Fangs issue #1 – A Horror Hound Weekend Exclusive from Comic Book Divas
Written by Jeff Hughes, Pencils and Ink by Josh Barker, Letters by Jason Dube, and Colors by Norman Wong.
There’s something about leather-clad women riding motorcycles all while wielding swords and killing vampires that makes the Y chromosome tingle. Fangs pays it off in spades in this first issue with an all female heroine and vampire cast (featuring the likeness of CBD models Michelle Shields, Deneen Melody, and Devanny Pinn) adding sexiness to the book.
The series follows four women on a quest to slay vampires across the United States. The story starts off in a small town in Louisiana where the town’s women have joined a “woman’s empowerment” seminar. This so-called seminar is lead by Lilly who happens to have the same name as a vampire the four main characters are hunting. Of course, the four kill their fair share of vampires throughout this small town. As for the men in this town, they have either become Lilly’s henchmen or gone missing. The women split up (not sure why anyone does that in a horror story) and bad things ensue.
On the writing side of things, Jeff Hughes does a good job from a storytelling standpoint. The story starts in the middle of an ongoing story and at no point is it unclear as to what is going on. The only problem with the writing occurs in one panel when a vampire has its arm cut off. At first, the vampire reacts in the normal fashion of pain but in the next panel, it has a smile on its face. This sudden change in emotion is a bit jarring and could work if fleshed out with a few more panels separating the former and latter.
The art is handled by Josh Barker and there is a bit of criticism with it. The art is not bad by any means, it just lacks consistency and some of the
panels look a bit rushed, but by the end of the story, the art gets tighter. What Barker does better than most artists is that he is able to capture the kinetic energy of an action scene and translate it to a static image. The aforementioned panel from the previous paragraph (the vampire and its missing limb) is a prime example of this ability and he just nails the action. Barker is a talented artist and based on his website, http://joshbarkerart.com/, he is a great penciler.
At the end of the day, the book is a good starting point with some good potential and will leave you interested in reading the next issue.
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