If you have read the books by Gullermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan…Well you know what excellent story you are reading in The Strain… If you are watching the FX television show that airs on Sundays at 10:00 PM… Well you know that The Strain is a creepy/cool tale that mixes in those things that are best in zombie apocalypse stories with gothic Nosferatu(y) vampire stories. And, if you have read the comic renditions of The Strain and The Fall… well then you know how writer David Lapham and artist Mike Huddleston have been killing it thus far.  The Strain has been a fantastic tale of good and evil, hope and darkness, and death and survival. We are now to book number three of this trilogy in regard to the comic book.  And with the opening of The Night Eternal, it would appear that those latter items of evil, darkness, and death have all but wiped out the former.  If you are familiar with The Fall, things ended there that set the tone for The Night Eternal.  I can’t really tell you what happened there.  But it is safe to say that it is all bad, real bad.  The Night Eternalbegins two years after The Fall ended and we see some early backstory with The Master as well as some of our well-known characters scraping and scratching for survival, trying to find a key to ending the events that have taken complete hold on the entire world. Did I mention that it was all bad?  Good.

I have not read the comic since the ending of The Fall, but I have been thoroughly enjoying the TV show. As I picked up this first issue of The Night Eternal, I found myself slide back quite easily into this world of doom and death.  I actually liked it, despite the darkness of the subject matter.  And I once again settled right back into the story like a good comfortable pair of shoes.

Now the elements of this issue are dark, real dark.  Like pitch black kind of dark.  Our characters are hanging in there, but many are not. And when we see detail to all of the various parts of The Master’s plan, we really know that there is not one iota of good in this ancient evil.  Things are bad, real bad.  Yeah, I said that already.

Despite the darkness, everything with this issue is awesome. The nightmare imagery of Mike Huddleston will send a chill down your spine that digs deep into your soul. While David Lapham’s script transcribed from Del Toro and Hogan’s vision is dead solid in its rendering and in conveying its message.

This story is bad, read bad… Damn, I said it again.  It is bad, but every element of the story is amazingly good even if the subject matter is so dark.  I highly recommend this title for anyone looking for some creepy fun with an excellent and vibrant story.  You get both here and this one is definitely one for reading with the lights dim and no distractions.  It is a total horror experience in a stylish comic portrayal.

Score: 5/5

Writer: David Lapham Artist: Mike Huddleston Publisher: Dark Horse Comics Price: $3.99 Release Date: 8/20/14 Format: Print/Digital