A new one-shot from Zenescope Entertainment this week with Van Helsing: Black Annis. My thoughts below:
Run-ins with vampires, monsters, and all types of nightly creatures are almost as natural as breathing to the famed vampire hunter, Liesel Van Helsing. But something wicked is going after children in the five boroughs, and as Liesel’s personal life and nightly adventures are about to converge, she is soon to find out why centuries of children have feared the snatcher of souls, Black Annis!
Writer: Brian Hawkins
Artwork: Vicente Cifuentes
This Van Helsing one-shot covers a few bases. It adds to the drama that is Van Helsing’s personal life. Outside of her ‘work’ there hasn’t been a huge amount and this adds to the drama around her. It adds something ‘normal’ which you know, in the future, will be subject to vampires or the like.
That almost happens here, with the Black Annis character feeding on kids. The introduction of Van Helsing’s boyfriend’s nephew makes it obvious what is going to happen. I like the way it builds though and the doodling at school could be dismissed so easily.
Van Helsing does suspect though and makes her investigations. The addition of the copper lore is interesting and something I hadn’t heard of.
Van Helsing does make a small mistake though and in hindsight it does seem obvious. It leads us up to a nice, tight, fight scene, which leaves things open ended for the characters to be used another day.
I enjoyed the dark artwork here, and the characters are well done – especially some of the scenes with the kids. The Black Annis character is well laid out and pretty nasty looking – deviating enough from the classic vampire look.
You can get Van Helsing: Black Annis from Zenescope Entertainment digitally on Amazon/ComiXology
