Damn Nation — A Vampire Comic by Andrew Cosby

“They’re coming. They always come at night. When it’s dark. I’m afraid of the dark. Are you afraid of the dark?”
“Tonight I am.”

For 16 years America has been quarantined — overridden with vampires — until hope arrives in a message from a secret lab: We have the cure.

Remember, if you are interested in this book, click the mouse on the book cover to order it from an online bookseller.

TITLE:

DAMN NATION

WRITER:

by Andrew Cosby

ARTISTS:

by J. Alexander

SERIES:

Damn Nation Mini-series #1-3

PUBLISHER:

Dark Horse Comics

CHARACTERS:

Dr. Lansing, CDC scientist sent to ground zero who escaped and worked to find a cure.
Special Agent Childs, The special agent in charge of the Russian freighter.
Lt. Riley, She is the tough-as-nails British Special Ops leader.
John Cole, A Captain in the U.S. Special Forces.
Adam, The boy rescued with Dr. Lansing.
Lynch, An over-zealous American Special Forces soldier.
Lee, Another scientist found with Dr. Lansing.
Martha, A rescue operations leader from over the border.
Rudy, A member of Martha’s team.

MATURITY:

Contains violence and mature language.

GENRE:

Graphic Novel (collection), Horror, Thriller,

DESCRIPTORS:

Vampires, Monsters, Military Special Forces, Governments in Exile, Quarantined Countries, United States of America, England, Isolated Scientific Labs, Survival, Scientists, Soldiers, Night, Predator, Prey,

SUMMARY:

Five years ago a Russian freighter washed ashore on American soil, 16 years after it disappeared. Special Agent Childs put Dr. Lansing of the CDC, in charge of figuring out what happened to the over 300 dead crewmen. What he and his men discovered was that in the cargo hold was a biological weapon — vampires. And they got out.

Now America is quarantined — overridden with vampires — and no survivors are believed to exist within her borders. That is until the American Government-in-exile receives a message from a secret lab in what was once New York: We have the cure. A joint British and American Special Ops team must enter hostile territory and rescue the scientist and the cure.

Led by the British Lt. Riley and the American Captain John Cole, the Special Ops Team parachutes into New York and unwittingly picks up a rescue team from over the border that shadows them to the lab. Riley and Cole find Dr. Lansing, a child named Adam and Lee, the last three of a sixty man group — and the cure. That’s when everything falls apart.

APPEAL:

The pacing is quick although the story slowed down for me a couple of time when I had trouble understanding the illustrations. The illustrations, very stylish and evocative, but so dark that they occasionally got in the way. The digest size of the book didn’t help the illustration either.

The characterization was lean, dealing mostly with Cole, Dr. Lansing and Martha. Cole made a the proper judgment call on a mission and it turned out to be wrong in many ways but now he will find himself in a position to atone for his mistake.

The comic had two storylines. Dr. Lansing’s which was mostly told in a flashback (five years ago) at the very start of the story and John Cole’s which makes up the remainder of the story except for an odd breakaway to a Presidential press conference denying any mission into the States. The flashback was told in 1st person past tense using captions to house the narration. The Main story is in 3rd person past tense, limited view point with only a sprinkling of captions for flashback and off-stage narration or to assign place and date.

Most of the story takes place in an America overrun by vampires. The setting is evoked by the illustrations depicting the crumble remains of a civilization now gone. Pacing is quick although the story slowed down for me a couple of time when I had trouble understanding the illustrations. They were very stylish and evocative, but so dark that they occasionally got in the way. The digest size of the book didn’t help the illustration either.

NOTES:

Andrew Cosby was a writer and supervising producer on the television show Haunted and the main writer and an executive producer for the Sci-Fi Channel’s Eureka. He also wrote the Dark Horse publications: Dreadful Ed and Mary Scary.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Tagged as: Horror Graphic Novel Summary, Vampires