Little Monsters Vol. 1 (Jeff Lemire & Dustin Nguyen)

Little Monsters Vol. 1
Jeff Lemire, writer; Dustin Nguyen, artist
Image Comics, 2022

After the dystopian science fiction (with magic) of Descender and Ascender, co-creators Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen return with a different flavor of the same genre, this time with a hearty helping of horror in the mix. The little monsters of the title are a group of vampire children living in a deserted city. The exact year is never given, but one of the prequel scenes is titled "The Second Pandemic," and is set in 2029. At one point the kids try to decide how long they have been waiting for their adult sires (who they refer to as "The Old Ones") and decide it has been at least 100 years.

Throughout the story, there are flashbacks showing the origin stories of the kids (i.e. when they were bitten and turned into vampires). I think the earliest is 1763, and the most recent is 2029. So, some of the kids have been together as a group for centuries. They are still kids, though, and their day-to-day lives (which take place entirely at night, so they can hide indoors during the daylight hours) find them playing various games, or scouring the city for supplies. They have been feeding on animals, but events happen that change that, probably forever.

A human adult comes into the city to explore and becomes trapped in one of the buildings frequented by the vampire children. One of them enters, smells the scent of human prey for the first time (the kids had been told that there were no surviving humans), and immediately attacks. The taste of human blood is intoxicating. Most of the other children come back to the building to taste some, which leads them to seek out the human encampment where their prey had come from. The resulting attack is nearly a bloodbath, but one vampire is killed as well. This first arc ends with one of the humans promising vengeance, and a group of children threatening two of their own who have decided to shelter a human child. More than enough conflict to fuel another arc.

As in the previous series, Nguyen's artwork has a hand-painted look. It is largely black and white (which suits the subject matter), but he employs splashes of color as accents. Red is a particular favorite, of course.

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