Little Monsters Vol. 2
Jeff Lemire, writer; Dustin Nguyen, artist & cover
Image Comics, 2023

The first volume ended in strife and disagreement, with one group of child vampires sheltering a human and another group thirsting for more human blood. This story opens with that conflict but contrasts it with flashbacks reminding us how relatively harmonious the children’s life together had been before they discovered that humans still existed. The mute child Romie reveals surprising, almost superhuman strength and a flashback reveals that he is the oldest of the children: plus, he was tasked with keeping the group together and away from humans. He had been allowing the children to believe the idea that the Old Ones would return–lying to them to keep them together as the Old Ones planned–but now he leads them to the bodies of the Old Ones lying in state in an old church.

The Old Ones knew that they had only aged and died because of hunting humans (although it is never explained how they figured this out), so they wanted to keep their young charges sequestered in order to keep them young and happy. Romie still isn’t talking, but presumably, he has decided to reveal the truth in hopes of keeping the remaining untainted children from tasting human blood. There is a lot more information given about the dystopian setting. As the world was going into an apocalyptic spiral, the vampires took the children to one of the last cities standing so they would have what they needed to live. They were to represent the survival of the vampire race. So, the dystopia is more than just a cool sci-fi detail: the situation was bad for humans and the world at large, but it was ideal for making a vampire children’s community possible.

In the end the children appear to have found a way to survive. Romie shows them an infinity sign, and Laura has moved from prey to a member of the vampire band. In the next scene we see her recruiting another frightened human child. The age of humans really is over. Granted that we were being led to pull for the vampire kids, but it is still a very dark ending.

A Guest in the House
Emily Carroll
First Second, 2023

Canadian comic creator Emily Carroll first became known for her horror webcomic His Face All Red, collected into the print volume Through the Woods (which won both the Eisner Award and the British Fantasy Award). This is a full-length horror graphic novel for adults, rendered mainly in black and white with dramatic color elements. The protagonist Abby has just gotten married after many years alone. She met her dentist husband David after he moved to town looking for a fresh start with his daughter Crystal, and is doing her best to be a good wife and mother.

David does not like talking about his first wife Sheila, and Abby hears things about their relationship that raise questions: did she really die of natural causes? Abby encounters Sheila’s spirit over and over. Most of the time the spirit is friendly, but sometimes it assumes a terrifying aspect. Eventually it tells Abby horrifying things about Sheila’s death. Abby has been seeing a neighbor all along. She says she’s Beth Wilson, and she lives in the nearby blue house with green trim.

The climax is complex. Sheila and Abby team up against a drunk David, but later Abby discovers that Beth has been misrepresenting herself. She does not live in the neighborhood, and is she actually Sheila, alive after all? The finale is exciting, but confusing. The horror is real–especially the garishly colored ghost/fantasy sequences–but the uncertainty in the finale leaves the reader with an unclear impression. “What actually happened?” is not the question a reader wants to be left with.

Carroll’s visual skills are impressive. The family and everyday life scenes are presented in black and white, effective characterization coupled with creative page layout. Sometimes there are talking heads with lots of dialog, but scenes can open up in surprising ways, and there are quietly striking pages with no dialog at all. The contrasting fantasy world has colors, with red being a favorite accent. In many ways this is a quiet family drama, but it veers into surprising bloody places.