VAMPSPEW Episode Two
by Steve Feldman
($2.00 from Steve Feldman / 1402 W. Jackman St. / Lancaster, CA / 93534 USA. Web:
www.stevefeldman.com)
Reviewed by Steve KeeterVampspew is the best vampire comic out there, period. There, I said it, a bold statement, to be sure (and I'm including my own
Shadow of Dracula comic... I admit it — Steve Feldman's is the best!), but... here's a book that stands up to the hype. The first issue was riveting, the story of a young adventurer who stumbles upon an ancient castle and is transformed into a vampire. The book reads like literature, not your ordinary run-of-the-mill mindless and disposable culture rot. Editor Feldman is a master of wordplay, as is even more evident in this gripping second issue. Nary a word is spoken the entire book, but the wonderfully descriptive captions inform us of "flesh eating inhabitants [who] drove their vehicles recklessly fast and with needless agression... walked like zombies through the aisles of their supermarkets... their great bodies obstructing the aisles like cholesterol in the encrusted arteries of a saturated fat sucking junky!" Whew, and that's only the first page; it gets better. There is great satire and humor here, as the young vampire finds that his condition is covered by his insurance company, he seeks God but finds strange little Martian guys instead, finds a secret book "behind an elegant painting of Isis wearing a propellor beanie cap"... I mean, this is terrific and original stuff! The art has a great, foggy, surreal quality to it. And check out the front cover, which is virtually identical to that of Episode One, except that the young vampire has begun to... decay. I have a pretty good idea what the cover for #3 is going to look like. If you love great comics, and if you think it's all been done and there's nothing original out there, especially in a scary vampire comic, you owe it to yourself to check out
Vampspew Episode Two.
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