What do you think?
Rate this book
Witchblood #1-10
Witchblood: The Hounds of Love
A non-stop supernatural action adventure bathed in magic, blood, motorcycles, mayhem, vampires, and an unconventional. 1,000 year-old witch named Yonna.
MAGIC IS IN THE BLOOD
A modern, Wild West road trip about a witch named Yonna cruising the Southwest as a band of bloodthirsty biker vampires, The Hounds of Love, hunt her scattered coven for the source of all magic: witch blood. From the critically acclaimed creators of The Modern Witch Tarot Deck and Long Lost comes Witchblood, a blend of action, lore, and Americana—perfect for fans of Buffy and American Gods.
MAGIC IS IN THE BLOOD
A modern, Wild West road trip about a witch named Yonna cruising the Southwest as a band of bloodthirsty biker vampires, The Hounds of Love, hunt her scattered coven for the source of all magic: witch blood. From the critically acclaimed creators of The Modern Witch Tarot Deck and Long Lost comes Witchblood, a blend of action, lore, and Americana—perfect for fans of Buffy and American Gods.
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 26, 2022
20 people are currently reading
397 people want to read
About the author
Matthew Erman
63 books61 followersMatthew Erman is a writer from Columbus, Ohio. Erman is known for his unique storytelling style which often blends humor and heart with the surreal and sometimes disturbing. He co-created the critically acclaimed horror series, "Long Lost,” and the roadtrip fantasy "Witchblood" with his wife, Lisa Sterle as well as being the sole creator for the sci-fi coming-of-age graphic novel “Bonding”. Erman also has written for popular properties such as Power Rangers and The Dark Crystal and has upcoming comics with Mad Cave Studios, IDW, and more.
You can find him online at www.matthewerman.com or in-line at your local Arby’s.
You can find him online at www.matthewerman.com or in-line at your local Arby’s.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 101 reviews
March 26, 2025
Near Dark meets The Craft. The plot could have used another pass through by an editor as it all doesn't connect in places. Still, I'll take a supernatural road trip through a Southwest of witches and vampires any day.
June 2, 2022
A bunch of unlikable witches, witch hunters, and vampires drive around Texas and fight a lot, making enemy-of-my-enemy alliances and constantly shifting allegiances because of convenience, friendship or love. It wants to be madcap, with lots of action and humor, but I just found it a miserable and boring slog littered with annoying little things like musical suggestions for chapters and sound effects like A RUSHING DARKNESS, INTENSE SNIFFING, CHAIR SQUEEK, GLIMMER SPARKLE, STRUGGLING, and BOTTLE (the sound of a bottle being thrown).
Lousy plot, lousier dialogue, and mediocre art with coloring that's all over the place -- from murky to garish to drab.
Lousy plot, lousier dialogue, and mediocre art with coloring that's all over the place -- from murky to garish to drab.
November 1, 2022
This was incredible!
A cool new story, with amazing art and sassy characters.
You know I love a sassy MC.
I fell in love with this right from the start and really hope there is another run done on this series.
In the mean time I will be perusing Erman's back catalogue.
A cool new story, with amazing art and sassy characters.
You know I love a sassy MC.
I fell in love with this right from the start and really hope there is another run done on this series.
In the mean time I will be perusing Erman's back catalogue.
June 20, 2022
The art of this was really cool but I had to give up because I could not for the life of me figure out what was going on. I'm all about showing not telling, but when you're doing fantasy and post-apocalypse, you need to do a certain amount of telling because I could not focus on the characters when everything else was just plain confusing.
November 27, 2022
This was Too Much, all the time, in every panel on every page, and it gave me a headache.
April 28, 2024
very pretty art style. kinda like if you wanted a fallout/bg3 crossover tbh
March 8, 2023
3.5 stars
Loved the premise (wild west, very long-lived loner witch riding free through Texas until she gets entangled with the Hounds of Love vampires who're hunting witches for their blood and powers) and the colour palette was A+.
Yonna was a badass character (all the main women and witches were) that I would've loved to see even more backstory and character development of. The Yonna-Paradisia relationship made little sense to me though, compared to the chemistry between Yonna and Atla.
I don't know if it was just me at the time of reading but there was something about this story that holding me back from loving it like I thought I would. There's a lot of partially-completed (but really cool) world-building and storylines... some of which I think the creators were saving for future volumes - but it's to their detriment for the first volume. Some elements really should have been fleshed out more and the pacing was uneven (slow in the first half, with a time jump and rushed battle in the last quarter). And this is me nitpicking but there was at least one spelling error and a continuity error (both of which were annoying to notice).
