THE STRAIN #1

They always talk about the current plethora of monster stuff like there was a period in time when there were no vampire or zombie or werewolf books, movies, or TV shows. I find that hard to believe, although there are definitely a lot more these days of this "monster" genre. I'm not sure the origin of any of them in recent time, but I think 28 Days Later kicked off the current zombie surge (yes, even though it didn't feature zombies but a zombie-like virus) and of course the Twilight quadrilogy kicked off the vampire and werewolf craze. This new comic book, which Dark Horse will be putting out over three years, is about vampires. It's also, more or less, a lot like The Passage, Justin Cronin's vampire epic. Why it's become a comic after three books have already been published can be tied to the fact that film director Guillermo Del Toro co-wrote the books. He did the two Hellboy films, Pan's Labyrinth, and recently quit directing The Hobbit. The comic is in the hands of writer David Lapham (he's been writing Deadpool Max lately) and artist Mike Huddleston. An airplane shows up with a dead crew and dead passengers and a coffin at JFK. Cue the outbreak! For a buck, it's a good read, but it's literally more of the same. When the mummy craze starts, let me know. **1/2