The story shifts between the darkness of the present and the more colourful and hopeful past. Bright colours are used around ominous scenes, during horrors, whereas muted colours tell the rest of the tale. Red is used throughout as a symbol of evil, as the colour of the vampires, of the plague, and of an evil looming over all of Europe. The illustrations are frightening, detailed, and perfect for the horror of Baltimore's reality. Baltimore is at once distant from everyone and everything around him, but he is also protective of those he takes under his wing. He is fearless, careless and is only motivated to live long enough to kill Haigus. I do find it rather frustrating that in so many graphic novels women are either depicted as hags or svelte models. This is immediately seen in this graphic novel with the "grotesque witch" and her beautiful granddaughter, Vanessa. Although, there was a woman who was operating a strange machine. In the write up at the end, it was revealed in sketches that she had originally been planned to be a man, but they changed the character to a woman last minute as it would be more interesting. Her character exists outside of the regular female archetype. She also appears to be important to the story and will appear again later, so I may stick with the series just to learn about her story. I really enjoyed the mythology behind the graphic novel. The giant bat images were terrifying, the reason for the plague disgusting, Baltimore's guilt overwhelming. You can feel the guilt eating away at him, he is merely a husk of a man. While there may have been slight issues with the graphic novel, regarding female portrayals and random moments that were just bizarre and unexplained, I was pulled in and wanted more. Recommend if you are looking for a horror in the vain of penny dreadfuls.
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