Paxton was a great villain though - I really REALLY wanted to punch his face in. Whoever developed his character and art was very successful there.
Overall worth the read but it had some flaws.
Loved the premise (wild west, very long-lived loner witch riding free through Texas until she gets entangled with the Hounds of Love vampires who're hunting witches for their blood and powers) and the colour palette was A+.
Yonna was a badass character (all the main women and witches were) that I would've loved to see even more backstory and character development of. The Yonna-Paradisia relationship made little sense to me though, compared to the chemistry between Yonna and Atla.
I don't know if it was just me at the time of reading but there was something about this story that holding me back from loving it like I thought I would. There's a lot of partially-completed (but really cool) world-building and storylines... some of which I think the creators were saving for future volumes - but it's to their detriment for the first volume. Some elements really should have been fleshed out more and the pacing was uneven (slow in the first half, with a time jump and rushed battle in the last quarter). And this is me nitpicking but there was at least one spelling error and a continuity error (both of which were annoying to notice).
Paxton was a great villain though - I really REALLY wanted to punch his face in. Whoever developed his character and art was very successful there.
Overall worth the read but it had some flaws.
August 13, 2022
Really love the art and character design and in theory I like the premise as well but I just felt like there was something that wasn't connecting with the plot. Got about halfway through and realized that I neither knew nor cared what was going on and decided to just flip through the rest to look at the art. Not sure if this would have benefitted from being shorter or maybe having fewer characters but I felt like I was getting whiplash with how much it skipped around and kept throwing in new people and plot points.
April 11, 2023
this was a lot of fun! i laughed out loud several times, and i just love Lisa Sterle's artwork. i will probably check out anything she does.
the wheels did start wobble a little bit in the second half. some of the panels felt chaotic, and i wasn't entirely sure what was going on. i did enjoy it though, and i would love to see an adaptation of some kind. (it even includes song recommendations for certain scenes! loved it.)
loved the Bill Paxton shout out, too. :)
the wheels did start wobble a little bit in the second half. some of the panels felt chaotic, and i wasn't entirely sure what was going on. i did enjoy it though, and i would love to see an adaptation of some kind. (it even includes song recommendations for certain scenes! loved it.)
loved the Bill Paxton shout out, too. :)
February 15, 2022
Sight, I might get blasted for this but I didn't get engaged with any of the characters. The story of conflict and worldwide power plays between witches and vampires was meh.
Maybe, what I missed was that this wasn't a feminist take on power. Because I kept expecting more storytelling towards women and how women manage power versus the same old men in power, men corrupting the world bit.
Maybe, what I missed was that this wasn't a feminist take on power. Because I kept expecting more storytelling towards women and how women manage power versus the same old men in power, men corrupting the world bit.
July 9, 2023
So good! A sassy rebel witch who's left the fold (for reasons I never fully understood), biking across the Southwest (or Texas, at least) with her raven and finding trouble accidentally with some vampires planning the end of the world as we know it. This story actually started out a little wonky, and I wasn't sure if I was going to like it, but the more characters I met, the more intrigued I was. Definitely a few flaws and some unexplained background/motivation bits--let's not forget the super random vampire on a bat who falls in love with Yonna out of nowhere? Little confusing. But in general, this had some really unique and naturally flawed characters, fascinating world building, and well-developed, interweaving storylines.
June 9, 2024
honestly what a ride. EXACTLY up my alley. interactive with song suggestions within the chapters ?? fantastic. also a lil otter??
AND HOT COWBOY VAMPIRE THINGS? <3
AND HOT COWBOY VAMPIRE THINGS? <3
January 8, 2023
Quick takeaways:
Protagonist(s): Unlikeable “quirky” witch
Antagonist(s): Evil to be evil “quirky” vampire
Plot: Save the world
Overall: C+
Thoughts:
Plot idea: Hero who doesn’t want to save the world is forced to save the world. Not an unusual plot idea in media.
Plot idea for this book: Quirky witch who is actually super powerful doesn’t want to save the world is forced to save the world from quirky cowboy vampire who wants to be a God. Interesting spin on that but I could not get into it.
The art is good. The original artist worked on the modern witch tarot deck which is a nice looking deck so I knew what art I was going to see here. There are some really unique character designs here.
I liked the explanation of the origin of vampires and witches.
Off the bat though, I did not like the hero Yonna. I started the book not liking her and ended the book not really changing my opinion.
I’m not sure why though?
Maybe it’s because I disliked she caused problems and never really owned up to them.
