Review – The Anticlimactic Adventures of Detective Vampire (Madius)

Posted on November 25, 2021 in Small Press Reviews

Publisher: Madius Comics
Writer: Lex H. Jones
Artist: Liam “Pais” Hill

Detective Vampire is… well, he’s a detective who is also a vampire. Makes sense if you think about it. Assisted by his loyal and long suffering manservant Bonesworth (a revenant), Detective Vampire cuts a bloody swathe (see what I did there?) through the criminal underworld.

Unfortunately for the world in general, Detective Vampire is not a great detective. He’s not a good detective, or even a good-naturedly inept detective. He’s a bloody menace, literally and figuratively, with half the murders being the result of his own ineptitude or appetite and the rest being pinned on the focus of his ire, one professor James MoriartEYE. Who is, as you may have guessed, a giant eye on legs…

This book contains some of the greatest crimes against comedy ever written. There are puns, visual gags, and dad jokes that are so horrific that Jones & Hill are actually wanted for crimes against humanity in 76 countries around the world. Not only that, but the Vatican is purportedly looking to, after the purge, retain one extant copy as a lesson to the surviving world, secreted in its Black Vault alongside it’s original signed copy of the Necronomicon and the alternate ending to In The Line of Duty where “H” isn’t Idiot Bloody Buckles…

So, now I’ve got that out of my system, I expect you all to go out and buy this comic no questions asked.

Full disclosure, I think I have at least one copy of everything that either MADIUS or Highgreen Dawn has printed, and I’ll be grabbing a copy of this as soon as it lands. Between them you can pick up a wide range of titles and genres including some exceptional all-ages comics and some really good horror titles. There really is something for everyone, and what these guys lack in mental stability they more than make up for in sheer enthusiasm and passion for the medium!

I know the jokes are terrible. I know that time after time I’m going to be assaulted by torturously bad puns. But honestly, these books are so much fun, and there’s actually some pretty good comics in the line up that I can’t help but just grab them as soon as they’re published. Cobweb Galaxy is a particular oddity that really needs a lot more love because I’d love to see a follow up book, and who could not be charmed by an entire book written about ghosts from Yorkshire, or a café run and patronised entirely by slugs? Oh, and while I’m at it, you absolutely have to get hold of a copy of The Exchange, which is another MADIUS title which is due a second issue very, very soon.

This is not Shakespeare, and it’s not Alan Moore or Grant Morrison. What it is however is a great title that is having a lot of fun with itself, and sometimes that is all you need.

I’m buying it and you should too.

The Anticlimactic Adventures of Detective Vampire is available to buy at highgreendawn.co.uk.