even though I'm sure I won't catch it. That's always seemed really fun to me about this IP, that it overlays the lore on the real world.
While I'm not saying it strikes me as a creative masterpiece at this point, I enjoyed this, and I will be picking up the next volume.
Okay, I'll lay it out there: I've never played a game of Vampire: The Masquerade. I never even got very far in that podcast (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...) they have because... well, the whole thing admits of little irony, so any unscripted character illustration gets real cringey real fast.
And yet!
And yet I own a sourcebook and have read through it more than once and I follow V:TM social media accounts and the whole thing just feels like it *ought* to be Goth!Game of Thrones for my exact type of nerd.
So I've been keeping an eye open for media set in the world. When I saw an issue of this at Phoenix Comics, my esteemed local store, I knew I had to get volume 1.
How does it deliver?
Well, on the Sandmanesque moral quandarizing it's exactly as you'd expect, and the political machinations central to the comic were just what I wanted them to be! The characters were interesting enough, in a fairly Sandmanny way, and I'm looking forward to the continuation. Four stars for continued potential.
There is hilariously clunky exposition at the beginning. So clunky. I do not for a second believe it couldn't have been done better.
The art style suffers a lot from muddy digital coloring. It really looks like it was designed to look good on a screen, and like they were shooting for "dark". Most of the pages don't exploit a range of values well, which is made painfully obvious by the glowing blimp-like dialog balloons, stark white against the mud. If you can squint through the dark tones, you can see that the inking has a lot of character and good texture to it, which makes the coloring more annoying.
While it's less obvious in this regard, it reminds me of Stagtown (https://www.webtoons.com/en/horror/st...). That webtoon is being done by M. Alice LeGrow (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._Alic...), the stunningly talented author-artist of Bizenghast (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bizenghast). Even in the less-detailed style appropriate for a webtoon, you can tell the black and white art is the heart and soul of the thing... but because full color art is expected, there's some awful light coloring that only detracts from her inking.
Here, too, I think the art would have been far more effective in a pared-down palette. Black and red and tones of each perhaps? Or with some other accent color that could change from page to page? I'm sure this is ultimately the fault of consumer expectations, but it irritates me that the pressures lead to this.
If I'm understanding the credits correctly, I prefer Devmalya Pramanik's work to Nathan Gooden's, but not to a huge extent.
I hope they incorporate more localism of the Twin Cities, even though I'm sure I won't catch it. That's always seemed really fun to me about this IP, that it overlays the lore on the real world.
While I'm not saying it strikes me as a creative masterpiece at this point, I enjoyed this, and I will be picking up the next volume.
October 31, 2022
The hunt is on
When I was younger the Whitewolf RPG systems were one of the few I played outside of Dungeons and Dragons with "Vampire: The Masquerade" being one of the ones I liked best (there was a short lived Street Fighter one based on the game I really liked too for other reasons) with fantastically dark stories and a system more about actual roleplaying than combat though there is conflict as well. As such I am not surprised to see comics and probably other stories are still coming out for it as people who also once played it once upon a time are now creative engineers bringing entertainment to we readers. Of course I guess it does not hurt that after the first game became Vampire: the Requiem that its return to the masquerade in a new 5th edition can also inspire a new generation of creators as well.
With stories revolving around vampiric politics and the need for subterfuge amongst the mortals that protect vampire society this book certainly has the gist of what it is like to work and fight in a world of darkness. Even better at the end of the volume there are materials that you can use in your own games (for I assume the new 5th edition) so not only can you see how the story goes but be able to use it to make your own games that much richer. I call that a win win. :)
When I was younger the Whitewolf RPG systems were one of the few I played outside of Dungeons and Dragons with "Vampire: The Masquerade" being one of the ones I liked best (there was a short lived Street Fighter one based on the game I really liked too for other reasons) with fantastically dark stories and a system more about actual roleplaying than combat though there is conflict as well. As such I am not surprised to see comics and probably other stories are still coming out for it as people who also once played it once upon a time are now creative engineers bringing entertainment to we readers. Of course I guess it does not hurt that after the first game became Vampire: the Requiem that its return to the masquerade in a new 5th edition can also inspire a new generation of creators as well.
With stories revolving around vampiric politics and the need for subterfuge amongst the mortals that protect vampire society this book certainly has the gist of what it is like to work and fight in a world of darkness. Even better at the end of the volume there are materials that you can use in your own games (for I assume the new 5th edition) so not only can you see how the story goes but be able to use it to make your own games that much richer. I call that a win win. :)
March 14, 2021
Thank you to Diamond Books Vault Comics for a digital edition via NetGalley of ‘Vampire: The Masquerade Winter’s Teeth Vol.1’ by Tim Seeley, Tini Howard, and Blake Howard in exchange for an honest review.
