The Great Blood Bank Robbery: The Bloodhound Boys Book 1 (Andrew Cranna, Walker Books)

The Great Blood Bank Robbery follows the adventures of two monster children, werewolf Rocky and vampire Vince, as they navigate boring school subjects such as biting and transformation. When a dire crime threatens the very way of life in the boys’ monster underworld, Skull River City, they set off on a dangerous mission to the mysterious Mosquito Mountain. While the book has a delightful premise, and there is a certain charm to the storytelling, the execution is ordinary. It suffers from mistakes that are commonly made by artists who are new to the graphic novel medium. The panels are almost exclusively the same eye-level observational shot, which makes the storytelling somewhat monotonous. Many of the pages have too many panels, which reduces the art to very small panels that do not draw the reader in emotionally. When the action becomes frantic, the panels get even smaller. Ultimately it sucks the energy and tension from the scene. The perfect computerised lettering also clashes with the art, which is organic and spontaneous. The book itself is caught between two worlds. The tone of the storytelling is more suited to a young audience, but the length is likely to be beyond them. Anyone older, however, would not be emotionally sustained.

W Chew Chan is a comic book and storyboard artist and the comics consultant at Books Kinokuniya

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Category: Reviews