The vampire detective is almost as old a storytelling trope as the vampire itself. The thing about tropes, though, is using them in unique ways, and that’s exactly what Sink Your Teeth In from Zoe Tunnell, Lauren Knight, JP Jordan and Jodie Troutman sets out to accomplish.
Currently on Kickstarter, Sink Your Teeth In #1 is the first of a four-issue limited series from Lifeline Comics’ DEATHline imprint. The campaign is fully funded, so it’s guaranteed you’ll be able to read this project (with the first issue already complete as well).
When she was living, Corsica Smith was a talented aspiring journalist in California. But she’s spent her unlife since she was turned in Chicago. The Windy City is a vampire town, and Corsica is able to find the places where her skills are welcome. But a new string of murders is challenging the fragile balance in the city, and Corsica is about to learn a startling secret that may completely shatter it.
I got a look at the first issue, and up to the last page, I was impressed by what I saw. But then I made that final page turn and I went from “Oh, this is really good” to “Dammit, how long do I need to wait until the second issue?”
But I’m not going to spoil that.
What I am going to do is talk about just how much fun this issue is.
Tunnell — who, full disclosure, is a former ComicsXF team member — has grown so much as a writer. I’ve known her for at least four years, and consider her a friend. And if you know me, you know I have no problem giving my friends constructive criticism.
For the majority of this issue, I enjoyed what I read. Yes, it features a lot of the tropes you’d think of with a vampire private investigator, but they are written well at worst, and great at best. Corsica is not your standard vampire PI/horror protagonist, and the world Tunnell and her team built is extremely interesting. Then the final-page twist hits, and it all clicks.
Knight’s art is genuinely fantastic. She paces the pages extremely well, and her layouts emphasize the trappings of a noir story without leaning too far into them. At no point does Corsica don a trenchcoat or fedora, but her clothing and body language clearly put her in the role of a noir detective. There’s not a lot of overt horror here (outside of a couple crime scenes), but she adds a level of tension on the page that makes it all feel very scary.
This is also a story where the color artist and letterer are just as much storytellers as the rest of the creative team. Color artist JP Jordan does a great job throughout. I always dig the use of limited color palettes in horror stories, and by using that tool, it strengthens the entire story. Letterer Jodie Troutman plays with caption and bubble styles to set the mood and establish the characters. I usually say it’s a bad thing to notice the lettering, but Troutman is smart about it, making her work slick but not distracting.
The campaign is still running for another 24 days as of writing, so check it out, and back it today!
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble. Follow him @brawl2099.bsky.social.