This collection of the first five comics of this series is based on the best selling tabletop role playing game, Vampire: The Masquerade. In it Cecily Bain, an enforcer for the Twin Cities' vampiric elite, takes a mysterious new vampire under her wing, she's dragged into an insidious conspiracy. The volume is split into five chapters and between each one ‘The Anarch Tales’, a five part story about a group of vampire cast-outs.
I was somewhat of a disadvantage as although years ago I occasionally played the tabletop game and also watched ‘Kindred: the Embraced’, the tv series inspired by it, I quickly realised that I was not that familiar with the world of the Masquerade. So I was a little lost as to what was going on. However, I did quite enjoy the main story with Cecily, Alejandra, and the amazing Prince Samantha.
I thought the artwork was good with some panels stunning. Following the comic there is a 17-page Role-Playing Supplement.
2.5 stars rounded up to 3.
This collection of the first five comics of this series is based on the best selling tabletop role playing game, Vampire: The Masquerade. In it Cecily Bain, an enforcer for the Twin Cities' vampiric elite, takes a mysterious new vampire under her wing, she's dragged into an insidious conspiracy. The volume is split into five chapters and between each one ‘The Anarch Tales’, a five part story about a group of vampire cast-outs.
I was somewhat of a disadvantage as although years ago I occasionally played the tabletop game and also watched ‘Kindred: the Embraced’, the tv series inspired by it, I quickly realised that I was not that familiar with the world of the Masquerade. So I was a little lost as to what was going on. However, I did quite enjoy the main story with Cecily, Alejandra, and the amazing Prince Samantha.
I thought the artwork was good with some panels stunning. Following the comic there is a 17-page Role-Playing Supplement.
2.5 stars rounded up to 3.
March 21, 2021
'Vampire The Masquerade: Winter's Teeth Vol. 1' by Tim Seeley, Tini Howard and Blake Howard is a graphic novel set in the world of the tabletop role playing game that's been around since 1991.
This story takes place among a group of vampires in the Twin Cities. It involves murder, court intrigue and a group of outcast vampires called the Anarchs. There is a court enforcer named Cecily who takes a young abandoned vampire under her care at the expense of someone personal for Cecily. After the graphic novel, there is an rpg module featuring the settings and characters of the story.
I haven't played the rpg, but I didn't have a problem getting in to this world and the gritty story. There are a lot of subplots going on, but it's all handled rather well. The Anarchs story arc is presented as an extra story in every issue. The art was adequate, but worked.
I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Diamond Book Distributors, Vault Comics, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
This story takes place among a group of vampires in the Twin Cities. It involves murder, court intrigue and a group of outcast vampires called the Anarchs. There is a court enforcer named Cecily who takes a young abandoned vampire under her care at the expense of someone personal for Cecily. After the graphic novel, there is an rpg module featuring the settings and characters of the story.
I haven't played the rpg, but I didn't have a problem getting in to this world and the gritty story. There are a lot of subplots going on, but it's all handled rather well. The Anarchs story arc is presented as an extra story in every issue. The art was adequate, but worked.
I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Diamond Book Distributors, Vault Comics, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
March 1, 2021
**Thank you Netgalley for the eArc of Vampire: The Masquerade Volume 1**
Does anyone here know that I love board and tabletop games? Why is this relevant, you ask? Because Vampire: The Masquerade is set in the universe of the popular tabletop RPG of the same name. So - when I saw the title for this one I freaked out and KNEW I had to have it.
The cover art on this graphic novel is absolutely amazing and really grabbed my attention from the first second. The Story was unsettling, gory, dark, and captivating. I loved the story and it had me entranced from the beginning - but I will say this may be harder to follow for those not familiar with the universe it's set in already - but even if you're a little lost this is definitely worth reading for the gory and beautiful artwork on its own.
Does anyone here know that I love board and tabletop games? Why is this relevant, you ask? Because Vampire: The Masquerade is set in the universe of the popular tabletop RPG of the same name. So - when I saw the title for this one I freaked out and KNEW I had to have it.
The cover art on this graphic novel is absolutely amazing and really grabbed my attention from the first second. The Story was unsettling, gory, dark, and captivating. I loved the story and it had me entranced from the beginning - but I will say this may be harder to follow for those not familiar with the universe it's set in already - but even if you're a little lost this is definitely worth reading for the gory and beautiful artwork on its own.
