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Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Graphic Novels #1-2 issues #1-12
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures
Fusing mythology, werewolves, and vampires with a story loaded with mystery, action, and romance, the Anita Blake novels take place in a world where vampires, werewolves, and other creatures of nightmare have been declared legal citizens of the United States. Anita Blake is an "animator" - a profession that involves raising the dead for a living. She is also known as a fearsome hunter of criminal vampires, and she moonlights by investigating cases that are far too much for "conventional" police. But as Anita gains the attention of the vampire masters in her hometown of St. Louis, she also risks revealing an intriguing secret about herself - the source of her unusual strength and power. Watch as Anita goes up against fierce obstacles and is forced to make tough choices. What price will Anita pay in order to save her friend's life and solve the Vampire Murders? Will she actually kiss Phillip? How far will Edward go in order to find out where the daytime resting place of the Master Vampires truly is? Collects Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures #1-12.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
About the author
Laurell K. Hamilton
432 books26.2k followersLaurell K. Hamilton is one of the leading writers of paranormal fiction. A #1 New York Times bestselling author, Hamilton writes the popular Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novels and the Meredith Gentry series. She is also the creator of a bestselling comic book series based on her Anita Blake novels and published by Marvel Comics. Hamilton is a full-time writer and lives in the suburbs of St. Louis with her family.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
September 22, 2011
I've read all of the Anita Blake series (I have Hit List on my shelf but I've not gotten to it). And I've been mourning the early Anita and wanted to do a re-read of the early books. I love the artwork in the graphic novels so I decided to mix the two; artwork and the early Anita by reading Guilty Pleasures graphic novel.
The graphic novel follows the story line in the book version of Guilty Pleasures but the amazing artwork makes it even better this time around. The vampires are much scarier in the graphic novel than the book. After experiencing Anita in this media I will defiantly check out the others in the series.
I give the story a rating of 3 stars but the artwork gets 5 stars. If you are an Anita fan you should try reading her in this format.
The graphic novel follows the story line in the book version of Guilty Pleasures but the amazing artwork makes it even better this time around. The vampires are much scarier in the graphic novel than the book. After experiencing Anita in this media I will defiantly check out the others in the series.
I give the story a rating of 3 stars but the artwork gets 5 stars. If you are an Anita fan you should try reading her in this format.
July 29, 2015
Excellent adaption of the novel and very true to the story. Having just read the novel I didn't feel like the graphic novel missed any significant plot details and that's rare for any kind of adaptation. As a result, I'm thinking o skipping the two next novels in favor of the graphic novels just for the sake of variety.
The artwork: The characters weren't exactly as I had envisioned them in my head. For instance, the pasty paleness of the vampires was a little off-putting, and the scars were too visible/overdone, but nevermind, I can live with it. The graphic violence worked surprisingly well. All in all a very enjoyable read.
4.5 stars.
The artwork: The characters weren't exactly as I had envisioned them in my head. For instance, the pasty paleness of the vampires was a little off-putting, and the scars were too visible/overdone, but nevermind, I can live with it. The graphic violence worked surprisingly well. All in all a very enjoyable read.
4.5 stars.
July 23, 2018
Always love looking at this artwork. It’s a good thing I’ve read these books before because this cuts out character introductions and segues was to make the storyline flow better. Still enjoyable.
June 13, 2020
It was nice to see the characters realized into images as part of the graphic novel and see how close \ far they were in relation to my imagination of them.
April 29, 2015
Once upon a time, before the Anita Blake series became cheap porn with well-endowed vampires and werethingies, there was "Guilty Pleasures." And like many a successful fantasy/horror novel before it, Laurell K. Hamilton's breakout story has been adapted into graphic novel form -- the complete "Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures," with its surly inept heroine and indifferent artwork.
The story: Anita Blake is a vampire hunter and an animator, able to raise zombies from the dead. She also isn't too fond of vampires or weres, though St. Louis is swarming with them. So when a vampire comes to hire her, she turns him down. But at a bachelorette party, she soon finds herself hip-deep in vampire politics -- and a dangerous enemy who is trying to kill her. Things only get more complicated when she ends up facing the Master of the City, the deceptively childlike Nikolaos, and a dungeon full of wererats.
Her new goal: find who is offing vampires in St. Louis, possibly with the help of the seductive poet-shirt-wearing Jean-Claude. Despite discovering who the vampire murderer is, she immediately forgets the bad guy's identity and goes hunting through St. Louis' population -- Humans Against Vampires, the Church of Eternal Life, and other such. Since the plot is going nowhere, Nikolaos becomes impatient and gives Anita a little gruesome motivation -- and to stop both the vampire killer and the Master, Anita must team up with some unlikely allies.
"Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures" is a comic book that sometimes boggles the mind. It's hard to take a mystery novel seriously if the hero forgets who the villain is, and can't figure out what's going on unless the Evil Vampire Killer inexplicably unmasks himself. Laurell K. Hamilton's plot is just sort of oozing along, with plot developments and fights thrown in at random whenever things threaten to get REALLY boring.
Along the way, Hamilton tries to pad the story by having Anita run around blaming people at random. So she splatters torture, shootouts, nudity, tepidly erotic zombie-raising, and a big silly knife fight at the climax. To make matters worse, Hamilton's dialogue has the razor wit of kindergarten trash talk ("Thus he must die." "No!" "Oh, but yes!"). And by the end, the plot has completely unravelled -- the nadir is a truly hysterical conversation about zombie sexual abuse. Yeah, we totally needed that.
Brett Booth's artwork does not help either -- Anita looks like a parody picture of Angelina Jolie, with albino skin, ridiculously flowing curly hair that extends a good six inches in front of her face, and a case of massive thunder thighs (one woman's thighs are each bigger than her waist). Perhaps as a reflection of Booth's mood, Anita always looks bored. The other characters don't fare well either -- Jean Claude looks like an effeminate male doppelganger of Anita, Edward looks pervy, and Nikolaos looks like a Disney heroine surrounded by flying toilet paper.
But Anita herself is the weakest part of the plot: abrasive, smug, brittle and rather weak, as well as a total failure as a detective or a vampire hunter. Hamilton pretty clearly considers her a hardcore tough-grrl, but smirking, cowering and giving in to the bad guys does not make you tough. Even worse, she has the tiny immovable mind of the very stupid and stubborn -- when she decides someone is guilty, they must be guilty.
Most of the other characters are 2-D villains -- the cackling Nikolaos (think Anne Rice's Claudia), the tepidly Machievellian Jean Claude (he wears a POET'S SHIRT), the uninterestingly nasty Theresa, cheesy masked pedophile Valentine, and the mewling vampire addict Philip. The interesting people are also the ones that we spend the least time on -- the casual assassin Edward, the capable and intelligent Ronnie, and the king of the wererats.
The complete "Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures" is one of those graphic novels that drags on and on with little to keep you reading -- indifferent art, an obnoxiously dumb heroine, and a meandering plot.
The story: Anita Blake is a vampire hunter and an animator, able to raise zombies from the dead. She also isn't too fond of vampires or weres, though St. Louis is swarming with them. So when a vampire comes to hire her, she turns him down. But at a bachelorette party, she soon finds herself hip-deep in vampire politics -- and a dangerous enemy who is trying to kill her. Things only get more complicated when she ends up facing the Master of the City, the deceptively childlike Nikolaos, and a dungeon full of wererats.
Her new goal: find who is offing vampires in St. Louis, possibly with the help of the seductive poet-shirt-wearing Jean-Claude. Despite discovering who the vampire murderer is, she immediately forgets the bad guy's identity and goes hunting through St. Louis' population -- Humans Against Vampires, the Church of Eternal Life, and other such. Since the plot is going nowhere, Nikolaos becomes impatient and gives Anita a little gruesome motivation -- and to stop both the vampire killer and the Master, Anita must team up with some unlikely allies.
"Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures" is a comic book that sometimes boggles the mind. It's hard to take a mystery novel seriously if the hero forgets who the villain is, and can't figure out what's going on unless the Evil Vampire Killer inexplicably unmasks himself. Laurell K. Hamilton's plot is just sort of oozing along, with plot developments and fights thrown in at random whenever things threaten to get REALLY boring.
Along the way, Hamilton tries to pad the story by having Anita run around blaming people at random. So she splatters torture, shootouts, nudity, tepidly erotic zombie-raising, and a big silly knife fight at the climax. To make matters worse, Hamilton's dialogue has the razor wit of kindergarten trash talk ("Thus he must die." "No!" "Oh, but yes!"). And by the end, the plot has completely unravelled -- the nadir is a truly hysterical conversation about zombie sexual abuse. Yeah, we totally needed that.
Brett Booth's artwork does not help either -- Anita looks like a parody picture of Angelina Jolie, with albino skin, ridiculously flowing curly hair that extends a good six inches in front of her face, and a case of massive thunder thighs (one woman's thighs are each bigger than her waist). Perhaps as a reflection of Booth's mood, Anita always looks bored. The other characters don't fare well either -- Jean Claude looks like an effeminate male doppelganger of Anita, Edward looks pervy, and Nikolaos looks like a Disney heroine surrounded by flying toilet paper.
