A free-spirited, blood-thirsty horror story set at history’s greatest rock concert.
A group of hippies in Woodstock find peace, love, and vampires in Cape’s horror-tinged graphic novel.
San Francisco, 1969. Idealistic but ambitious young writer Jon Harper is trying to get his music magazine off the ground. So far, it’s been a total money pit. If he can make it to the upcoming music festival in Bethel, New York, however, he might be able to get the interview with Jimi Hendrix he needs to finally put Psych & Roll on the map. As Jon, his girlfriend, Nina Murray, his friend Artie, and half a million other hippies descend on upstate New York, an ancient evil awakes from a decadeslong slumber. The shapeshifting vampire is looking to rebuild his brood, and the hordes of young concert-goers will make the perfect recruits. The only one who knows how to stop the vampire is local doctor Alexandru Van Helsing, whose father helped defeat the creature the last time he woke. But the vampire has since learned some lessons, and this time, he quickly lures the local sheriff into his service. After witnessing a murder, Jon and his friends unwittingly become the vampire’s next target. Nina and Artie take the threat seriously, though they don’t quite understand the full scope of the danger, but Jon refuses to let himself get distracted from his mission to interview Jimi, a blind desire that the vampire can use to his advantage. The psychedelic horror story finds a suitable match in the full-color artwork by Kroll, who blends painting and digital effects to achieve an uncanny richness. The mix of vampire lore and 1960s music culture provides opportunities for humor. (“Not Jimi!” Artie cries after learning vampires are hunting the guitarist. “Take Pete Townsend”). Just as often, though, Cape’s willingness to dispatch his characters creates moments of gory terror. It turns out hippies get a lot less peaceful when they’re undead! Fans of Woodstock and vampires both will find much to enjoy in this chilling volume.
A free-spirited, blood-thirsty horror story set at history’s greatest rock concert.Pub Date: April 7, 2026
ISBN: 9798992749915
Page Count: 192
Publisher: SHP Comics
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Lush visuals bring this thoughtfully constructed tale to life.
Wondrous visitors encounter a desperate pocket of humanity.
Lori, a white orphaned teen who’s finally been adopted after bouncing around various foster homes, awakens to discover that nearly everyone has disappeared. The rapture? Maybe. She runs into her classmate Annette, who has brown skin and curly black hair, and they partner up to scavenge for food. The pair tries to evade several threats, such as the large Wolves and a gang called The Dogs. Supernatural Giants arrive, seemingly from space, speaking an impenetrable language of “musical chiming and weird bass-rhythms.” Lori and Annette then meet Beatrice, an older white woman who shares important observations about the Giants and Wolves. The tone of the story then subtly shifts from post-apocalyptic desperation to one that’s somewhat playful. After a certain point, a visual element that appears early on takes on clear significance and meaning in the context of the story at large, offering a subversively humorous twist for readers to consider and a creative element that deviates from other alien invasion narratives. Hans’ artwork and paneling fill each scene with wonders. An interaction with a giant sees the red, violet, and pink figure standing against a bright, otherworldly white-and-blue backdrop with dark contours. Elsewhere, Lori and Annette pause at night as they behold ominous shadows, their foggy breath forming clouds, and they hear a “KRRNCH” sound. The quick-moving plot wraps everything up neatly.
Lush visuals bring this thoughtfully constructed tale to life. (character designs) (Graphic science fiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781534387072
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Image Comics
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2024
A Rand primer with pictures.
A graphic novel for devotees of Ayn Rand.
With its men who have become gods through rugged individualism, the fiction of Ayn Rand has consistently had something of a comic strip spirit to it. So the mating of Rand and graphic narrative would seem to be long overdue, with her 1938 novella better suited to a quick read than later, more popular work such as The Fountainhead (1943) and the epic Atlas Shrugged (1957). As Anthem shows, well before the Cold War (or even World War II), Rand was railing against the evils of any sort of collectivism and the stifling of individualism, warning that this represented a return to the Dark Ages. Here, her allegory hammers the point home. It takes place in the indeterminate future, a period after “the Great Rebirth” marked an end of “the Unmentionable Times.” Now people have numbers as names and speak of themselves as “we,” with no concept of “I.” The hero, drawn to stereotypical, flowing-maned effect by illustrator Staton, knows himself as Equality 7-2521 and knows that “it is evil to be superior.” A street sweeper, he stumbles upon the entrance to a tunnel, where he discovers evidence of scientific advancement, from a time when “men knew secrets that we have lost.” He inevitably finds a nubile mate. He calls her “the Golden One.” She calls him “the Unconquered.” Their love, of course, is forbidden, and not just because she is 17. After his attempt to play Prometheus, bringing light to a society that prefers the dark, the two escape to the “uncharted forest,” where they are Adam and Eve. “I have my mind. I shall live my own truth,” he proclaims, having belatedly discovered the first-person singular. The straightforward script penned by Santino betrays no hint of tongue-in-cheek irony.
A Rand primer with pictures.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-451-23217-5
Page Count: 144
Publisher: NAL/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2010
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