Film to Print: Comic Coverage – ’Fright Night #2’ (Review)

The second issue of Fright Night allows the original film’s story to be resolved. And it – just like the previous issue – is surprisingly faithful to the film. Ed is turned into a vampire, Amy is seduced by Jerry, Charley soon finds himself fighting for his life against both Jerry and his nasty bodyguard. Oh, and Peter Vincent is of course along for the whole ride.

It’s a treat to relive the film in a completely different medium, and it’s amazing that the story itself doesn’t lose any impact with the shift to print. It’s still a creepy, well-paced story about kids coming of age and vampires raising the local body count. And, the illustrations of Lenin Delsol provide a chance to get a different perspective of familiar scenes. That’s a magnetic point for the book, no doubt about it.

The book looks great, it reads great and, best of all, it’s an open story still. By the time we reach the final pages of issue number two we’ve already got a lead on a new conflict that holds another familiar face at the crux of the trouble. The very last page of the book just reminds us that there are a lot of options and directions with which Joe Gentile can take this tale. The truth is, while the book ran for less than 30 issues, there’s a full well of options to run with here. It’s a shame we didn’t get a solid comic reboot to accompany the 2011 remake.

Decades after buying these bad books I’m getting a whole new level of entertainment from them. I’ve already noted that it won’t be easy to track these down, but if you see them, buy them. These are a vamp fan’s ultimate dream.

Rating: 4.5/5