Maybe it’s because she came across as ungrateful.
Maybe it’s because she felt quirky for the sake of feeling quirky? And even then it was not quirky enough.
Maybe it’s because in situations like these, the hero not wanting to be involved usually is justified for some reason. Didn’t feel that way for Yonna. Leads do not have to be goody two-shoes and want to save everyone because of their chaotic good alignment. It’s actually more interesting if there is some hesitance about jumping into perilous situations while being morally ambiguous. I just don’t think it was executed well here.
The other characters looked nice but they weren’t especially interesting. I pretty much forgot most of their names already.
It also didn’t help that the story felt very rushed. I’m guessing the creators only had X amount of issues to get the story done. I think if it was expanded to more than 10ish issues it would have been better.
Overall, I see the potential but I just didn’t gel with it.
Protagonist(s): Unlikeable “quirky” witch
Antagonist(s): Evil to be evil “quirky” vampire
Plot: Save the world
Overall: C+
Thoughts:
Plot idea: Hero who doesn’t want to save the world is forced to save the world. Not an unusual plot idea in media.
Plot idea for this book: Quirky witch who is actually super powerful doesn’t want to save the world is forced to save the world from quirky cowboy vampire who wants to be a God. Interesting spin on that but I could not get into it.
The art is good. The original artist worked on the modern witch tarot deck which is a nice looking deck so I knew what art I was going to see here. There are some really unique character designs here.
I liked the explanation of the origin of vampires and witches.
Off the bat though, I did not like the hero Yonna. I started the book not liking her and ended the book not really changing my opinion.
I’m not sure why though?
Maybe it’s because I disliked she caused problems and never really owned up to them.
Maybe it’s because she came across as ungrateful.
Maybe it’s because she felt quirky for the sake of feeling quirky? And even then it was not quirky enough.
Maybe it’s because in situations like these, the hero not wanting to be involved usually is justified for some reason. Didn’t feel that way for Yonna. Leads do not have to be goody two-shoes and want to save everyone because of their chaotic good alignment. It’s actually more interesting if there is some hesitance about jumping into perilous situations while being morally ambiguous. I just don’t think it was executed well here.
The other characters looked nice but they weren’t especially interesting. I pretty much forgot most of their names already.
It also didn’t help that the story felt very rushed. I’m guessing the creators only had X amount of issues to get the story done. I think if it was expanded to more than 10ish issues it would have been better.
Overall, I see the potential but I just didn’t gel with it.
June 1, 2022
This is probably about 2 1/2 stars for me though it gets an extra bonus because it has which is in it I know everybody knows me is rolling their eyes this story I just had a hard time getting into I don’t know why they should’ve been something I really enjoyed which is fighting evil vampires and then I have to team up to take down even evil vampire this shit been right up my alley though I just didn’t really like it for some odd reason the artwork was OK I guess this is the second book I’ve read by this author and I’m not really all that impressed I know that sounds harsh but it’s just my personal feeling
December 22, 2023
This book was really mid. It caught my eye with the colorful cover and I will give it that the art and the characters all looked so good and unique. But the story fell short because it was really hard to follow. That was a mix of the fast pace, the graphic novel format, and just confusing elements overall. It got a bit better in the second half but I still wasn’t a huge fan. I’m just glad it was short so I could get through it quickly.
April 15, 2022
Plot is a little wobbly, but I would read gibberish for Lisa Sterle’s art.
June 3, 2022
Okay okay. I had high hopes for this, but it ended up being ok. I LOVED the art, and how different the story was, but it felt….spread out???
August 7, 2022
Should have listened to the friend who loaned me this but eeeh at least the art was pretty?
August 20, 2022
It took a bit to get into but by the end I was absolutely hooked!!
September 1, 2022
Pretty disjointed but the art was dope
July 9, 2023
The designs in this book are so tailor made for my tastes. Literally every single character knocks it out of the park. However I did find it hard to get into, specifically because of how confusing everything is at the beginning. I only really started to enjoy when all the lore felt explained and the plot actually made sense. A couple pacing issues, but loved a lot of the themes and story arcs conceptually.
July 31, 2025
I don’t know. It took me longer than it should have to finish this one just because nothing grabbed me. I think it was a little slow and none of the characters stood out to me. The plot and characters were definitely a bit of older fantasy vibes with common archetypes. The art was good but I felt like the panels and speech bubbles had lazy placement with nothing really out of the box. It was a bit typical in all honesty. There was nothing outrageously bad but nothing that really stood out.