But Anita herself is the weakest part of the plot: abrasive, smug, brittle and rather weak, as well as a total failure as a detective or a vampire hunter. Hamilton pretty clearly considers her a hardcore tough-grrl, but smirking, cowering and giving in to the bad guys does not make you tough. Even worse, she has the tiny immovable mind of the very stupid and stubborn -- when she decides someone is guilty, they must be guilty.
Most of the other characters are 2-D villains -- the cackling Nikolaos (think Anne Rice's Claudia), the tepidly Machievellian Jean Claude (he wears a POET'S SHIRT), the uninterestingly nasty Theresa, cheesy masked pedophile Valentine, and the mewling vampire addict Philip. The interesting people are also the ones that we spend the least time on -- the casual assassin Edward, the capable and intelligent Ronnie, and the king of the wererats.
The complete "Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures" is one of those graphic novels that drags on and on with little to keep you reading -- indifferent art, an obnoxiously dumb heroine, and a meandering plot.
April 9, 2012
So this was a pretty good adaptation of the first novel in the Anita Blake series, I'll probably read the others due to this one being so decent. However I do have some pretty harsh critiques, mostly about the art because that's 80% what I read comics for. The first seven issues were drawfn by one guy, the second seven by another, I liked the second guy leagues more than the first. Not that the first one was terrible, I wouldn't have finished the book if he was that bad, but unfortunately he subscribes to the school of Jim Lee who I am not a fan. Adding a bunch of unneeded lines makes everyone look filthy, legs that are 2.5 times the size of the torso are unnecessary, and her thighs were as thick as her waist....overall completely annoying, the second guy at least had a sense of proportions while still maintaining the face so that the continuity of the book was retained, but I knew artists had changed before I went and looked up this book because of the increase in quality. I honestly thought that the artist has taken some classes and improved, but changing artists works too.
July 8, 2015
I totally enjoyed this graphic novel based on one of my favorite series. The story follows the novel but gives you that visuals that you always had to supply yourself. If you enjoy the Anita Blake series then you will definitely want to give the graphic novels a look. They hit the mark very well on their renditions of the characters. Going to keep reading them as long as they have them.
January 12, 2019
Trigger warning: graphic violence, gore
3 ⭐️
Did I just read a back ripoff of True Blood?
It's not that the story is not interesting, it's just that there's way too much stuff going wrong to appreciate the story. This is a GRAPHIC novel. Importance on the "graphic" part. As far as graphic novels go, this was way down the scale.
1. There's too much writing. If a page has more to read than to look at, it's not a graphic novel. It's a novel with illustrations. I'm sure at least part of the writing could have been forgotten without taking anything from the story, or at least illustrated. The writing weights down the story immensely and it becomes heavy to read.
2. The illustrations in themselves aren't great. I don't know if it's the way Laurell K. Hamilton wrote her characters, but each man looks like a romance novel model and they all either have curly or short hair. And every guy has a six or eight pack. Not to mention the way everyone has a V-shape body... At least try to make realistic looking characters...
3. Is the only insult in Anita's book "son of a bitch"? She repeats it on and on again at the end, as if she couldn't think of anything more original. Which is a sharp decline, since the insults in the first part were much more imaginative...
4. The amount of side-story is overwhelming. You got Valentine, Edward, Jean-Claude, Jensen... It's a lot and it kinda mashes up together and makes too much action for a single story.
5. Anita spends the whole story being scared shitless, but it doesn't actually show. She keeps mentioning how scared she is, but nothing in the illustrations proves that she is.
Basically, I was disappointed. It could have been a lot better, but it failed miserably. If it's loyal to the novels, I don't wanna read the rest.
3 ⭐️
Did I just read a back ripoff of True Blood?
It's not that the story is not interesting, it's just that there's way too much stuff going wrong to appreciate the story. This is a GRAPHIC novel. Importance on the "graphic" part. As far as graphic novels go, this was way down the scale.
1. There's too much writing. If a page has more to read than to look at, it's not a graphic novel. It's a novel with illustrations. I'm sure at least part of the writing could have been forgotten without taking anything from the story, or at least illustrated. The writing weights down the story immensely and it becomes heavy to read.
2. The illustrations in themselves aren't great. I don't know if it's the way Laurell K. Hamilton wrote her characters, but each man looks like a romance novel model and they all either have curly or short hair. And every guy has a six or eight pack. Not to mention the way everyone has a V-shape body... At least try to make realistic looking characters...
3. Is the only insult in Anita's book "son of a bitch"? She repeats it on and on again at the end, as if she couldn't think of anything more original. Which is a sharp decline, since the insults in the first part were much more imaginative...
4. The amount of side-story is overwhelming. You got Valentine, Edward, Jean-Claude, Jensen... It's a lot and it kinda mashes up together and makes too much action for a single story.
5. Anita spends the whole story being scared shitless, but it doesn't actually show. She keeps mentioning how scared she is, but nothing in the illustrations proves that she is.
