Vampire: The Masquerade - The Complete Series

by Tim Seeley, Blake Howard, Tini Howard

Global best-selling World of Darkness RPG phenomena, The Masquerade and The Apocalypse are captured together for the first time in a complete series omnibus edition, featuring The Masquerade Winter's Teeth issues #1-#10 and the crossover The Masquerade and World of CRIMSON THAW event series, issues #1-#3!

UNSEEN EVIL LURKS EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD OF DARKNESS

THE MASQUERADE The Complete Series collects all 10 issues of The Winter’s Teeth and all 3 issues of the never-before-collected vampire/werewolf crossover World of Crimson Thaw , plus more than 30 pages of original roleplaying supplements, including lore sheets for playable characters featured in the series!!

The Winter’s Teeth
A tale of two vampires in the Twin Cities…
When Cecily Bain, an enforcer for the Twin Cities’ vampiric elite, takes a mysterious new vampire, Alejandra, under her wing, she’s dragged into an insidious conspiracy. After learning a disturbing fact about her fake childe’s past, Cecily must keep her secrets close, and Ali at arm’s length. As she searches the streets of the Twin Cities for answers, a terrifying possibility perhaps Ali has learned the ways of the Kindred better than Cecily herself. Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the cities, Colleen Pendergrass, embraced by her husband against her will, and a rebellious found-family of vampire cast-outs investigates a vicious killing.

As the unlives of the Kindred twine together and betrayals are unearthed, will Cecily be able to escape and save what’s left of her family, or will she be yet another pawn sacrificed to maintain the age-old that vampires exist among the living?

World of Crimson Thaw
There's worse living in the shadows than vampires … something with even bigger teeth.
Cecily Bain has become everything she never wanted as The Prince of the Twin Cities. But her rule over a fractured, backbiting vampire court is interrupted by an something big, hairy and full of teeth. For over a century, werewolves of the Twin Cities have protected their blessed places from threats both physical and spiritual. When vampires under Cecily’s rule move in on one of these precious sites, it’s a declaration of war, one that Tyrell ‘the Stainless’ Stinar and his ferocious pack will avenge at any cost, even if that includes slaying one of their own.The immortal enmity between the Kindred and the Garou comes to a head on the streets of the Twin Cities!

For fans of The Masquerade RPG, The Apocalypse RPG , The World of Darkness , American Vampire , Killadelphia , Something is Killing the Children , Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat/The Vampire Chronicles , Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Mysteries/True Blood , Certain Dark Things, Underworld, and vampire/werewolf/monster graphic novels, tabletop/RPGs, books, movies, video games, and series!

“This is a fresh take on vampires, mixing it with crime, thrillers, and a pinch of romance all with a vein of horror running through it.” -- Horror DNA

“… strongly recommend this book to both fans of the franchise and newcomers.” – Grimdark Magazine

"I’m absolutely in love with what a badass Cecily is..." - The Wandering Nerd Girl

“ the Masquerade … is an enjoyable read even if you’re not familiar with the RPG… like the real world, but with hotter outfits, blood, and fangs. – Graphic Policy

“This is the horror thriller we all need.” – Horror DNA

“… strong … with wildly expansive world building, but there is also an underlying heart to the story that will help to pull you in to their uniquely dark struggle.” – Comic Watch

“ … a story with blood and intrigue … a must-buy for horror fans.” – But Why Tho?

“ The Masquerade … exciting … with remarkable depth and a focus on character-driven drama. It's a great start for newcomers and longtime fans alike to sink their teeth into. – Comic Watch

“It blends real world horror with the supernatural in a seamless fashion.” – Horror DNA

“ The Masquerade … is perfect for both newcomers and old fans alike, a blood-fueled and beautiful story.” -- Comics Bookcase

" World of Crimson Thaw ... thrills, terrifies and ups the stakes." - Comic Watch

“World of Crimson Thaw #1 thrills, terrifies and ups the stakes. Plus, it is delivering the fruits of some fantastic character work and design into a visually enchanting issue.” – Comic Watch

“ World of Crimson Thaw … blood-curdling chaos.” – Comic Watch

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Urban Fantasy, Vampires, Fiction

448 pages, Paperback

Published January 23, 2024

About the author

Tim Seeley is a comic book artist and writer known for his work on books such as G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, The Dark Elf Trilogy, Batman Eternal and Grayson. He is also the co-creator of the Image Comics titles Hack/Slash[1] and Revival, as well as the Dark Horse titles, ExSanguine and Sundowners. He lives in Chicago.

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one! and Minneapolis? Inspired choice of setting, ultimately.


Folks're real nice up in Minnesota, dontcha know?

[Mariah · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars

Cecily Bain is a Vampire enforcer serving the Twin Cities. She accidentally stumbles upon a recently turned vampire who has no idea where she is. Cecily decides to take this new vampire under her wing. In the meantime, there are several vampire attacks and an undercover plot to upseat the current Twin Cities vampire political body. Interwoven into Cecily's story is a group of rebellious vampires who eventually reunite with Cecily in the later issues.

I loved everything about this! This book captured the Twin Cities and the TTRPG pretty well. I liked Cecily and her story. Cecily's touchstone is her sister with whom she used to go to punk concerts. Her sister is currently in a nursing home for dementia and Cecily regularly visits her I think it would have been easy to write her as just a vampire bodyguard. Still, she has her humanity which I think is interesting to see her grapple with. There are several vampire characters in this including Calder, the Tremere who Cecily regularly reports to. There's Samantha Merrain, the current Prince of the Twin Cities. All the characters are interesting and how they shape the Twin Cities.

