Got this for $3 during my vacation in Philly. Read this is one day because I love a shit show of a series and this was a fun shit show. I loved the twists and turns in this supernatural thriller. Loved Risa, she was probably my favorite character. I probably won't read the second volume though, it'll be hard to find at a store. ( )

The premise is actually pretty good - A Vampire Mafia crossover of sorts. Much like all Vampire books/movies before it, great care is taken to point out how all movies/books/songs/whatever got the legend wrong and this is why their vampires are able to do such-and-such.

Seeing as this is set in Miami, this means that the Vampires walk around during the day and sun-worship like the rest of the residents of the city (David Caruso notwithstanding). People are also aware of the existance of Vampires, but this becomes one of the more convoluded parts of the comic. While the police department has a special vampire section (with one employee from what I can tell), everything else is very much integrated. This would have made some sense if the Vampire aspect was kept a bit more quiet and this was a secrative thing, but it isn't.

I do like the idea of a Vampire-Mafia crossover - it would make your hitmen a lot more useful (they are a tougher breed). In addition, you could easily swear in human members of the "family" via a bite.

They even had some interesting subplots - a sister heavily into the music scene, a brother that had become a priest and a grandson in high school that is incredibly troubled with a goth girl using him just to become a vampire herself.

Unfortunately, much of this is wasted. I realize Bite Club was supposed to be a limited run, but with as much as is introduced early on, I get the feeling that Chaykin and Tischman wanted this to be a long running series but just couldn't sell it to Vertigo. Or, perhaps it was believing in "sex sells" a little too much (peppered with a generous side of senseless violence) that had them just shy of being a brilliant series. I have no problem with this in comics, it's just like anything else - if it starts to feel like the plot is moving along just to get to the next sex scene, things get boring.

There have been other Vampire/Mafia stories before, but this one had some promise - they were close, but not quite. Maybe they thought the allure of both were enough to get past the bumps.

Note, this was originally my personal review on Amazon.com - it is my review. ( )

Mafiasuccessionwar with vampires as mafia.
Good art and some nice twists in the story. ( )

This is a halfway decent vampire/mobster story. Pretty good art, interesting setting. Not bad. ( )

7