Nancy Collins (1)

I was looking forward to this novel, having truly enjoyed the animated series.

And man was I disappointed. It seems that main comic Blade Runner series will remain the flagship for a long time to come.

Art is interesting, slightly on a cartoonish side of things, but OK. Most important it is consistent throughout the volume. Coloring is also beautifully done. So graphically very well done work.

Problem is in the story. Story must be the most bland story I read in a while (including comics and prose fiction, even poetry I might add). It is just that story goes from A to B to C to D, even after first issue I knew exactly where this story will go. There is no dramatic element, no place where you wonder if our heroes will survive, will they manage to overcome the next hurdle. There is nothing because from the start it is visible there is no danger to our heroes. Yes, people will die but this happens in the background, almost noiseless because these characters are there just to show how bad things are but we could just as well be without these characters. They add no ..... weight?..... to the story, they are just part of the set, basically nothing.

Don't get me wrong, this is comic, I do not expect some high level of story presentation. But let us look at the stories like Conan, various crime stories (pulp fiction) and even let us go to the main story line of Blade Runner comics - we all know our heroes will survive, but these comics kept me interested to see what is going on, what is lurking behind the next corner, how will our heroes handle it, I mean some kind of progress of both characters and the story, some hint of challenge. This is what makes good story. Otherwise we could all read phone books or political pamphlets for entertainment.

All of this is missing from this volume. Everything is just straight forward, everyone is highly knowledgeable, highly capable that basically there is no ..... story. Two panels could have made the whole volume - Elle coming into the town outside LA on one panel and Elle leaving the city with all dead bad guys in the background on another panel.

Hopefully author's will improve in follow up stories about the Elle. Animated series was great, I truly enjoyed it, I just wish they build up the equivalent story-wise in graphical format.

And one thing that is so cringy and you cannot miss it on pages of this comic, is political messaging. I understand that this is now trendy and everything but it just makes the entire story blah - Russian mafia leading the fracking company that looks like Sauron's lair with all the smoke and towers, good guys living in, for all means and purposes, Eden with enough propellers on all the wind turbines to be able to elevate few miles above ground. Living in such a clean condition and in harmony with nature that I was ..... huh? I mean, what, in else completely polluted world few miles outside LA you basically have equivalent of zero pollution area, clean beautiful blue sky (as opposed to dark, ridiculous smoke area of fracking company) where you can grow food without any problems to feed hundreds o people (in bloody desert)? Not to mention that hover bikes that noone saw for decades, oh yeah they can be fixed in couple of days by only changing the circuit board in mechanic shop in the middle of nowhere (whaaat?). And this Eden of course is built and led by the best and brightest from all over - scientists, engineers, medical personnel etc. I mean in any apocalyptic, dystopian story this would be the Holy Grail for all people to find and live there and it exists just outside of LA, few days ride away. I mean, what? I could just see common sense (and I mean it in terms of fiction story) going out the window.

As I said, this political element and preachiness just kills of the story.

In summary, interesting. But nowhere near the quality of the main Blade Runner series.… (plus d'informations)

This was an awesome collection from an author I've only read one story from before. I enjoyed every story and love the weird west setting.

Below are note on each story that may contain SPOILERS. These are more for my notes.

Hell Come Sundown - 7.0 - Cool, vampire hero story set in weird west.
Lynch - 8.0 - Very cool, gets raised by frankenstien's partner, gets revenge on this killers. Not sure what happened to the really cool pistols he had. They seemed like they could have been really cool but got forgotten about.
Walking Wolf - 6.5 - Pretty cool, vampires and werewolves in the wild west but then it turned into the history of the American Indians, which is cool but kind of jolting and it made the story really long. Not super happy with the ending either.
The Tortuga Hill Gang's Last Ride - 7.5 - This was fun, loved the characters.
Calaverada - 6.5 - Short but good lite/bloody fun.… (plus d'informations)

A Dozen Black Roses takes place in part of a large U.S. city called Deadtown. The citizens of Deadtown are made up of drug addicts, alcoholics, gang members and vampires. There are two vampires that are fighting for control of Deadtown. One is Lord Esher who was good friends with a certain horror author from the 1800’s. The other is Lord Sinjon who founded Deadtown and is a much older vampire then Esher.

Everyone in Deadtown lives in fear of Esher and Sinjon but things change when Living vampire and monster hunter Sonja Blue comes to town to put an end to both vampires. Sonja soon discovers that destroying the vampires may not be as easy as she thinks when she meets a boy named Ryan whose mother is being brainwashed into marrying Lord Esher. Sonja promises to save Ryan’s mother but Esher practices black magic and has power that may be to much for Sonja to handle.

A Dozen Black Roses is a bloody good time. There are some great characters in this book, including an alcoholic priest with a troubled past and an aging hippie that doesn’t take crap from anyone. I really enjoyed the backstory on Esher and Sinjon. Both vampires even when they were human only cared about having power over others but their personalities are very different. Also the way they gained their power is different as well as how they conduct themselves. Esher has plans on expanding outside of Deadtown and through black magic has a more loyal following then Sinjon. Sinjon on the other hand is satisfied being the drug lord over Deadtown and still dresses and acts as he did in the 1700′s. Nancy Collin’s vampires have very unique peronalities but all have the same motivations which to me makes them more interesting.

My favorite part of the book was how Eddie and Sonja became surrogate parents for Ryan. These two characters don’t have any experience with children but when Eddie finds Ryan eating out of a dumpster he does what he feels he has to do by taking Ryan in. Sonja on the other hand makes the promise to get Ryan’s mother back and shows a different side to herself when Ryan shows his feelings for her.

I also enjoyed the action scenes in this book. One scene I didn’t see coming was when the townspeople have decided they’ve had enough of hiding in fear and go through “changes” as they decide to rid Deadtown of lowlifes. Another good one was when two gang members are forced to fight to the death naked, while suspended in a cage above an audience of bloodthirsty vampires. This scene will hurt to read if you are a guy. I also liked the suspense that buils towards the end as Sonja prepares to take on Esher. A Dozen Black Roses is definitly worth your time.… (plus d'informations)