November 11, 2022
It took me an extra second to really get into this and it was way more complex than I was expecting but I really, really liked it. The characters especially did it for me; Yonna, Atla, and Big Red are a dream trio.
“Once upon a time…there was a man who ruled the world. Until a woman came…and stuck a sword in his gut. And the man that ruled the world died”
“Once upon a time…there was a man who ruled the world. Until a woman came…and stuck a sword in his gut. And the man that ruled the world died”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 12, 2025
3.9 rounded up
First of all, the art? Immaculate. love the use of color, they way it pops, the style of it all, just gorgeous.
For the story, I never though about combining westerns with witches and vampires but it's a cool concept! I think overall the execution was alright.
Now there are things that I wish would've been developed more, some parts focused on, and at the end there (trying to be vauge for spoilers sake) there was one loose end that I wish was tied up or dived into more with one of the characters (if you know you know).
Overall, if there was a volume 2 I would definitely continue the series, so I think this would be something I could easily pick up again.
First of all, the art? Immaculate. love the use of color, they way it pops, the style of it all, just gorgeous.
For the story, I never though about combining westerns with witches and vampires but it's a cool concept! I think overall the execution was alright.
Now there are things that I wish would've been developed more, some parts focused on, and at the end there (trying to be vauge for spoilers sake) there was one loose end that I wish was tied up or dived into more with one of the characters (if you know you know).
Overall, if there was a volume 2 I would definitely continue the series, so I think this would be something I could easily pick up again.
dnf-dungeon
October 1, 2022Well… this is disappointing.
The artwork is lovely and very colourful! The story is just… lacking? I’ve read about 25% of the books and I could not care less about the story or the characters.
The artwork is lovely and very colourful! The story is just… lacking? I’ve read about 25% of the books and I could not care less about the story or the characters.
May 4, 2023
It was like a neon American Vampire. The artwork and character designs were gorgeous and the book even offers recommended music to play during fight scenes; how cool is that???!!!!
October 19, 2025
LOVED this!
March 9, 2023
Pros:
- "Witchblood: Hounds of Love" is a collected work that brings together ten volumes. Not only was it convenient to read the entirety of the story in one place, it was cool that each of the individual volume covers were included as extras.
- This is the first time in recent memory that a story has included recommended listening (from Stairway to Heavy to Paint it Black). I found this inclusion novel.
- Generally speaking, I enjoyed the art style (even if the character designs sometimes looked like they were being drawn from different genres; immediately comes to mind in this regard).
- The story throws a lot of ideas at the wall; I certainly can't say it lacks creativity.
Cons:
- The climax felt a bit anti-climatic. It had emotional heft, sure, but but I felt it was lacking a bit in spectacle.
- On one hand, I can appreciate a story that has an ending that's open to interpretation. On the other hand, I can't say that's what happened here. Instead of, "leaving the mystery alive," the story is introducing new problems and plot threads even as things are wrapping up. I guess this is good if they ever decide to make a sequel, but I found it a bit annoying since I was hoping for a more self-contained work. Also, the whole felt hackneyed.
- Moreover, with regards to the ending: .
- (nit-pick) It's not clear to me how regular humans (not "hex hunters") fit into the narrative. Are witches and the paranormal a secret? How did the world react to ? The work doesn't address this.
- (nit-pick) There are occasionally panels that look way less detailed than the panels around them.
Conclusion:
"Witchblood" may be a mess, but it's a fun mess. It threw a lot of ideas at the wall and not all of them stuck. Still, it's a mix of action, paranormal, and worldbuilding that is sure to please fans of supernatural comics. I'm getting a bit of "The Wicked and the Divine" and "Squad," so if you liked either of those this one is worth a try.
- "Witchblood: Hounds of Love" is a collected work that brings together ten volumes. Not only was it convenient to read the entirety of the story in one place, it was cool that each of the individual volume covers were included as extras.
- This is the first time in recent memory that a story has included recommended listening (from Stairway to Heavy to Paint it Black). I found this inclusion novel.
- Generally speaking, I enjoyed the art style (even if the character designs sometimes looked like they were being drawn from different genres; immediately comes to mind in this regard).
- The story throws a lot of ideas at the wall; I certainly can't say it lacks creativity.
Cons:
- The climax felt a bit anti-climatic. It had emotional heft, sure, but but I felt it was lacking a bit in spectacle.
- On one hand, I can appreciate a story that has an ending that's open to interpretation. On the other hand, I can't say that's what happened here. Instead of, "leaving the mystery alive," the story is introducing new problems and plot threads even as things are wrapping up. I guess this is good if they ever decide to make a sequel, but I found it a bit annoying since I was hoping for a more self-contained work. Also, the whole felt hackneyed.
