The major comic companies put out enough comics that sometimes it can leave your head spinning and eyes bleeding as you search the new titles each week for something worth reading. To aid in your Geeky endeavors, Speak Geeky To Me on occasion reviews new titles from the major companies to spotlight the best and worst of what’s available at your local comic shop. So sit back, relax, and enjoy a new Comic Review.

 

The Info Bit

Title: House of Night: Legacy

Genre/s: Vampire/Drama/Fantasy

Plot: P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast

Writer: Kent Dalian

Artists: Joëlle Jones (Dr. Horrible, Madame Xanadu), Karl Kerschl (Teen Titans: Year One), Joshua Covey(The Avengefuls), Daniel Krall (One Plus One), Jonathan Case (Dark Horse Presents), and Eric Canete (Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin)

Colorist: Daniel Krall (Comic Book Tattoo), Jonathan Case (Dark Horse Presents), Eric Canete (Rocketeer Adventures), Ryan Hill (All Nighter), and Dan Jackson (Angel & Faith)

Publisher: Dark Horse

Number of Issues:  5

Page Count: 128

Price: $14.99

 

The Review Bit

House of Night is a comic adaption of the prose novel series of the same name. The original novels were done by the prolific fantasy/romance author, P.C. Cast, and her daughter, Kristin Cast. Because of this, we get a rather delightful foreword from the elder Cast in the opening of this summer’s hardcover collection of House of Night: Legacy from Dark Horse. I must admit that reading her foreword is quite amusing, as the 52 year old woman sounds like a young girl in the excitement and thanks that her work was made into a comic book.

The story of House of Night takes place between the prose novels of the series Marked and Betrayed, which are the first and second books in the series, respectively. I will be quick to admit I have never read the prose novels, but this mini-series actually has me quite interested. The unique mixture of magic and vampirism (though these aren’t vampires, but rather vampyres) with teenagers in a special school for their kind does create a rather fun atmosphere. Sure this is not the most original concept, with predecessors ranging from England’s Harry Potter to Japan’s Rosario Vampire, and countless other titles going back some time, but the story is still quite interesting. In the House of Night comics, we follow the protagonist of the book series, Zoey Redbird, a sixteen-year-old girl who has just become a “fledgling vampyre”. She is enrolled in the House of Night, a school for fledgling vampyres in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and dealing with what I am left to presume are the events of the first novel. The comic does a good job of filling you in on what you need to know while not really spoiling the first novel in any way that I can see. Zoey is a freshmen fledgling who has been given special powers and rank from her goddess, and thusly been entrusted with the position of leader of the Dark Daughters (some form of organization at the school). However, Zoey does not feel prepared or willing to take up this role, as other students still view her as an outcast. So Zoey looks to her friends and goddess for help, finding her answers on how to deal with this uncomfortable situation in the Fledgling Handbook.

Each issue in this volume focuses on Zoey learning a different lesson from the handbook, based around one of the five elements: Earth, Air, Water, Fire, and Spirit. In this it feels very much like another Dark Horse comic based on non-comic media, Avatar: The Last Airbender. The issues are broken up into two stories each, with art segregating which is which. Joëlle Jones draws the part of each issue which follows Zoey in the House of Night, while a guest artist handles the other part of the story in the form of flashbacks detailing events from the Fledgling Handbook. In Earth we get the story of Freya, in ancient Norway, with art by Karl Kerschl that looks absolutely exquisite in every way. Air brings us back to Roman controlled Briton, with art by Joshua Covey that is simple and yet conveys a mastery of sequential art as he depicts a very visceral tale without being overtly graphic. Daniel Krall provides a very stylized and different look for his pages in the Water issue, yet they seem to fit the unique retelling of Circe and Odysseus. With the Fire issue we see a very different take on the tale of Cleopatra with art by Jonathan Case, who reminds me of a mix between Milo Manara and Becky Cloonan, for a somewhat sketchy realism.  Finally, Eric Canete, with his long figures and thick lines, rather wonderfully draws the Spirit issue story, which tells of Herakles and Hippolyte (the more proper Greek names of Hercules and Hyppolyta). The only art that seems at all off in this series is that of the overall art quality from Joëlle Jones. Drawing the teenage vampyre fledglings throughout the 5-issues, her depiction of the characters seems to change heavily with different angle perspectives. This makes the girls of House of Night change from childlike to adult in appearance almost every other panel. Thankfully Jones’ art does notably get refined by the end of the book, as she seems to conquer the look of these characters. While her art does not hold very detailed backgrounds the comic’s coloring does hide this fact well and, when Jones gets a character down, the coloring and art together makes for some rather nice visuals.

The writing of House of Night is quite funny and witty, definitely capturing the spirit of high school drama and dialogue. While Kent Dalian’s historical bits are all a little off in their retellings of history and fable, this seems likely to have been done on purpose to separate either vampyre lore/history from human’s or just the history of the House of Night universe from that of our own. Overall it is quite an enjoyable read, and if the novels have any of this tone in their high school drama I might be convinced to pick them up. Dalian’s use of the Kung Fu-esque style of a student learning from past instructions and flashbacks creates some great stories in this collection, and does a very good job at keeping the flow of the comic while giving us backgrounds on what these vampyres are all about. Most amazingly is that even though the story seems so straight forward, the writer manages to hide a few mature twists and unexpected moments in the comic that keep the reader on edge. The ending of the spirit issue specifically shocked me after I thought I knew the lesson Zoey was to learn from her book.

The Rating Bit

All in all, House of Night: Legacy is a rather great comic collection that can appeal to a wide range of readers. You don’t need to have read the novels or fit into the target audience of the prose (young adults) to enjoy this very different vampire story. I was personally quite surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did and will confidently give the comic an 8 out of 10, with strong recommendation that many of our readers give it a chance. I mean, a solidly good 128-page hardcover for only $15? You’d only be hurting yourself if you didn’t give it a try. All 5-issues of House of Night have already been released, and may be waiting for you in your local comic store. Otherwise, the hardcover collection of this story comes out on June 27th.