Bite Club

Bite Club 

By Howard Chaykin, David Tischman & David Hahn (Vertigo)
ISBN 1-84576-065-4

Produced in DC’s new pocket paperback format, Bite Club seems like quite a small package but delivers a sizable portion of entertainment in the tried–and-true Chaykin obnoxious, spit-in-your-face, poke-in-your-eye style. Writing with long-time collaborator David Tischman and stylishly illustrated by David Hahn, with an enticingly limited palette colouring job by Brian Miller, he’s managed to add to his reputation as a Iconoclast by retooling the Vampire genre for the post-Goth generation.

Vampires are real, they’re not magic, they are super-powerful, and they mostly live in sunny Miami where they run the rackets. When Leto Del Toro, the son of the biggest Vamp Capo became a Catholic priest it was a shock. When he’s called back to rule the family after his father’s spectacular murder, that’s a recipe for slaughter, hip racial intolerance and the cool cynical intrigue that’s been a trademark of this creator for the last twenty-five years.

Those other trademarks; lashings of kinky sex, graphic, gratuitous violence and worst of all, quite harsh language makes this book an absolute treat – or perhaps the next contender for a book-burning near you.

© 2004 Howard Chaykin Inc., David Tischman and DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.