Customer Reviews

Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures Volume 1 HC (2nd Prtg Jean Claude Variant) (v. 1)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Once upon a time, before the Anita Blake series became cheap porn with well-endowed vampires and werethingies, there was "Guilty Pleasures."

And like many a successful fantasy/horror novel before it, Laurell K. Hamilton's breakout story has been adapted into graphic novel form, with "Guilty Pleasures, Vol. 1" compiling the first six issues. The results... are mixed. It comes across as a goth teen's daydreams, wrapped in indifferent artwork that doesn't seem quite to match the storyline.

The story: Anita Blake is a vampire hunter and an animator, able to raise zombies from the dead. She also isn't too fond of vampires or weres, though St. Louis is swarming with them. So when a vampire comes to hire her, she turns him down. But at a bachelorette party, she soon finds herself hip-deep in vampire politics -- and a dangerous enemy who is trying to kill her.

Things only get more complicated when she ends up facing the Master of the City, the deceptively childlike Nikolaos, and a dungeon full of wererats. To find who is offing vampires in St. Louis, she'll need to relax her "no vamps" rule -- and join forces with the mysterious, seductive Jean-Claude.

The graphic novel is pretty faithful to the original novel, sticking closely to the storyline of the original novel -- lots of lines like "You don't have to be undead to be evil, but it helps." Stacie M. Ritchie and then Jess Ruffner provide some pretty good adaptation of the first-person dialogue, which is never easy.

But... a big but...

A graphic novel is more than its words -- it's art too. Brett Booth has done some great artwork in the past, but he doesn't seem to have his heart in this one. It's decent artwork, admittedly -- bright colours, detail, well-drawn in general. It's the little details that make it silly, including the cartoonish illustrations (Anita's GIANT lips) in a realistically-drawn comic.

In fact, these become more prominent as the comic proceeds. Often the action described doesn't match the illustrations (while thinking, "I'm not a coward," Anita huddles down and wrings her hands). And we get other visual quirks, like giant thick thighs -- they pop up on lots of people like Anita and the rat king, but Madge's enormous thunder thighs (each is thicker than her waist) are the funniest thing in the whole book.

Anita Blake herself is the most comically drawn -- she's as pale as an albino, except she has ridiculously flowing curly hair; it's always falling coyly over her eyes, and occasionally it drapes itself a good six inches in front of her face. Perhaps as a reflection of Booth's own mood, she also always looks bored -- even when she's supposed to be screaming with terror, she looks like she's yawning.

Nor does it help that Jean-Claude looks exactly like a breastless Anita, right down to the albino skin and artificially flowing hair. The other characters don't fare that well either: Bert looks like a blond Frankenstein's Monster, Philip looks like he's covered with herpes, Edward looks like a perv, and Nikolaos looks like a Disney heroine, which I don't think was the intention.

"Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures" takes on a fairly amusing book, and transforms it into a tepid graphic novel. Interesting for completists, but an exercise in lackluster art for all others.

"The addiction begins here" would have been an accurate sub-title for Laurell K. Hamilton's, GUILTY PLEASURES, Volume 1. Whether you're new to comic books or not, the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter graphic novel will captivate males, females, and even those in-between. And here's why:

In Anita Blake's freaky world, humans, vampires, and were-creatures live together freely. This fascinating arrangement is ripe for power struggles, chronic tension, and violence. And the hero, Anita, is in a very special position. The vamps, were-creatures, and humans all need her help! As a zombie raiser, vampire executioner, and federal marshal, she is uniquely qualified to solve murder mysteries by working with the cops who the freaks don't trust and working with the freaks who the cops don't trust. Anita also questions who she can trust.

The storyline: Anita is forced to assist the vampires in discovering who has been killing the master vampires of St. Louis. She doesn't trust them, but if she doesn't help, they will kill or permanently take over the mind of her friend, Catherine. Anita doesn't allow her friends to be hurt, and she can be especially unforgiving if they get hurt because of her. After a reluctant visit to Guilty Pleasures, a vampire strip club owned by master vampire and potential love interest, Jean-Claude, the most powerful and evil master vampire, Nikolaos, shows Anita that she means business. Anita's fact finding mission takes us deeper into her world, which series fans affectionately call, "The Anitaverse."

From the very first lines of the book, Anita's humor is wry and refreshing. Even when her life is threatened, she is consistent. Her strength of will is also impressive against the vampires. Somehow, she is partially immune to their attempts at mind control. Her physical strength isn't bad either as she fights off the giant were-rats. Anita is likeable, because she's funny, tough, loyal, and tends to be attracted to the bad boys.

Readers get glimpses of the full length novel with wonderfully vivid descriptions like: His mind is holding me like velvet steel, and ...I felt her gaze like an ice cube sliding down my spine.

