Silver: Of Treasures and Thieves: A Graphic Novel

Silver #1-2

by Stephan Franck

A rollicking vampire-filled graphic novel heist that will keep you guessing until the very end for fans of Bram Stoker's Dracula and Ocean's Eleven from award-nominated animator and comic book creator Stephan Franck

"Silver is so big, bold and juicy! I absolutely love this book!” —Bill Sienkiewicz, Eisner Award–winning artist of Moon Knight and Assassin



“There may not be a better original vampire comic book in America than Silver.” —ComicBookBin

 



"A dynamic, thrill-filled story— A really, really fun ride!” —Tim Sale, , Eisner Award–winning, bestselling artist of The Long Halloween




There are only two kinds of objects in this world. The ones that shine and the ones that don’t.

 

James Finnegan, master thief, only concerns himself with objects from the first category. Those objects don’t hide in plain sight. They hide in dark places.
When Finnigan loses his grifter gang’s entire fortune in a job gone wrong, he’s desperate to make amends. He stumbles on his chance to do so in the crypt of the Harker Foundation, where he finds a bar of pure silver and a notebook that tells of the Silver Dragon, an ancient, immeasurable treasure beyond imagination. It’s a tall tale, but also Finnigan’s only lead. To make up for what he’s lost, he formulates the heist of the millennium in search of the Silver Dragon. There’s just one the famed treasure is said to be hidden in a castle full of vampires.



Set in the noir-pulp era of the 1930s in a world where Bram Stoker’s Dracula is more fact than fiction, Silver is a genre-bending, rip-roaring romp that’s equal parts gothic horror and pure adventure. With its ensemble cast of misfits, beautifully sharp art, and whip-smart humor, Stephan Franck has struck gold in the first of this critically acclaimed duology.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Vampires, Comic Book, Fantasy

224 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 25, 2022

Reviews

[Pruett · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fun! I love vampires, and it’s always great to read a well-drawn comic. The script itself is perfectly serviceable. I don’t really care about any of the characters, who all feel stock, and the final monologues of each chapter felt very “I am trying to write a badass scene” to me, but the Mongolian twists on vampire lore were very cool. And, again, art!

One note— Stephan Franck draws every single female character in this book with a low-cut shirt and massive boobs, which is WEIRD. Every single named female character. Vampire, human, whatever. For an animator who’s worked on children’s movies like The Iron Giant, it felt very subconsciously fetish-y. I guess dude likes to imagine vampires looking like that, but all the Guy Vampires aren’t Stock Sex Appeal, so I don’t really get it.

3.5 star fun ride 🤷‍♀️ Halloween!

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Consider my low expectations wildly exceeded. Silver is black-and-white and with the chunky, oversized formatting that screams "not from a mainstream publisher!" Usually, that means I'm in for an underwhelming read. Not so here!

Silver has all the hallmarks of a good Indiana Jones movie: there's a smart, capable protagonist, a smarter, even more capable female companion, a rangy crew of fun side characters, and an easy-to-hate villain (vampires!). Oh, and Silver features a number of superbly illustrated heists. And a noir-style voiceover that actually works!

The plot is somewhat predictable, but that doesn't ruin the story by any means because it's chugging along at top speed. I guarantee you'll be swept right up into the narrative. The only major downside with Silver is that it ends on a cliffhanger. I wish I had the conclusion of this duology in my hands right now!

[Sarah AK · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love it when you find a random book on the shelf at the library and it ends up being surprisingly good. This was quite fun, and is precisely "Dracula meets Ocean's Eleven." Great art too! I'm legitimately stoked to read the next one.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephan Franck’s “SILVER: Of Treasures and Thieves” is a 200-page hardback graphic novel illustrated in black and white that collects the first six issues of a twelve-issue comic book run. The extra-white paper is sturdy, possibly a 70# or 80# stock which makes the artwork stand out. Franck says his art is influenced by the work of Jack “King” Kirby, I see more of Frank Miller, with a touch of Gene Colan. Franck’s layout style was honed, I’m sure, doing storyboards for movies like “Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse” and “Despicable Me.” As a pleasant addition to the book, Franck over the final twelve pages explains his panel decisions, usually comparing early drafts of a panel to the finished product.

