Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer: David Lapham
Artist: David Lapham, Mike Huddleston
Release Date: 5th February 2014

With the Vampire infection spreading across Manhattan, Dr Ephraim Goodweather is starting to come apart at the seams. His small group of resistance fighters are doing what they can, but with their failure to kill The Master and ever-increasing numbers of Vampires, this doesn’t look like a battle they can win.

The adaptation of Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s Apocalyptic trilogy reaches book 2 with this volume and already the stakes have been raised. The disease is spreading rapidly due to a combination of ignorance and conspiracy, but Goodweather’s team has a new ally they are as yet unaware of.

Another strain of Vampires who want to maintain a truce that has held for centuries have arrived in New York, recruiting a team of gangbangers to act as their daytime agents, but it may be too late to stop the plague spreading.

Mixing horror, sci-fi, mythology, folk tales, politics and religious allegory, The Strain is a brilliantly worked spin on the well-worn Vampire tropes. There’s no glamour to these creatures, instead they are feral animals, with massive prehensile tongues that are used as stingers, infecting everyone they come into contact with.

There’s a real feeling of impending doom throughout the story, with the motley crew of humans doing what they can against ever-increasing odds.

Bleak and intense, The Strain balances visceral horror with well-worked action and touching character moments. If you’ve read the books you’ll know what is coming next, but even if you have, this is a gripping adaptation and one of the real standouts in the Dark Horse catalogue.

Rating: 5/5.

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INTERIOR ARTWORK PREVIEW
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The writer of this piece was: Jules Boyle