"You offer nothing that is not already mine. And that I would not gladly give away!"

Wow! That was one damn good character reveal.

This was a real page turner - an excellent dose of horror hot on the heels of "Blood & Trenches" and a perfect way to kick off the Halloween screamson.

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I wished myself that there was more space. There are layers to this story that had to be skimmed over, in the hopes the reader would pick up the nuances from casual references.

I enjoyed it.  I found myself rooting for Frankenstein's Monster...

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In the context of this story, he IS the "good guy"!

"What’s interesting about this John Byrne penned (and drawn) one-shot is that it studies the monster’s need for a connection with the past while making Angelus (not Angel) the co-lead. Thematically, it feels a bit imbalanced with Angelus seemingly wandering into a Frankenstein’s monster story. In fact, Angelus could have been substituted for any con man and this story would have still run as it does now."

So --those of you who have the issue, think this guy actually read the story?

"…the occasionally rough panel where a character’s face is ill-defined or unfinished."

Or looked at it?

So --those of you who have the issue, think this guy actually read the story?

==============================

The short answer is no.  If he did read it he sure didn't read the same story that I did!

"Any con-man?"

Well, any con-man who is a playful sadistic vampire who delights in giving his victims hope, so that he can have the pleasure of knowing that sooner or later those hopes will be crushed. A con-man who approaches everyone with an open-ness and tolerance centuries ahead of his time, because to him their lives are all equally worthless, and his ability to fully "empathize" (for lack of a  better word) gives him much greater insight into the ways in which he can utterly demolish his victims in ways that will satisfy his sadism.

To be honest, if they ever did an Angel movie, I'd love for this to be one of the inevitable flashback sub-plots.

I enjoyed this quite a bit. It did seem like there was more that could have been explored had there been space, but the tale is very effective as a fun little one-shot.

It also made me wonder what would happen if a vampire bit Frankenstein's monster. Hmm.

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The Karloff version is so iconic (see LOST GENERATION!) it's hard to step away. I had to keep reminding myself, as I was designing my version, that the Karloff version is nothing like the description in the book. Once I got to that place, the face I ended up with came together pretty quickly.

Well, not "pretty". . . .

But having said that...I LOVED the art, the inks in particular. Clearly I'm a brush man. It was very Perezian in some places. Plus, kudos on the colors. The computer colors actually helped flesh out the art this time around, and the use of sepia tones were very smart.

Here's hoping for a sequel next Halloween!

Edited by Vinny Valenti on 22 October 2009 at 5:31pm

JB wrote: ... "…the occasionally rough panel where a character’s face is ill-defined or unfinished." Or looked at it?

Hard to believe people are still trotting this old canard out, "unfinished". I'm starting to think it's just lazy criticism, shorthand for "I don't like it" or "it's different".  Or if something else is going on with the art, tell us (if you can), but you know John didn't hand in work that was "unfinished" so why use the word? 

Like, unless something went horribly wrong with the printing and I am unaware of it, I would defy anybody to show me even a SINGLE "unfinished" face in this book!!

"You offer nothing that is not already mine. And that I would not gladly give away!"

Something about that phrase just bothered me, I could have sworn that it reminded me of something and then it hit me:

"You cannot take from me anything that I will not more willingly part withal - except my life, except my life, except my life"

Admittedly it's not an exact paraphrase - and there is probably no intentional connection, but for some reason those two phrases just fully connected in my head. Weird.

I really enjoyed the heavier feel of the art.