Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: The First Death #1-2

I enjoyed the comic book half of it quite a bit, and the cliff notes side is useful if you're new to anita blake's 'verse. It's also incredibly, terribly, horribly repetitive and clearly no substitute for the book. It is not entirely necessary to revisit the plot of guilty pleasures from the perspective of every single character mentioned in the book. In fact, it's mind numbing and off-putting.

My first one-star rating of the year, sigh. Though I was very tempted to give [b:Flirt|6726595|Flirt (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, #18)|Laurell K. Hamilton|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51tVY4qqRnL._SL75_.jpg|6922779] the same treatment, it got off with 2 stars.

The is the first graphic novel I've ever read and boy was it bad. This is supposed to be a prequel to [b:Guilty Pleasures|30281|Guilty Pleasures (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, #1)|Laurell K. Hamilton|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266454864s/30281.jpg|3349934]. It includes Anita and JC's first meeting which DOES NOT match the story given in the series. JC says that he fell in love with Anita at first sound, saw her gun and knew she could defend herself and wouldn't wait show more around to be rescued - only the meeting in The First Death doesn't live up to this description. She doesn't burst in guns blazing, she's actually quite timid for her. She also hunts with Edward for the first time though this is not their first meeting. This is when Anita is given the cross burn by human servants and Manny is retired by his wife after being tortured.

The First Death is not a work of art lovingly created. There is nothing new here, just a story cobbled together from the bits and pieces the author managed to remember.

However, the story is only half of the book. The second half is The Guilty Pleasures Handbook, basically a character and species index. I haven't read it, I just looked at the pictures, which brings me to the character representations. Poor JC, he doesn't look right. In a few of the illustrations he's like an Anita double just taller. He's too feminine, I imagined his hair to have a little less curl than Anita's and a little shorter because he doesn't start growing it out until he realises Anita likes long hair. There are two representations of Bert, one in the story and the other in the Handbook - the story one is better, the Handbook one makes him look ancient but very well dressed - mutton dressed as lamb. Other characters also seemed flawed in appearance like Nikolaos, she appears older than the child she's meant to be.

Overall, this is not a good book. Be smart, do not waste money on this. If you have to read it, borrow it, it will save you the hassle of trying to get rid of the thing on eBay. show less

Written as a graphic novel this episode of the Anita Blake series is well drawn and starts out fairly exciting. Anita is called by the police to the scene of a young boy's death. It appears he has been killed by a vampire but the attack was so vicious that Anita feels it might have been a shapeshifter or a particularly evil vampire who tried to cover up his own work. She is assisted by her friend Manny as they search for the culprit among the apparently large vampire population in St. Louis. Unfortunately the story has no ending. I'm not sure if that is to make you want to read more of Ms. Hamilton's books but I was disappointed. If you are an Anita Blake fan there is an exhaustive recap of the author's books, characters and locations show more at the end of the book. I do believe this will be my first and last. show less

I love the Guilty Pleasures Handbook included at the end of this prequel. It does a great job as a short world-building book.

It's more an Anita Blake book with loads of pictures than a graphical novel, because the pictures are illustrating the text instead of telling the text. But the illustrations are nice and the story is interesting. It is the prelude to guilty pleasures so it introduces some of the characters and describes the first meeting with Jean Claude. The second half of the book is more of a guide to 'guilty pleasures', with descriptions and drawings of all the main characters.

What a total rip-off.

I have read the ABVH series upto book 14. I still have to read The Harlequin ( I wait for the PB to buy and read the book). I really hate what LKH has done with the series after Burnt Offerings .

I keep reading because I like many of the supporting cast (when they aren't made crazy, banished or turned into Pod People). I keep hoping either Anita will wise up, or die horribly.

I have an earlier Graphic Novel, one of the Guilty Pleasures ones. The drawing in the earlier one is horrible, It reminds me of 'My Little Pony' rather than a kick ass vampire hunter. They seem to have gotten a new artist, and the drawings in this GN are 100 times better.

I didn't buy any of the other GNs because I prefer the written story to show more the pictures, and I didn't like the earlier drawings.

I bought this one because it was supposed to be a prequel to Guilty Pleasures and the story couldn't be had any other way. It was supposed to be about the first meeting between Jean Claude and Anita. Jean Claude is one of my favorite characters (even though he has been de-fanged).

First Death has 2 parts. I feel ripped off because there was very little that was new.

We already got the backstory of Anita and Valentine in Guilty Pleasures. That story was the whole 2nd part of First Death. The part before was very short and about some children that were being killed by vampires. A stripper from Guilty Pleasures is hanging at the crime scene, and Anita and Dolph go to question JC at the club. Thats it.

There are a few panels with JC and its all in public in the club, almost exactly the same as the go round that they have in the book Guilty Pleasures. Nothing new, nothing interesting, nothing to explain their chemistry, or the past they hint at in the book Guilty Pleasures. To make matters worse the GN focuses on the Valentine story and while it hints at him killing the children there is no big reveal or closure to the case in the first part of the GN. Just like the current day, LKH throws the plot thread away.

After First Death there is Guilty Pleasures (the book) handbook. I didn't read it, only skimmed. I am sure that there would be more and new YAABIs (Yet Another Anita Blake Inconsistency) in it.

Why couldn't she have spent the time and effort that went into the GP handbook on writing a real story for First Death ?

I can't believe they charged $15.00 for this anemic, rehashed non-story. Buyer and reader beware. show less

Anita Blake, vampire hunter (and animator of zombies, which is her main source of income) works with the police to track down a vampire child-killer. This introduces Jean-Claude, manager of Guilty Pleasures (a vampire strip club), who takes a larger role in later books. We also meet Edward, a scary and mysterious vampire bounty hunter, although probably not for the first time. An interesting beginning to a continued story, followed by a handbook of the characters of the later story, "Guilty Pleasures".