The future is bright in Bleed Them Dry, the new title from HiComics. Vampires came out into the open – well, almost – and integrated into human society bringing their superior science. But, then, why does a killer prey on these bloodsuckers?
A clash of cultures
In 3333, vampires and humans have lived together for centuries in a sometimes fragile balance. Mortals are always wary of these ancient immortal predators. However, the two species work in harmony as shown by the human Harper Halloway and the albino vampire Atticus Black in the police of the megalopolis of Asylum. Vampires no longer kill humans but still suffer a dull racism. However, a series of murders and the investigation of this police duo will change everything. Indeed, a ninja prowls in the shadows of the city and plunges us into its secrets revealing the hypocrisy of this cohabitation. Halloway's life and certainties will be radically transformed. Between Black and the ninja, she will have to choose a side. The concept of Bleed Them Dry comes from Hiroshi Koizumi, a Japanese actor best known for his role in the first Godzilla saga. We also find this Asian influence in the intervention of the ninja and by the geographical setting reminiscent of Hong Kong or Taiwan. These ideas were picked up by Nagoya TV and entrusted to screenwriter Eliot Rahal, cartoonist Dike Ruan and colorist Miquel Muerto. This collective project has resulted in this complete series in six episodes whose drawings are particularly remarkable. Originally from China but living since he was eleven years old in Italy, Dike Ruan has adopted a style that wants to confront these cultural areas. Since childhood, he has been passionate about manga but when he arrived in Europe, he became passionate about comics. This open artist naturally found himself on this project mixing several cultures. Moreover, if his drawings recall Olivier Coipel, it is absolutely not fortuitous. Dikes acknowledges that the French cartoonist changed his approach to comics as he tried to train as an autodidact. This resemblance is also reinforced by Miquel Muerto's digital colors that imitate greasy chalk.
A clash of genres
In Bleed Them Dry, the reader is passionate about the hectic action narrative but he is also jostled by the pile-up of genres. This comic manages in six episodes to be at the same time a thriller, a vampire tale, a science fiction story and a ninja story. The main narrative is a thriller where a black detective seeks both the killer and the motive for these racist crimes. As in any good detective novel, the truth will reveal an unsuspected complexity of the various characters and the darkness of the elite. The sets, the means of transport and all the technology, propel the reader into a cyberpunk future inspired by Blade Runner but also by the architecture studies of Dikes Ruan. Indeed, this mixture is also found through drawing. Ruan keeps the Japanese sword of the ninja but he gives him a more discreet costume and a metal mask. Indeed, tired of the traditional masked costume – and given the sanitary context we can understand it – he opted for a metal shell of the most beautiful effect. In the same way, it offers a totally new and convincing cyborg vampire. He even allows himself an allusion to Spider-Man for whom he directed an episode. Bleed Them Dry is a very pleasant story to follow but especially the first complete work of the cartoonist Dikes Ruan who will soon explode because he is now working on the Shang-Chi comics. He succeeds in this complete story to make us participate in the action while offering beautiful images such as the transformation of a character into a vampire revealing a new aggressiveness. The end being open, we want to discover more. Are there other city-states where vampire-human cohabitation is different? You can find the chronicles of the latest indie releases of HiComics with the cosmic We Only Find Them When They're Dead and the horror The Plot.
