Angel: Blood and Trenches

John Byrne's Angel #3

by John Byrne

In Europe, war ravages nations, but a greater darkness than human conflict calls Angel back across the ocean from his distant home in America - bodies of combatants found drained of blood, and signs of an ancient evil once more abroad in the world. Writer/artist John Byrne tells an untold tale of Angel's WWI exploits

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Vampires, Fantasy, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Tv

104 pages, Paperback

First published September 29, 2009

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

John Lindley Byrne is a British-born Canadian-American author and artist of comic books. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on nearly every major American superhero.

Byrne's better-known work has been on Marvel Comics' X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics’ Superman franchise. Coming into the comics profession exclusively as a penciler, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, and launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four (where he also started inking his own pencils). During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He also wrote the first issues of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

John Byrne gives us an untold Angel story from World War II where he comes in contact with one of Wesley's family members. The art is just John Byrne's pencils with the occasional splash of red when blood appears. While Byrne's pencils are great, better than they've looked in years, they are heavily shaded and overly busy for a black and white comic. The lack of color and inks on these heavily detailed pages makes it really difficult for your eye to draw out details. It constantly pulled me out of the story as I was instead trying to focus on what was was occurring in each panel. Drawing black and white comics requires a different approach to drawing comics, which Byrne didn't take into consideration. It just looks like an unfinished comic book.

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un John Byrne in gran forma, anche in bianco nero e rosso (Matt Wagner's Grendel docet).

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written and illustrated by the legendary John Byrne, Blood and Trenches is a stand-alone Angel story set during the first World War. It's very well done, a well-paced and interesting plot with some very well developed characters. The art is simply his pencils, without inking or coloring except for some red as bloodstains. I guess it's supposed to look extra-arty this way, though I don't think it would have been helped or hindered much either way; he probably told them that's what he wanted and since he was who he was they went along with it. (If he'd've asked for green ink on pink paper they probably would have said yes.) In any event, the art is very good as it is, and the book is quite enjoyable. It's nice to read a really good one once in a while that doesn't have a number on the spine!

[Ronald · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Angel story by John Byrne, his art is well suited to this dark dark world in black & white. His storytelling is good but not that superhero stories from ages gone.

I guess my serious complaint about the otherwise nice story is some overlap. I guess since this was originally a four issue series there was some recapping and that just reads weird in a trade where they remove the chapter/issue break.

[Christina · Rating 1 out of 5]

The art is just really bad.

[Daryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

The art in this book looks better than anything else Byrne has done in years. Shot directly from pencils, uninked, the details and shading really shine. The story is okay -- Angel fighting vampires during World War I in France & Germany. There's not much that makes it an Angel story rather than a generic vampire tale. The end of the book -- in fact, the very last word -- contains a bit of an O. Henry twist, but it's really just silly. Overall, it's a fun, fairly meaningless read, with beautiful art.

[John Michael Strubhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

The original vampire with a soul is in WWI Europe and having a good time saving the English and the Germans from vampires - one of which is Kakistos (aka Kissing Toast). It's a bloody romp and has a cute little surprise at the end. Mostly black and white artwork that is stylistically compelling all by itself make this worth the read. I read it digitally via Kindle/Comixology. The Comixology app works better than the Kindle app for digital comics. Why Amazon's own apps running on their own hardware are glitchy is beyond me, but that's the way it is with Amazon. Anyway, get yourself a pure Android 12+ tablet and use the Comixology app and you'll be a happy camper.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed this past tale of Angelus with a soul. This time he's facing off against the Germans during WWI when they weaponize vampires. He makes an uneasy alliance with vampire hunter, Geoffrey Wyndam-Price, to defeat them. Very well written and beautifully illustrated in pencils by the amazing John Byrne. Very highly recommended.

[Rob Marney · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Byrne considers this his best art, and it is some really impressive art that is still recognizable as the licensed Buffyverse characters. The story is a completely forgettable excursion into WW1 with vampires and trenches, but it's relatively tense because we don't know what will happen to any of the throwaway minor characters. Worth it for art fiends, not for Angel fiends.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't a fan of the choice to make this black-and-white. As a stylistic choice, red is the only color shown, but I've seen this choice made in other things enough times that I'm sick of it. You don't get many World War I stories, but this wasn't a really spectacular one.

[Bobby Nash · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this story from Angel's past. The clever use of pencil only art added a weight and tone to the story that I think made it work extremely well, especially considering the setting. I really enjoyed this one.

[Joseph Smith]

I’ve never seen an episode of Buffy, nor Angel, but the artwork in this book by itself is so dazzling it didn’t matter. You’ve never seen an Angel story like this, and in my opinion it is a collectors item.

[Jennifer Riggins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Angel goes to help out the allies in WWI. Beautiful pencil drawings with small splashes of red (blood) and very accurate likeness. Storyline good but not great. Good surprise I didn’t see coming. Maybe because was meant to be read as four issues not a graphic novel, I found it a little disjointed.

[Edward Petersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have rated it higher if it looked.... finished.

[Matty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay story but kind of hokey and not fully explained, and probably doesn't really fit into the canon. Not a big fan of the b&w art throughout, but the splashes of red were well done.

[The_Mad_Swede · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume collects the 4 issue miniseries Angel: Blood & Trenches from IDW, written and drawn by none other than comics legend John Byrne. It tells a story set during the First World War and will offer fans of the TV-series a look at Angel's early days after him being re-souled (the first time around), as well as a familiar bad guy.

It is a good story, well worth reading even for people unfamiliar with the TV-series or any of the other comics, but more than anything else it is a piece of beauty. Byrne has opted for scanning his pencils rather than inking them and have then gone for a greyish tone to the pages (creating contrast by whiting out snow, of which there is a bit) and adding the colour red wherever there is blood (of which there is even more), and the result is simply stunning.

So, if you even in the slightest find the concept of a First World War story in the trenches of Europe with the addition of vampires appealing... do not hesitate. This is highly recommended reading and ever so pleasing for the eye.

[Hayley (Gory B Movie) · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

The art is phenomenal. It's black and white with the all instances of blood in red. The story is less impressive. It's another Angel story set during WWII. Flashback stories into Angel's life are rarely interesting and stories of him during the Second World War have been done to death. To exacerbate my frustration, the action is convoluted. At one point curtains are opened to expose Angel to the sun but he survives by leaping out the window while enflamed, digging under the snow, crawling to a river, and then going under the ice. I imagine the ice and snow would increase the sun's intensity, not provide protection. This is just one of a few action scenes that are too ridiculous to be believed.

SPOILER ALERT

I also think it is in bad taste to include Hitler as a character in the comic. Real-life monsters should not be mixed up with the fantasy ones.

[Clay Fernald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Cool WWI Angel story written and drawn by the masterful John Byrne.
What's cool about this artwork specifically is that there are no inks, they have scanned the original pencils.
Lettering and the red blood are the only digital work on the page. Super cool to see John Byrne's pencils for a whole trade paperback worth of material.
The story brings back Kakistos from BTVS: S03E03 for a comeback as well as some familiar historical figures.
Great story, kick ass art. Accurate reference for the era. Well done, Mr. Byrne.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writer/artist John Byrne tells the story of Angel during WWI. It's a fun story, very much in keeping with the tone of the series. The art, reproduced directly from Byrne's uninked pencils in black and white, is gorgeous. Recommended for fans of Angel or John Byrne.

[Kirsten · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not a fan of black and white comics. I much prefer colored comics and the storyline didn't intrigue me, either. I'm not a fan of war comics, but I read this one because it was Angel and I'm currently working my way through the Buffyverse comics.