Broken Frontier

Underworld capped it off – vampires vs. werewolves. It was an interesting, although tedious, concept: who would win in a fight, a vampire or a werewolf? What makes the webcomic Last Blood so enthralling is the creators, Bobby Crosby and Owen Gieni, work the monsters into the premise instead of making the monsters the premise.

I think we all know who would win in a fight between a zombie and a vampire. Even a souped up Zack Snyder running zombie would be little match for a full-on vamp. But in Last Blood , the premise isn’t based on brute strength but instead, the practical principles of supply and demand. Namely, if the decaying zombies devour mankind, how will the vampires survive? Crosby and Gieni go straight to the heart of the zombie genre, understanding that it’s not zombies that are the problem but people in general!

The idea of humans willingly donating their blood to keep their vampire protectors alive seems like a win-win for crumbling society, but as the past four Romero films have illustrated, it’s never simple. The injection of the vampire Matheson (another nod Crosby and Geini know their stuff) into a small outpost of survivors works brilliantly, striking at the core of all monsters as basically outsiders.

The way the two writers tie the origins of zombies and vampires together is also interesting (especially considering Romero’s Night of the Living Dead was inspired by Matheson’s I Am Legend). All the webcomics I’ve reviewed these past couple of weeks are good works. They have solid premises and enormous potential. But Last Blood is plain and simple a different breed. Every now and then something comes along that gets its hooks, or in this case fangs, in you and just won’t let go. This is that webcomic – if you read webcomics you must read this book!

I just finished Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend a little more than a month ago, and I am not looking forward to the movie. It’s lose-lose in my mind. It’s either not going to be as good as the book (which seems more and more possibility with Akiva Goldsman writing) or, on the off-hand chance it is as good as the book, its going to be a masterfully emotional experience I just don’t care to relive in the middle of the holiday season.

I need something to quench my thirst for the genre. Something fresh, funny and above all pulse-pounding and Last Blood just might be the heir apparent to I Am Legend in the flesh (or lack thereof).

In other news, ItsJustSomeRandomGuy posted the seventh part of Marvel/DC: Afterhours on YouTube. The result was considerably funnier than past episodes, but still not as simply hilarious as the “I’m a Marvel and I’m a DC” skits which first launched the successful series.

I will give it to ItsJustSomeRandomGuy – he’s a helluva a writer, penning all the characters with charisma, momentum and insight. But with the gap between the episodes growing larger and larger, I really have to suggest the episodes be simplified into an easier-to-produce format. These episodes are good, but as the exposition grows thicker and thicker, they won’t be worth the wait.