This hardcover edition includes the first 6 comic book issues, which covers half of the first Anita Blake novel. Also included is an 8-page bonus story. In Volume 1, readers are still getting to know Anita, but the combination of mystery, vampires, were-creatures, and a powerhouse of a main character are going to cause people to need their Anitaverse fix.

Buy the graphic novel, no matter what kind of creature you happen to be.

I will happily admit, I was excited to go out and get this. I love the first AB books (Obsidian Butterfly and previous), and I hadn't been a LKH reader when the comics came out on their own.

This isn't a bad effort at all. Trust me - it ain't perfect, but comics and graphic novels tend to have the same flaws, and the flaws that this has are the same that the others have.

My problems: Anita's hair. Good GRIEF!! Does this artist not know how to draw curls? I had until recently, a mane of thick curly black hair, and NEVER have my curls threatened to invade my personal space the way the curls here do. Aldo, Anita's part changes depending on what side her head is turned.

There isn't a lot of consistency. Anita alternates between chalk-white (which is NOT correct for a woman who is half Mexican) and regular Caucasian. Jean-Claude does as well, but I can be more forgiving, and he is a vampire. Plus, it was very nice to see him - he's my favorite character in the series, along with Edward.

Most of the men look like each other, but with different clothes, eye colors, and hair color. Aubrey looks almost exactly like Phillip, whi in turn looks remarkably like the drawing of Richard I saw on some website. And of course, they all look like J-C. It's funny, because the women each look a little different from each other. Catherine, Anita, Monica, and Ronnie all have slightly varying features. Interesting, that. The thighs on these women are ridiculous, but that goes hand-in-hand with practically any action-based comic I have ever read.

While I am not a big fan of the clothes described in the novels (thigh-high boots on men? nononononono), it was hysterical to actually SEE Anita in that ridiculous T-shirt/shorts combo. Sheesh.

Overall, I like it. It reminds me of the good work that LKH is capable of. It's a great story, and seeing it put to images is wonderful. I do not regret making the trip to the bookstore to get it.

I hate to do this for many reasons. One, because this book was expensive. Two, because I liked Guilty Pleasures as a novel. Three, because I'm already considering giving up on the "Anita Blake" series altogether (after the third book, it gets... very, very bad), and this comic adaptation just made me more convinced that I should. What I'm trying to say is that... regrettably, this is the single worst comic I have ever read.

This nicely bound hardcover collects the first six issues of Laurell K. Hamilton's first "Anita Blake" novel. The way it is adapted makes me feel like Stacie Ritchie, the woman who adapted the novel into a comic script, doesn't know the first thing about comics. Instead of letting the art tell the story, she bogs it down with repetitive dialogue and countless narration captions that simply did not need to be included. The novel was in first-person, so had a lot of narration, but when one adapts a story into a different medium (comics especially) the internal narration has to be cut down extensively. But Ritchie goes to all lengths to include absolutely every bit of Anita's thoughts in here, which make it a chore to pull the story out of this. It's basically the novel "Guilty Pleasures" with horrid art. There was no effort at all to make this work as a comic book.

The art, no matter how you look at it, is simply inexcusable. Anita's legs are the size of tree trunks. Other characters have legs that are twice as long as their upper bodies (no joke). The colorist did a fair job in working around Brett Booth's mind-numbingly awful pencil work, but there is simply no saving this book. The art amps up the melo-drama of this story, making an enjoyable novel into a campy comic book with the cheesiest looking vampires this side of Count Chocula.

After trying time and time again to force myself to enjoy this comic, I had to admit I hated it. There was a glimmer of hope towards the end, as there is an original short story included called "Vampire Victim" that is written by Laurell K. Hamilton and her husband, but again, the whole thing comes off as utterly amateur. I'll never read another Marvel adaption of an "Anita Blake" novel, because the creative team behind this comic simply has no idea how comics function. I'll give original "Anita Blake" comics one more shot (because I already have The First Death, but unless that book shows a huge improvement, this series as a whole should be buried and forgotten.

0/10

Guilty Pleasures is Book 1 of the prolonged ongoing saga that is the Anita Blake series. Enter Anita, a necromancer by night and a vampire hunter...by night. You can imagine she has her plate full, raising the dead and staking fanged baddies.

And speaking of which, we meet Nikolaos, a 1,000 year old vampire. She's the most powerful in the city all the while inhabiting a body of a 10-year-old. She's causing a few problems for Anita that leads her to become allies with other vampires. Who better to help her than the second most powerful vampire, Jean-Claude? The other worldly beautiful, but dangerous man wants to take over and happily joins with Anita, as he's interested in more than just an alliance. While drawn to him, Anita resists the temptation since she kinda has a problem with those allergic to sunlight.

