GRAPHIC NOVEL
Bite Club

Authors: Howard Chaykin and David Tischman
Artist: David Hahn
Titan Books
RRP: £7.99
ISBN 1 84576 065 4
Available 24 June 2005


The Del Toros are a vampire clan that's been running organised crime in Miami for nearly a century. Beautiful, rich and immortal, these bloodsuckers are also masters of backstabbing and infighting - and the fangs really come out with the death of their Patriarch, Eduardo...

Bite Club is a vampire tale with a twist. Vampirism is tolerated in modern society - to the point where one of the biggest crime families in Miami is a vampire clan. But when the head of the family is killed the family are left wandering who will replace him. His children are obvious candidates, but who will it be?

Youngest son Leto vowed to leave his family's empire of sin behind when he became a Catholic priest - and his ambitious, hedonistic sister Risa would be happy to keep it that way. To everyone's surprise Eduardo's will names Leto as the new jefe of the Del Toro cartel, leaving Daddy's little girl to scheme on the sidelines.

Facing rivals within and enemies without, Leto knows his blood is in the water. Priest or not, though, he's still a Del Toro, and he's swum with these sharks all his life. The question is, will he choose the way of God - or the Godfather?

The plot and art for this collection is well above the norm. And I have to admit that I was pleasently suprised to discover that this tale adds new blood (oops!) to the age old vampire saga. Being a vampire is nothing that odd in this universe - no stranger than being black/white, male/female or a member of the poor/upper classes. It's just another section of our very varied society. In fact, take away the vampire element and you have a straight forward Mafia-style tale.

Sadly this collection rounds everything off rather too neatly - which means it's very unlikely to spawn another collection of tales. Although, it wouldn't be too difficult to kick-start another mini-series.

If you want something a little different then this is a collection that you will heartily embrace. It certainly doesn't suck (oops!)

Darren Rea

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