By Terry Stock and Colin Stanford

Black Harvest Moon picks up five months after demons have taken over LA. Joining the floods of human refugees fleeing into the surrounding states, the tales focuses on Bobby and Lisa, a long term couple coming to terms with the new balance of power in the relationship. That is, Lisa being vampire and Bobby, her punishment-reward meal ticket.

Torn between loyalty to his fellow humans, huddling together and farmed by demons, and his still strong sexual desire for what’s left of Lisa, the story charts Bobby’s descent into the darker and degraded depths of his human nature.

It’s very well written. Terry Stock though guilty of a few too many word embellishments in places, tells the story tautly, gives you just enough information to jump from scene to scene and never lets things get dull. The script is also full of flashes of tenderness, reminders of a gentler humanity that the remaining humans are rapidly losing. When Bobby admits a plot against the vampires, Lisa’s revenge is exacting. The leaders are executed and at the burial, the other humans acknowledge Bobby’s betrayal without judgement:
“They told me it was alright and all it took was a simple nod”.
Bobby goes on to reflect that there was more compassion in that exchange than in the last four months with Lisa.
There’s also some humour. Bobby muses on the first vampire he ever saw, a university professor with a tan, hocking his new book on a talk show.

Black Harvest Moon is an interesting exploration of an idea where vampires are not the shadowy enemy of many generic stories, but instead the blatant governors of a terrified populace.

Terry Stock’s script is matched with accomplished looking artwork from Colin Stanford. It’s clean and dramatic, Stanford’s obviously learnt his craft but at times it misses it’s mission of storytelling and lags behind the script.

The opening page being a prime example of this; Stanford decides against using flashback imagery and depicting the demon take over, instead showing us derelict and empty streets. I’m curious as to the motivation for this. Stanford’s too talented to take the easy option (hell, I wouldn’t fancy drawing a demon invasion either but I’m pretty sure that Stanford could if he tried). It’s a curiously blank opening then, and I don’t think it works. Flat and visually boring, it’s only the writing hat encourages you to carry on.

That said, it does pick up and the rest of the comic is steered capably to its fitting conclusion.

The story is followed by the inclusion of a sketchbook and preliminary layouts, which I wasn’t too keen on. I think the work deserves to retain its mystery a little, anything more strike you as merely filler. A shame, as it’s detracts from an otherwise strong piece of work.

Available from Smallzone and Engine Comics. £3