- Moreover, with regards to the ending: .
- (nit-pick) It's not clear to me how regular humans (not "hex hunters") fit into the narrative. Are witches and the paranormal a secret? How did the world react to ? The work doesn't address this.
- (nit-pick) There are occasionally panels that look way less detailed than the panels around them.
Conclusion:
"Witchblood" may be a mess, but it's a fun mess. It threw a lot of ideas at the wall and not all of them stuck. Still, it's a mix of action, paranormal, and worldbuilding that is sure to please fans of supernatural comics. I'm getting a bit of "The Wicked and the Divine" and "Squad," so if you liked either of those this one is worth a try.
July 17, 2022
I liked the art a lot. And, while I know it’s an itty-bitty little thing, I cannot tell you how much I loved that Yonna had armpit hair! I liked some of the way the world is changed. Women in the confessionals and Mother Superiors giving orders, for example. It also blends humor and horror, with a punk-ish dystopian Wild West vibe. If I say it felt super Tank Girl-like, will I be showing my age too much? Actually, now that I’ve said that, Lori Petty would make a great Yonna, IMO.
But the whole things sags on story. I wouldn’t say I disliked it. But I wasn’t blown away by it for a few reasons. For one, the pacing is off. It meanders through the first half and then rushes through the second, where arguably the more important action happens.
But the real issue for me is that here you have a story full of powerful women— a female deity, all of her female witch descendants, some female hex hunters, and a female vampire with important knowledge. But the story hinges on a man. The vampire with knowledge doesn’t use it herself. Noooo, she gives it to a man. And he becomes the cliched villain while she clings wordlessly to his back through out the story. Where this graphic novel had an open opportunity to do something interesting, it instead trod the dull, well-worn path. It just felt cheap and unoriginal.
All in all, I’d call this a middle of the road read. I merely enjoyed the graphic part more than the novel part.
But the whole things sags on story. I wouldn’t say I disliked it. But I wasn’t blown away by it for a few reasons. For one, the pacing is off. It meanders through the first half and then rushes through the second, where arguably the more important action happens.
But the real issue for me is that here you have a story full of powerful women— a female deity, all of her female witch descendants, some female hex hunters, and a female vampire with important knowledge. But the story hinges on a man. The vampire with knowledge doesn’t use it herself. Noooo, she gives it to a man. And he becomes the cliched villain while she clings wordlessly to his back through out the story. Where this graphic novel had an open opportunity to do something interesting, it instead trod the dull, well-worn path. It just felt cheap and unoriginal.
All in all, I’d call this a middle of the road read. I merely enjoyed the graphic part more than the novel part.
September 1, 2025
I bought this graphic novel at the Vault booth during NY Comic Con 2023 and I'm just getting around to finishing it. Here's why:
🤔Confusion - I remember popping it open and being excited to dive in but then feeling very confused. When I picked it back up a few days ago the confusion kind of persisted but I pushed through. Now that I've completed reading this, I don't know if this is a great book or a terrible book so I'm walking the middle road. Again, here's why:
1. Artwork🎨: I like the visuals, especially the color palette chosen. I think it worked well with the characters. However, the red pieces (I won't say why/where because...spoilers) kind of washed those pages out.
2. Diverse Characters👥: The characters were broad spectrum diverse and I always appreciate that.
3. Story📰: The story itself had a lot going on and felt almost as if it was a hodge podge of different stories fighting to create one cohesive narrative. That being said, it kind of held my attention when I decided to simply embrace the chaos.
"Death can be as joyous as birth; for it is the end of a long journey."
🤔Confusion - I remember popping it open and being excited to dive in but then feeling very confused. When I picked it back up a few days ago the confusion kind of persisted but I pushed through. Now that I've completed reading this, I don't know if this is a great book or a terrible book so I'm walking the middle road. Again, here's why:
1. Artwork🎨: I like the visuals, especially the color palette chosen. I think it worked well with the characters. However, the red pieces (I won't say why/where because...spoilers) kind of washed those pages out.
2. Diverse Characters👥: The characters were broad spectrum diverse and I always appreciate that.
3. Story📰: The story itself had a lot going on and felt almost as if it was a hodge podge of different stories fighting to create one cohesive narrative. That being said, it kind of held my attention when I decided to simply embrace the chaos.
"Death can be as joyous as birth; for it is the end of a long journey."
Displaying 1 - 30 of 101 reviews