REVIEW: Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter #2 - Hammer Nails It.

I am a huge fan of classic horror films and the Hammer horror films of the 70’s hold a special place in my heart.Â Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter #2 from Hammer Comics, an imprint of Titan Comics, does an amazing job of capturing the feel of the era that spawned the source material and transported me back to the 70’s.

The series is based on the film Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter released by Hammer Films, a British production company based in London, in 1976. TheÂ story by Dan Abnett was action packed and made great use of the characters. There is a definite sense of peril and escalating danger. Not content to deliver a simple vampire homage Abnett crafts a tale that takes the characters from the old Hammer film and sets them off on a new adventure with many twists and turns.

The story finds Captain Kronos and his colleagues, Â Grost and Carla, going against Slake, a vampire lord who has been raising an army of the undead. The feel of the 17th century setting is achieved through the dialogue which makes great use of Victorian phrasing and slang.

The comic book medium allows for bigger stories as they are not limited by an fx budget. Â Abnett Â along with series artist Tom Mandrake make use of that and pull out all the stops.

Mandrake works magic with his pencils. Â The book had a very classic 70’s feel reminiscent of the old Tomb of Dracula comics of the period. Â The character designs pay homage to the characters from the film, yet give them a bit of an update. Â Grost, especially looks much more like what I would have imagined than his film counterpart. Â Coupled with the colors of Sian Mandrake the look of the book is classic and very detailed.

This is Captain Kronos’s second foray into comics as he was originally featured inÂ The House of Hammer #1-3Â in 1976. Is took four decades, but you just can’t keep a good vampire hunter down.

If you were a fan of the film this should be a very welcome sequel and if you’ve never seen the film it is a great introduction to the character and his world.

This is the first comic I’ve read in the Hammer line and if this title is any indication of the quality of the rest of the line I have some titles to add to my pull list and some back issues to go hunt down.

Story: 4
Art: 5
Overall Rating: 4.5

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(W) Dan Abnett (A/CA) Tom Mandrake