February 21, 2022
I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy this and I was definitely surprised after the first issue alone. This comic nicely captures the feel of the tabletop RPG on so many levels. If anything, it feels like the story of story one would do for a starter campaign to help ease a player (in this case the reader) into the lore.
We have all the staples for a good VTM story. We have a city on the brink of civil war with the Prince barely holding things together. We have her Brujah Sheriff doing all the dirty deeds necessary to protect the Masquerade. And we have a new vampire coming to her in need of protection and guidance in the ways of the Masquerade.
Pretty gripping story for this first volume of the book and a lot of good political intrigue complete with many of the key clans playing roles in this Minesotta adventure.
We have all the staples for a good VTM story. We have a city on the brink of civil war with the Prince barely holding things together. We have her Brujah Sheriff doing all the dirty deeds necessary to protect the Masquerade. And we have a new vampire coming to her in need of protection and guidance in the ways of the Masquerade.
Pretty gripping story for this first volume of the book and a lot of good political intrigue complete with many of the key clans playing roles in this Minesotta adventure.
March 19, 2023
DNF at Issue #3, and it breaks my heart.
I'm a huge fan of the source material, but this looks like it was written by someone who was never introduced to the concept of "show, don't tell". It's a mystery if it was a budgetary constraint or an order from a bigwig that forced him to take this barren, unimaginative approach to storytelling, but all I know is that the plot is all over the place, the pacing is way too brisk for a Vampire: The Masquerade tale and the exposition dumps are just horrendous. Truly amateurish stuff. It's too bad because the grungy art style is superb and fits the World of Darkness, but the way the story is conveyed throws it all in the trash bin. Check out the Clan Novel series or the interactive novels if you're looking for a VtM narrative that is worth your time and money.
I'm a huge fan of the source material, but this looks like it was written by someone who was never introduced to the concept of "show, don't tell". It's a mystery if it was a budgetary constraint or an order from a bigwig that forced him to take this barren, unimaginative approach to storytelling, but all I know is that the plot is all over the place, the pacing is way too brisk for a Vampire: The Masquerade tale and the exposition dumps are just horrendous. Truly amateurish stuff. It's too bad because the grungy art style is superb and fits the World of Darkness, but the way the story is conveyed throws it all in the trash bin. Check out the Clan Novel series or the interactive novels if you're looking for a VtM narrative that is worth your time and money.
March 29, 2021
With a beautifully dark and gothic artistic style, Vampire: The Masquerade Vol. 1 is a very interesting book about, you guessed it, vampires, and a game I've never played before.. These vampires, however, are a little different than the usual, being part of a secret society existing alongside our own, and anyone who dares cross them or reveal their secret is bound to be hunted down and killed in cold blood sooner or later. Perfect for the comic book readers that love a dark and grungy story full of blood and mysteries or anyone who has played the tabletop game.
Check out my full review here!
https://radioactivebookreviews.wordpr...
Check out my full review here!
https://radioactivebookreviews.wordpr...
July 25, 2021
I liked the artwork more than the actual stories (there are two per actual issue collected here, one following some Camarilla vampires and the other a group of Anarchs (that the main Camarilla vamp used to belong to). This title is oviously aimed at players of the role-playing game as setting or background do not get explained at all, even bringing in at least on character from the game.
Things move fast from issue to issue which does not allow the characters to develop much depth.
Some of that was sourced out to the appendix, though. One aspect I liked a lot was that each issue contained a few pages of background written with the game in mind, providing actual crunch and stats with the fluff
Things move fast from issue to issue which does not allow the characters to develop much depth.
Some of that was sourced out to the appendix, though. One aspect I liked a lot was that each issue contained a few pages of background written with the game in mind, providing actual crunch and stats with the fluff
March 13, 2021
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.
I was intrigued when I found that there was a new graphic novel series coming out of Vampire: The Masquerade, being someone who was familiar with the role playing game. While I did enjoy the storyline as it came together, I feel like this would be hard to get into for someone who didn't have some base knowledge of the world. There isn't a ton of backstory, but some clan information and world information is revealed throughout the story. I would be interested to see where the story goes and did like that there were game sheets in the back.
I was intrigued when I found that there was a new graphic novel series coming out of Vampire: The Masquerade, being someone who was familiar with the role playing game. While I did enjoy the storyline as it came together, I feel like this would be hard to get into for someone who didn't have some base knowledge of the world. There isn't a ton of backstory, but some clan information and world information is revealed throughout the story. I would be interested to see where the story goes and did like that there were game sheets in the back.
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