Clive Barker's Nightbreed #1 Review by Eblison Grun

Clive Barker's Nightbreed #1

writer- Marc Andreyko

artist- Piotr Kowalski

story- Clive Barker

Once again, some of the best creators in the business paint the comic world red with something out of the dark imagination of Clive Barker. Boom! Studios is now publishing Clive Barker's Nightbreed by writer, Marc Andreyko and artist, Piotr Kowalski.

The book begins in the now. Reminiscent of an old episode of Twilight Zone, the Nightbreed's father figure, Lylesberg, steps into frame and introduces us to the story. Lylesberg takes us into a series of decrepit catacombs and points to drawings left on a wall. He tells us that every member of the Nightbreed has their own story... and that's when the stories begin.

We're taken to the Louisiana swamps in the year 1857, where a black couple is being chased by a lynch mob. Perhaps they're escaped slaves, we don't know yet from the story. But the thing we do know is that this mob wants the couple dead. Luckily, Peloquin steps in to intervene. If you remember Clive Barker's original story, Peloquin is the bad-ass who bit Aaron Boone and changed him into one of the Nightbreed. Anyway, the story is brutal and filled with action. And in the end, Peloquin does what he does best. But what happens to the couple that were running for their lives? You'll have to read the book to find out.

Nightbreed #1 switches back and forth, from the story with Peloquin in 1857, to a Boston Brothel in 1945. A Washington senator goes to the brothel with a very unique taste in women. He's obviously a big spender, so all the ladies there have an interest in him. However, he is only interested in one lady, and she stays in a tunnel deep beneath the city accessible only by a maze of winding staircases. She is the seductive Shuna Sassi. Again, if you know the movie or the book, or even past comic incarnations, you'll know that Shuna Sassi is a little hard to get close to. She's full of pheromones and covered in large deadly quills. Unique taste, indeed.

This book has me really excited. Andreyko and Kowalski aren't just bringing The Nightbreed back into comics, they're telling their origins.

Kowalski's art is illustrated in a classic style that really sets the mood for a swamp chase or a 1940's Boston street scene. He also seems to know the characters well enough to draw them the way fans would hope them to be drawn. I've seen far too many “misrepresentations” of these beloved creatures, and I'm happy to say that Piotr Kowalski is on the mark.

I'm also really enjoying the writing on Nightbreed. Marc Andreyko doesn't just know the characters he's writing, he channels them. It's as if he's gotten some gleam of wisdom from Clive Barker himself on how the Nightbreed function individually. This is how I've always seen them. Reading the book, seeing the movie; this is how I expected these creatures of the night to exist outside of Midian. So far, it looks like the writer understands the outcasts. I've always seen them as misunderstood mutants, hated by a world that fears them and hunts them. You might say they're the X-Men of the horror genre.

So, onward with Clive Barker's Nightbreed. It's fun and feisty and all too short, but don't worry... issue #2 is just around the corner. Pick up Nightbreed #1 from Boom! Studios. It's at a comic shop near you.