Bite Club (comics)

Summary

Bite Club is a Vertigo comic book mini series created by writers Howard Chaykin and David Tischman. It is a crime story in which the protagonists are vampires living in Miami, Florida. Chaykin has said the comic was a metaphor for racial profiling and the immigrant experience.[1]

Bite Club
Cover to issue #1 of Bite Club (June 2004), art by Frank Quitely.
Publication information
PublisherVertigo
ScheduleMonthly
FormatLimited series
Publication dateBite Club: June–November 2004
Bite Club: Vampire Crime Unit: June–September 2006
No. of issuesBite Club: 6
Bite Club: Vampire Crime Unit: 5
Creative team
Created byHoward Chaykin
David Tischman
Written byHoward Chaykin
David Tischman
Artist(s)David Hahn
Letterer(s)Jared K. Fletcher
Colorist(s)Brian Miller
Editor(s)Karen Berger
Tony R. Rose
Collected editions
The Complete Bite ClubISBN 1-4012-1272-7

Plot edit

After the murder of vampire crime boss Eduardo del Toro, his heirs and relatives begin to make a play for control of his organization. To their dismay, Toro in his will named his youngest son, a Roman Catholic priest and vampire named Leto, as his successor. Leto announces that his family will get out of the illegal-drug business and begin investing in legitimate industry. This endeavor earns Leto the support of Zephraim Klein, the Del Toro family consigliere, and the enmity of his other relatives, like his siblings Eddie and Risa, and his cousin Victor. Risa later assassinates Eddie. Risa then teams up with Victor to assassinate Leto, and is successful, although Victor also dies during the attempt, and Risa takes control of the family with her girlfriend Carrie.

Risa soon finds that running the Del Toro family is not as fulfilling as she had expected. Their legitimate businesses are the subject of myriad lawsuits, and Risa herself is being investigated by the police as the suspect in a string of murders. Homicide detective Paco Macavoy develops an obsession with Risa. He confirms that Risa is innocent of the murders, and also that the Vampire Crime Unit is riddled with corruption. After discovering that it was Risa's girlfriend Carrie who did the killings, Macavoy is himself turned into a vampire. Sick of the entire affair, he abandons both the Del Toro family and his job on the police department.[1]

Collected editions edit

The two series have been collected as a trade paperback:

  • The Complete Bite Club (collects Bite Club #1-6, and Bite Club: Vampire Crime Unit #1-5, 272 pages, August 2007, ISBN 1-4012-1272-7)

Notes edit

  1. ^ a b Irvine, Alex (2008). "Bite Club". In Dougall, Alastair (ed.). The Vertigo Encyclopedia. New York: Dorling Kindersley. pp. 30–31. ISBN 978-0-7566-4122-1. OCLC 213309015.

References edit

  • Bite Club at the Grand Comics Database
  • Bite Club: Vampire Crime Unit at the Grand Comics Database
  • Bite Club at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
  • Bite Club: Vampire Crime Unit at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)

External links edit

  • Brady, Matt (July 19, 2003). "Joining Chaykin & Tischman's Bite Club". Newsarama. Retrieved October 4, 2008.[permanent dead link]
  • Bite Club #1 review[permanent dead link], Newsarama, April 18, 2004