Your Favorite Vampires in Comic Form!

Every time I visit the local bookstore I head over to the wonderfully wonderful comic book section, turn into a little kid, and get lost in the magical world of comics. While scanning the section on my last trip I was surprised by how many vampire books, movies and TV shows have been adapted into comics. Obviously comic adaptations are nothing new, but noticing them together on the shelf made me realize how popular it is nowadays. Seeing so many of our beloved vampires in comic form inspired me to dedicate an entire post to a few of the many comic adaptations.

(Click titles to view on Amazon)

Vampire Academy
Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy is one of the most popular young adult vampire book series. The Vampire Academy graphic novel was illustrated by Emma Vieceli and just hit bookstores this month.

Twilight
Yes, Stephenie Meyer’s ridiculously popular Twilight has been adapted into a graphic novel. The comic was illustrated by the highly talented Young Kim who worked with Meyer during the entire project.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Damn near every Buffy fan knows about the Buffy comics. Buffy creator Joss Whedon wasn’t ready for the tale of Buffy to end, so when the show ended at its seventh season Joss continued the story in the Season 8 comic books. The Season 8 comics just came to an end and we’re now on the highly anticipated Season 9 which you can find on Dark Horse’s website here.

Angel
Most of us knew about the Buffy comics, but not everyone knows that Angel, the Buffy spin-off, was also made into multiple comics. There’s Dark Horse’s original Angel which ended a few years back and now the new and ongoing Angel and Faith series.  But that’s not all, there are a few more Angel comics out there, you can see a list here.

Anita Blake
Laurell K. Hamilton’s popular Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series was adapted to comic form a few years back and is still ongoing. It appears that Marvel is adapting each book in the series one at a time, they also did a little prequel comic. I own the first volume of the comic and the prequel, but that’s it. Personally I have a hard time following this comic, I need a nice neat list with a reading order or something.

Vampire Kisses
The popular young adult series was adapted by the author herself, Ellen Schreiber, and illustrated by Rem. The three volume manga adaptation was titled Vampire Kisses: Blood Relatives and was published a few years ago.

BloodRayne
BloodRayne is one off my all-time favorite video games, so I am pretty geeked that it was later turned into multiple comics. Each issue of BloodRayne was released as a stand-alone self-contained one-shot story by Digital Webbing.

Cirque du Freak
Darren Shan’s widely popular Cirque du Freak series has also been adapted. The Cirque du Freak manga is a Japanese series illustrated by Takahiro Arai that was later released in the US and the UK.

Let Me In
Dark Horse Comics have produced a four-issue prequel titled Let Me In: Crossroads which is based on the film Let Me In. John Ajvide Lindqvist ,the original author of the novel Let the Right One In, was not pleased about the comic at all. But that’s not stopping folks from loving the comic.  You can pick up the first issue of Crossroads here on Dark Horse’s website.

The Vampire Lestat
Anne Rice’s fantastic vampire novel The Vampire Lestat was also transformed into a graphic novel. I own it and while I don’t love it I don’t hate it either, it definitely could have been better. Anne recently announced that Interview with a Vampire is also being turned into a comic. You can read about that more here. I can’t wait for that one!

True Blood
Oh yes, even True Blood has been illustrated. The comic is based on the TV series and can be found over on HBO’s website.

And that’s a small peek into the massive world of vampire comic book adaptations. I’m sure there are many more out there that are not on the list below, so feel free to let me know in a comment below if you can think of any others.

– Moonlight

By Moonlight

Moonlight (aka Amanda) loves to write about, read about and learn about everything pertaining to vampires. You will most likely find her huddled over a book of vampire folklore with coffee in hand. Touch her coffee and she may bite you (and not in the fun way).

7 comments

  1. Buffy, without hesitation. I recently read the True Blood adaptation (first book), and find it a bit… disappointing. I like Vampire Academy, but i’m not very attracted by the excerpts i’ve seen of the comics.

  2. Pingback: vampires
  3. Gothic Classics: Graphic Classics Volume 14. Includes an adaptation of Le Fanu’s Carmilla by Rob Lott and Lisa K. Webber.

    Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend adapted by Steve Niles and Elman Brown. Preserves much of the text of the original novella.

    The Complete Dracula by Leah Moore, John Reppion and Colton Worley. Very faithful and has painted art.

    Brian Lumley’s Necroscope by Martin Powell and Daerick Gross. Painted art.

  4. I really want to read the Buffy comics! Now that I’ve seen all the episodes, I’m definitely going through withdrawal.
    The House of Night Series is also now going to be in comic book form, too, but I don’t know if I’ll check those out right away. I’d like to see the original book series end already, but it’s being dragged out wayyy too long.

  5. Pingback: Renée Gschaid

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: