Vampyrates! #1: Pretty in Crimson

Vampyrates! is a series about, well… vampire-pirates. For a concept that promises so much adventure, it’s often overloaded with exposition that delivers the flavorful but ultimately run-of-the-mill worldbuilding in a way that is almost grating to the reader.

The setting is a fantasy world, where the readers find themselves plunged directly into the middle of the Vampirium. Nothing wrong with an on-the-nose name after all, but the Vampirium remains as skin-deep as its name, remaining as an aesthetic backdrop for the characters to inhabit rather than being an active participant in the story itself.

It’s a simple storyline. The kind where vampire-flavored political strife leads to a political coup. A coup that turns out to be a pirate-themed call to adventure for a misguided protagonist with powerful abilities. It’s about as cut and dry as you can get, as far as adventure stories go.

The characters who drive that story, such as the gruff Captain Akeyo or the fleeing Empress Nira, read as generic as the world they inhabit. The pirate captain who feels betrayed by society and the vampire empress who shirks her duties, neither of these characters reads as particularly sharp in their portrayal despite long spans of pace-slowing dialogue that reinforce their respective personalities, such as Captain Akeyo literally recounting what another character just told them in the middle of an action scene.

Luca Pizzari’s artwork is like Atlas, holding up the readability of this issue. The panels are laid out in a way that feels deliberately chaotic yet easy to follow as action scenes flow into even more exposition. Said exposition becomes readable primarily because of Pizzari’s artwork and Adam Guzowski’s colors. A number of splash pages and a two-page spread showcase both the line art and the colors, which come together well.

A small praise for Jodie Troutman’s lettering, as even with heaps of dialogue to organize, they find ample space on the page without distracting from the mesmerizing artwork of Pizzari and Guzowski’s vision of vampires on the high seas.