COMIC REVIEW: Anita Blake Vampire Hunter: guilty pleasures

I am a voracious comic reader armed with a library card. That at times can be a dangerous combination. I quickly burn through the stuff I know I will like and I end up trying new things.

I do not particularly like vampires, especially not the overly romanticized Anne Rice variety. Then again I am not really the target audience so that isn't surprising. Even so I liked the cover on the first Trade paperback of Anita Blake Vampire Hunter enough that I decided to checked it out.

As I dug into the first few pages I found my suspicions that this would be a Romantic beefcake-fest verified but kept reading. As I got deeper I found I like the character of Anita very much. I wasn't as enamoured of the world she lives in, an Alternative version of my own home town of St Louis, where vampires, zombies and Lycanthropes not only exist, but everyone knows about them.

Anita is what is know in her world as an animator. She raises the dead as zombies for pay. Though out the story they address various practical reasons why someone would need a zombie raised so it's not as silly as it sounds. This is pretty mundane however compared to her sideline. Vampires have recently acquired civil rights, and go about their business side by side with the living. When a Vampire commits a crime in St Louis, the Authorities call on Anita to eliminate them, earning her the name "The Executioner" in vampire circles.

The story centers on Anita being blackmailed by the Head Vampire of St Louis into investigating a string of Vampire killings. Anita is tough, and very capable, but also full of insecurities and fear. The ebb and flow of these elements of her personality when faced with an increasingly dire situation kept me interested all the way through the first volume.

The Artwork is mostly gorgeous. I particularly like Anita's character design, as it gets across all of the facets of her personality very well. This is definitely a story aimed at women as the primary audience. There is an awful lot of pretty boy beefcake prancing around. I don't feel this in any way detracted in my enjoyment of the story though. It helps that Anita is easy on the eyes, horrendous scars and all.


This is a book I never would have picked up in a book store, but it was a good read. I may just purchase the second volume, but only if I can get it at a steep discount. I can only recommend this book to either those who like the Romantic goth/Vampire trappings, or those who can tolerate them.

Based on the first in a long running series of novels By Laurell K. Hamilton, Anita Blake vampire hunter: Guilty pleasures volume one is published by Marvel comics.

NOT BAD