The book is a vampire story. Although the storylines are completely different, for some reason I get an “American Vampire” vibe out of it.

The plot: Burglar James Finnigan and his two accomplices, Mullens and Brantley, plan one more heist before settling into retirement. Over ten years of thieving and investing, they amassed over 5 million dollars to split up. That was a lot in 1931. Unfortunately, as Finnigan was escaping the FBI on his last job, he lost the key to where the booty was stored. Fate gives him a book with directions on where to find a silver pyramid (I don’t know for sure, but it may be ten feet tall) in the form of a dragon. To gain another fortune, all they have to do is steal it. The silver pyramid is in a castle owned by one Drah-Khann. The castle, naturally, is in Transylvania (you know – the same country Dracula called home). The castle is normally sealed, but once a year for three days (uh - three nights) vampires come from all over the world for a celebration. Perfect time for a heist. If the vampires don’t get them first.

Finnegan, Mullens and Brantley add four companions – a vampire killer named Rosalynd Sledge, a nearly deaf forger named Mister Moineaux, a washed-up actor named Hamilton Morley (aka Ham), and a ten-year-old boy, Tao, whose talent is the ability to see other people’s near time future (but not his). And off they go to Transylvania.

I enjoyed the book. The story moved along crisply, with some surprises along the way. I have two quibbles. One, the book is the first book in a duology and ends just as Finnegan and crew have set things up and are ready to go for the gold (uh - silver). So I must buy the second book to see what happens. That’s why I tend to avoid most duologies and trilogies. My second quibble is when I went to buy Book 2, it wasn’t published yet. Bummer.

My rating is 4 for story so far, plus 1 for the production quality, plus 1 for the interesting explanatory material at the end, minus 1 because I can’t rate a book higher than 5 stars.

Rating: 5 stars

[Villain E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not complete in one volume. Reminds me of manga series pacing. If I knew that going in, it wouldn't have bugged me as much.

The art on the cover looks like Mike Mignola. I would say the interior art looks more like Eduardo Risso or early Tim Sale. Thin line and heavy black with a zipotone midtone. I'm a black-and-white art snob and I think some of the panels and pages are pretty good. But the further the book goes along and the more characters get introduced, the tougher it gets to follow.

Starts as a heist story. In the 1930's a team of thieves led by ye olde charming rogue steal an object which, while not supernatural itself, pulls them into the world of the supernatural. In this world, the events in Dracula actually happened and were documented in Jonathan Harker's diary. The thieves find the diary, find out that vampires are real, meet up with a lady vampire hunter and a clairvoyant boy, and decide to steal the riches mentioned in the diary.

[Matt Graupman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like “pulpy” is often used as a derisive adjective but, in the case of Stephan Franck’s “Silver, Book 1: Of Treasures And Thieves,” pulpy is the perfect descriptor. A throwback to the *ahem* Silver Age of noir-ish comic serials, Franck’s graphic novel about a thief and his ragtag band of accomplices attempting to steal a huge cache of silver from Dracula himself, pulpy is the best way to describe its old-timey charms. It’s campy and gothic, like “Bram Stoker’s Dracula;” it’s exciting and silly, like “Dick Tracy” or the Indiana Jones movies; it’s slick and clever, like “Batman: The Animated Series.” The best part is the art: a clean, Art Deco-y mix of Mike Mignola, Michael Avon Oeming, and Bruce Timm. I’m definitely down for Book 2.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I'd read this years ago in the paperback volumes (I know for sure I rwsd vol 1), and I don't remember buying this hardcover version but I have an affinity for everything Stephan Franck does. In fact, the HC vol 2 is on preorder even though I have those paperback trades as well.

Anyway, this is a beautiful edition. This heist-meets-vampires adventure is enjoyable all around. I love Franck's scripting and his art is gorgeous. It's hard to turn the page because I want to linger on each panel. There's some cool info on how he approaches that story and the art that was really interesting too.

