Comic Preview: House of Night #1

Title: House of Night #1

Author: P.C. Cast

Artist: Joëlle Jones,Karl Kerschl

Publisher: Dark Horse

Release Date: 11/9/2011

(Note: This review only covers a 6 page preview of the comic.)

Until recently, Zoey Redbird was an average high-school student worrying about grades, boys, and breakouts. But priorities have a way of changing when you are marked as a

vampyre, enroll in the vampyre academy House of Night, and have to figure out a whole new social hierarchy, affinities for elementa

l magic, and physiological changes that make you crave blood.

I wish I could recommend this higher, but I have to say that this preview left me lukewarm. The entire comic just seemed to be a jumbled mess and I can't quite say if this is because I only got a brief preview of the book or if it's because the comic itself is just lacking the addictive quality that the series holds.

First off, I'm highly disappointed with the artwork. When I first looked this series up via Netgalley there was this absolutely gorgeous cover artwork that had me drooling over the prospect of reading this preview. It didn't hurt that the other covers I found were equally awesome. With covers like these, the artwork inside has got to be pretty cool, right? Unfortunately that assumption was sort of wrong. The artwork as a whole is nice but occasionally there's things that just looked really off putting, such as the bodily proportions of some of the characters. As an example I've included the picture of Zoey and Aphrodite. Zoey has this weird popsicle stick body and this huge head that looks like it's threatening to fall right off her shoulders. It really draws you out of the story, putting it mildly. This is just really jarring to see when the artwork is otherwise nicely done.

Story-wise it's ok. Not great, but not awful either. I'll admit that it's been a while since I've picked up the books but I remember most of what went on and this just sort of confused me since I thought it was supposed to be the start of the series. I got the impression (since none of this was in the books) that this is supposed to be a side-story, but it's going to be a little hard for newbies to pick up and read without having previous read the books.

If you're curious, Dark Horse has a 10 page preview up on their website (click here) to peruse. I'm not going to completely dismiss this comic since it has the starts of something good, but some fans will probably want to wait for the inevitable volume collection to hit their library or bookstore shelves.

2.5 out of 5 stars

(Preview provided by Netgalley)