I'd love to see more Vampire graphic novels as I think the Vampire the Masquerade world is interesting.

[Carlos Adao · Rating 4 out of 5]

I already liked Vampire: The Masquerade (VtM) tabletop RPG beforehand, so it was easy to like this comics series. I dont't know if it would work for everyone.

For anyone familiar with VtM, the story is what many would like to see in a campaign combined with consistent art and interesting characters (even if most are kinda one noted). One can feel a crescendo and progression in the story that keeps the reader interested in the events. As a good VtM story, its strength is on the characters and an interesting setting.

The story has elements that I suppose are perfectly understandable for anyone reading, but would be just random words if you don't already know the lore of VtM. If I had to guess, at some point there was a briefing on how much introductory this series would be, because VtM has a lot of lore to unpack, and they decided to explain some basics and leave the rest as just "you don't really need to know this, but it's cool if you understood that reference." Also, the last threat to appear feels undermined by the change in the narrative focus and everything gets a lot more confusing with new elements being introduced without any explanation on why that should matter (I know what the characters were talking about because I played Werewolf, but I can only guess what one would understand based on this comics alone).

I can only say this comics worked for me because I really want to play a campaign of VtM asap after reading this.

[B.J. Burgess · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I started reading VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE, it reminded me of the short-lived '90s television series Kindred: The Embraced and I later realized they're both based on the old tabletop role-playing game. The comic book series takes place in the fictitious gothic-punk World of Darkness, which is in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota, and is home to immortal vampires known as Kindred. Known as the Masquerade, they hide their existence from humans for their own protection.

This edition includes issues #1–10 of VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE: Winter's Teeth and issues #1–3 of the crossover event series VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE and World of Darkness: Crimson Thaw. Each VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE issue had two stories: the Winter's Teeth and The Anarch Tales.

VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE: THE COMPLETE SERIES is a gory, terrifying story with a lot of bite, and overall, I liked it. The primary, overarching plot was brilliantly crafted and included much world-building. The graphics have a nostalgic early 1990s feel about them. I don't know if this was deliberate, but it works great here. I heartily suggest the book to other horror enthusiasts and vampire lovers. ╌★★★★★

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for this world

Great art and story to go with this World of Darkness setting. The inner goth in me eats this stuff up.

[Gerry Sacco · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a fan of this at all. The world I liked, of course, being a fan of VtM. But the execution was bad here. I didn't really enjoy any character, and the story felt like it plodded along most of the time. The second story near the end I felt was more interesting, but it was short, only a few chapters.

Also, the level of gore in this was almost comical. Not remotely necessary, even for the World of Darkness. Took me out of multiple panels.

[Jame_EReader · Rating 5 out of 5]

So excited to be hosting with @rockstarbooktours @vaultcomics on this The Complete Series Vampire The Masquerade boktour, and my tour stops here. I let my daughter read this because she loves Vault’s comics and this one is another awesome read.

👧🏻 review: this gothic graphic novel is packed with gorgeous and gory illustrations and the story is actually pretty good. There were some “sexy” images though and I let/showed my mom the images. The story is actually thrilling and suspenseful. I love horror and vampire stories, so this works well except that this seems to be like a time-travel to 1990s. Also the only good thing about this is that it is “complete” series so I can read it continuously.

[Oneiriad · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm sort of torn over this one. I quite enjoyed Winter's Teeth - very 90s World of Darkness, with pretty much everybody taking turns betraying everybody else and plots within plots, everybody's objectively awful and it's fun. But I must admit, I picked this up because my WtA-loving heart wanted the vampires and werewolves plot of Crimson Thaw*, and that was a let-down. Far too little time with the Garou to actually get to know them as characters, and frankly, the entire plot felt like it'd barely gotten started before the book went "done", and I was just - that's it? It all felt unresolved.

*I wonder if we can expect a summer and autumn themed sequel, considering the titles.

[Will Sorg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Currently a little obsessed with VTM so of course a graphic novel series set in Minneapolis/Saint Paul area would be something I’d devour in like a day.

Winters teeth is exceptional, Anarch Tales are fun and weave into the main plot great, Crimson Thaw was pretty underwhelming and short. Cecily Bain is further proof that the coolest vampires wear the John Lennon Sunglasses. I also really love that this complete edition comes with lore sheets in case you want to run a Vampire The Masquerade game with this setting and characters involved (I do).

[Aloysius Mergner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had a great time with this one. I love all things WoD, so experiencing it in comic book form. Cecily is a bad bitch and I enjoyed getting to know her as a character. I do have to admit the story does feel a bit rushed towards the end, particularly in Crimson Thaw.

As an aside, the covers by Aaron Campbell are gorgeous. There are quite a few I would love to have as posters.

[Kate K. F. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a solid 3.5 as it reminds me so much of playing Vampire though I found the modern parts oddly jarring. Since the art and fashion seemed very 2000s but then social media would be mentioned without being shown. Interesting plot though the main character felt more like a werewolf than a vampire.

[Fuzzy Buzzy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was intrigued by the description but soon I lost interest in it and I DNFed it. Managed 25%. Not for me. Hardly ever I lose interest in comics or graphic novels but this time I had to give up. No point of forcing myself to carry on.

[Stanley Reeves · Rating 3 out of 5]

art is sick and i’m pretty engaged with almost all vtm stuff but the writing here is often amateurish! storylines seem rushed towards the end as well

both of these are particularly an issue for the crossover event at the end, really doesn’t feel like it has room to breathe.

7/10

[Ziggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

the art is good but the story was kind of muddled towards the end

[Konstantinos Stavropoulos · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this house Cecily Bain is a hero