[William O’Pomegranate · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a fantasy heist movie, this time with Dracula. Where does this rank in this weird subgenre? Well, it's better than the Godzilla heist comic and better than Zac Snyder’s awful zombie heist, but it's still not quite there.

A few panels have rough compositions due to visual clarity, poor flow, or awkward phrasing. There’s such a focus on making two characters badasses that they forget to give the rest of the heist characters a personality. About once in a chapter, something would break my immersion. For instance, how does one track down a drifter who is passing through a random small town from information acquired at a library?

That being said it works well enough.

3 Stars

[Nate Ru$$ell · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is pretty neato, love the themes and ideas within. Ocean's 11-ish + Ancient Vampires = a fun concept to really sink.your.teeth into...

The artwork leaves a bit to be desired, in my opinion. It's not bad art, but not my preferred art style. It feels a bit too minimal, compared to the richer story being portrayed, but this is purely a personal preference.

I think I will continue with the series, but we'll see! Definitely recommend giving it a whirl if you are a fan of: vampires, treasure, and heists.

[Marley Starr · Rating 4 out of 5]

This rules so much. The pacing in the beginning took me a little bit to get interested ngl, but once the goddamn VAMPIRES got introduced I was suddenly much more invested. A witty cast of thieves that bounce off each other like the gangs from Lupin III and Cowboy Bebop just sealed the deal of how much I like where this is going. I hope we see a little more character development going forward since we jumped straight into the action, but I’m eagerly going into part two whenever I can find a copy.

[Melissa]

I won this in the Goodreads giveaway. The art style was classic and well done. To be honest I was not impressed with the story line. Half way through I ended up DNFing this book. I plan on passing it to someone that may enjoy it more than myself. Since I did not fully complete the story I will not give a star rating.

[Scott Schmidt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked it overall, took a little longer for the heist to take shape than I would have liked, but fun once it did. Biggest gripe would be there are times when the art just isn't clear as to what's going on, which seemed to be mostly during the action sequences, but I still think it's worth checking out.

[Charles Eldridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! I loved this unique continuation tale of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Set in the 1930’s and populated by fun characters, the well placed tale has unique settings and interesting twists.

Stephan Franck is a master of setting a scene and reveals. His art and writing are so engaging. I sincerely hope that a 3rd volume of further adventures is in the works.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway. It has taken me some time to get to reading it so my apologies to the author for the wait. I really enjoyed this graphic novel! It was actually my first and I'd really like to read book 2. My son also read it and enjoyed it! It was very well written and drawn! we highly recommend it! Thank you again for my copy!

[Peacegal · Rating 3 out of 5]

While a bit difficult to get into, SILVER ended up being a fun and clever horror-adventure tale. The illustrations are done entirely in stark black and white--this adds to the noir feel of the story, but occasionally made it difficult to discern characters.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sneaky good, pulpy heist comic. It’s got a Hellboy vibe in that they are robbing vampires. It’s black and white with some cartoonier Mignola influenced art. Got the back half of this story coming up soon.

[Jade⋆｡ﾟ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super stoked to have won this in a goodreads giveaway. Loved the art style, was super cinematic feeling. Combined two of my fav topics: heists and vampires. Can’t wait for the rest of the duology.

[Alexis Kaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway and LOVED it. So unique and fun!

[Joshua Sloan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I would have enjoyed it more with a bit less paranormal, but then it also wouldn't be as unique.

[madivd VD · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous book! I can't wait for the next one to come out :)

[Zuuru · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty neat worldbuilding. I'm a sucker for Vampire nobility and class, so that's a cool element of the story.

[Matt Ceccato · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a part one. I am looking forward to part two.

[Serkan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pulp adventure in 30s with vampires and heists and Dracula. With beautiful black and white art. 🤩

[Clélia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Une bonne revisite de l'histoire de Jonathan Harker et des descendants des antagonistes de Dracula... A voir si ça se concrétise dans les prochains tomes