While on the darker side, I found myself drawn into this mid-western city or St. Louis with it's grit, excitement and thrills. Anita gets her hands dirty and isn't afraid of a few scars...and boy does she have them.

The plot is definitely fast-paced and the read is short but focused, telling the story fine enough. I am not the hugest fan of this art style to be honest. The artist undoubtedly has skills and there's plenty of grit, but it's just not close to how I imagined the characters in my mind, especially Jean-Claude.

I was a huge fan of the Anita Blake novels until the storylines got bogged down with the sex. The earlier novels used it as flavor for the story rather than the story itself. I didn't mind it that way, as long as it didn't take away from a really good story as the later novels did. That being said, I really love the graphic novel. I spotted the hardcover version and the artwork caught my eye. I was hooked at that point. I have to admit, yes, all the male characters look moderately feminine. Yes, Anita's thighs are drawn rather large (but was stated in the novels...) but I really love Booth's art style! I'll have to look into other projects from him. Finally, highly recommended for early Blake fans! So...when's the next one coming out??

I was a bit hesitant about how this product would hold up to the original books, but I was very surprised with the result. It was fabulous. The graphics were so well done and it truly followed the original. To me it was worth the cost. I won't miss any of these.

The comic book is fantastic. I absolutely love all the novels and have all of them and I couldn't wait to get the Vol. 1 comic book. The pages are vey colorful and the artist did a great job. Also in between the "chapters" - divisions between released comics - the posters (page size) that were released are there. The book has comics 1-6 and a mini new comic at the end. If you love Anita Blake books atleast before they got very amorous you have got to buy this book.

Once upon a time, before the Anita Blake series became cheap porn with well-endowed vampires and werethingies, there was "Guilty Pleasures."

And like many a successful fantasy/horror novel before it, Laurell K. Hamilton's breakout story has been adapted into graphic novel form, with "Guilty Pleasures, Vol. 1" compiling the first six issues. The results... are mixed. It comes across as a goth teen's daydreams, wrapped in indifferent artwork that doesn't seem quite to match the storyline.

The story: Anita Blake is a vampire hunter and an animator, able to raise zombies from the dead. She also isn't too fond of vampires or weres, though St. Louis is swarming with them. So when a vampire comes to hire her, she turns him down. But at a bachelorette party, she soon finds herself hip-deep in vampire politics -- and a dangerous enemy who is trying to kill her.

Things only get more complicated when she ends up facing the Master of the City, the deceptively childlike Nikolaos, and a dungeon full of wererats. To find who is offing vampires in St. Louis, she'll need to relax her "no vamps" rule -- and join forces with the mysterious, seductive Jean-Claude.

The graphic novel is pretty faithful to the original novel, sticking closely to the storyline of the original novel -- lots of lines like "You don't have to be undead to be evil, but it helps." Stacie M. Ritchie and then Jess Ruffner provide some pretty good adaptation of the first-person dialogue, which is never easy.

But... a big but...

A graphic novel is more than its words -- it's art too. Brett Booth has done some great artwork in the past, but he doesn't seem to have his heart in this one, perhaps because Hamilton oversaw the entire process. It's decent at the core, but the little details make it silly, including the cartoonish illustrations (Anita's GIANT lips) in a realistically-drawn comic.

In fact, these become more prominent as the comic proceeds. Often the action described doesn't match the illustrations (while thinking, "I'm not a coward," Anita huddles down and wrings her hands). And we get other visual quirks, like giant thick thighs -- they pop up on lots of people like Anita and the rat king, but Madge's enormous thunder thighs (each is thicker than her waist) are the funniest thing in the whole book.

Anita Blake herself is the most comically drawn -- she's as pale as an albino, except she has ridiculously curly hair; it's always snaking down over her eyes, and occasionally it drapes itself six inches in front of her face. Perhaps as a reflection of Booth's own mood, she also always looks bored -- even when pinned to the ground by a vampire, she looks incredibly bored. Worse, her facial contortions make her look even more alien.

Nor does it help that Jean-Claude looks exactly like a breastless Anita, right down to the albino skin and artificially flowing hair. The other characters don't fare that well either: Bert looks like a blond Frankenstein's Monster, Philip looks like he's covered with herpes, Edward looks like a playground perv, and Nikolaos looks like a Disney heroine, which I don't think was the intention.

"Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures" takes on a fairly amusing book, and transforms it into a tepid graphic novel. Interesting for completists, but an exercise in lackluster art for all others.

Found the hard back after trying to locate the comics--wow there is a lot to comic collecting. For the graphic novel--which contains the 6 comics for guilty pleasures--2 covers--contents the same--depends if purchased via book store or comic store. I am not sure the characters look the same as in my mind from the books but they are recognizable. All in all I really like them. Oh and in this book there is a story written especially for it by Laurell K. that has not appeared any where else titled VAMPIRE VICTIM.