Anita Blake in The Land of the Visual

Imagine a world where raising the dead isn't just a colorful metaphor but an occupation. Where vampires are free to own strip clubs... and voter registration cards. Anita Blake doesn't have to imagine it. She lives in it... and now her fans don't have to imagine it either.

Thanks to a collaboration between Marvel, Dabel Brothers and Laurell K. Hamilton, Anita Blake (Laurell K. Hamilton's sexy, street smart, animator cum vampire executioner) has come to the world of graphic novels. With a 12-book story arc, the first novel in the Anita Blake series (Guilty Pleasures) comes to technicolor life. The exquisite art of Brett Booth brings the first two books a fine sense of realism interspersed with the mysticism of the material. His covers are eye-popping and engaging in the way that cover art should be, and with writing by Laurell K. Hamilton herself, the story retains the integrity of its original form.

Though the artists and writers sometimes change from issue to issue, the story is faithfully upheld. The visual incarnation of Anita and friends (and foes) doesn't seek to replace the readers already fruitful imagination so much as compliment it. Jean-Claude may not look quite as you imagined him, but he looks darn good by any standard.

Just like the novels, there is enough sarcasm, gore and romance to satisfy any Anita Blake fan. So, if you left your comic book obsession behind with Batman at age 11, you may want to check out the new-fangled version of comics: graphic novels. Even if you aren't an Anita Blake fan you may find a graphic novel that sparks that grade-school obsession once again in a new, adult kind of way. Your local comic book store will thank you, and so will I.