DEATH WALKS THE STREETS - Vampires. Demons. Zombies. Werewolves. The Mob.

The guys behind Fangoria's comic book attempts BUMP and BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE RAGE are at it again with The Scream Factory's DEATH WALKS THE STREETS. These cross-promotional type books have a tendency to be somewhat diluted at times. The problem that usually arises is that someone who is good at, say, writing screenplays or making movies isn't always necessarily good at writing comics. Taking the art of comic-booking for granted occurs way too often these days. Comics and movies are different types of entertainment and if that difference isn't recognized, then one of the aspects of the cross-promotion is weaker than the other, thus weakening the entire package. That's not necessarily the case here; more of a word of caution to the guys at Scream Factory who are advertising the movie, t-shirt, and god knows what other tie-in to their books in the final pages of this book. The story of DEATH WALKS THE STREETS is a pretty good one. Bringing classic horror elements together with the mob has been done before, but some ideas are good no matter how many times you've seen it. I liked the way this story sets up the unions as this insidious organization itching to do battle with the monsters imposing on their territory. I liked the team that has been assembled to take on the beasties, although not much time was dedicated in convincing me why this particular trio was best suited for the job. All we really know is that the girl is good at video games and one of the guys likes to ride the bus. The art by Guilherme Balbi (pencils) and Alex Silva (inks) is pretty good and they make it clear which panels interested them the most (the ones featuring zombies, werewolves, and other evils). A bit more detail to the quiet, in between panels would help the overall work. I also had a bit of trouble distinguishing one character from another since most of the guys have that comic book hair (you know the hair...all short in the back, long on top so that it can be blown around all wispy-like, like the guy is constantly standing in a wind tunnel). But I don't want to be too hard on the book. It is a great premise and may make a cool film. The afterward tells us to look at the book as a prequel or pilot episode for the upcoming movie. In that, I guess it was successful because it did in fact get me interested in DEATH WALKS THE STREETS when it eventually hits theaters or video stores, whichever comes first.