Basically, I was disappointed. It could have been a lot better, but it failed miserably. If it's loyal to the novels, I don't wanna read the rest.
November 20, 2018
This is the worst book I've read in a while and I would 100% recommend it to anyone.
I read the Anita Blake series in middle school. Back then I hated leaving a book unread or a series unfinished, so despite each sequel getting worse and worse, I trudged along, hoping that my sufferings will end soon. By the end of the eighth book, when I finally gave up, the story mainly consisted of porn.
All that gets a million times more hilarious in a comic format. At times, the art style will remind you of good old Rob Liefeld and his many masterpieces of heroines, as our little Mary Sue goes through life (and her spooky supernatural jobs) attracting every hyper-sexualised superhuman in a 10-mile radius. Faithful to the genre, they all have one ridiculous name or another and look like 15 year old boys on steroids which is supposed to make the reader tremble in adoration.
The story is clearly written for middle-aged housewives, who are bored out of their mind and their husbands, but goddammit, I was laughing my ass of reading the first 15 or so pages I made it through before my brain couldn't take it anymore.
I read the Anita Blake series in middle school. Back then I hated leaving a book unread or a series unfinished, so despite each sequel getting worse and worse, I trudged along, hoping that my sufferings will end soon. By the end of the eighth book, when I finally gave up, the story mainly consisted of porn.
All that gets a million times more hilarious in a comic format. At times, the art style will remind you of good old Rob Liefeld and his many masterpieces of heroines, as our little Mary Sue goes through life (and her spooky supernatural jobs) attracting every hyper-sexualised superhuman in a 10-mile radius. Faithful to the genre, they all have one ridiculous name or another and look like 15 year old boys on steroids which is supposed to make the reader tremble in adoration.
The story is clearly written for middle-aged housewives, who are bored out of their mind and their husbands, but goddammit, I was laughing my ass of reading the first 15 or so pages I made it through before my brain couldn't take it anymore.
May 2, 2012
My first impression was that the opening frame is pretty perfect, it's a pale woman with wild hair, not overly exaggerated boobs and hips but very feminine and very strong, with a gun, and a funny zombie and penguin tee-shirt. It's Anita. It was a good first impression.
It had been so long since I read the earlier books in the series that I didn't remember the plot of this book almost at all, it was fun to go back to the beginning and revisit this early Anita and see how everything got started. And because I forgot that these graphic novel adaptations were coming out I was able to get the complete twelve-part series to read all in one very lovely hard cover edition from my library. This edition would definitely make a good gift for fans of the print books or the graphic novel series (a prequel came out already and several more books have come out since this one as well), it's quite a good adaptation of the story and the artwork overall is how I imagined things.
As I said, overall I liked the art. Anita was pretty but not too comic-book exaggerated. It is an on-going theme in the books that she has hips and and a chest, so that needed to be represented here, but it was done in a classier way, not a hootchy sexed-up comic book way. I did like the drawing for her better in the second half of the book after the new artist took over though. In the first have there were just too many times where she looked sad and dewy-eyed, or big-eyed and innocent. I like that she had some vulnerability and and hurt feelings, and fear and worry for her friends, she shouldn't have been Anger Girl all of the time, but the big-eyed innocent looks just didn't work when she should have looked pissed, determined, angry, murderous, scared, etc. it was too cute. The faces in the second half might not have been quite as pretty overall but the expressions were better and that's more important to me.
And both Anita and Jean-Claude's beautiful heads of hair and curls in their faces were a little overdone, especially in the first half and on the cover. It's pretty in an almost tattoo style, but too frequent and distracting. At a glance I frequently thought they had bugs crawling on their faces. And there was that one curl that's constantly between Anita's eyes, that was irritating, I'm surprised a woman didn't point that out in the read-throughs and make them change it. Any real woman would just brush it away, she'd never let her hair tickle between her eyes like that for so long, it would annoy her to feel
more than it bugged me to see it. And Anita isn't a normal woman, visibility is important to her, she wouldn't allow hair in her face that could obscure her vision. It's a small thing, but it's in so many scenes, it almost became a joke, it was very distracting.
Most of the other characters look pretty much how I imagined them. Dolph looks younger than I imagined, but about the same. Edward was about right, maybe a little too good looking, he's supposed to be more average to blend in. But it's the comics, after all, they like people to have an edge. Ronnie, Luthor, Phillip, Malcolm. Irving, all really close to how I'd imagined them. The only surprise was Raphael, the king of the rats, who I'd imagined much older and handsome in a more debonair way, I guess; I didn't expect him to be a young hottie. I thought he'd be a slimmer, more mature man. But the batting record is pretty good, considering that these adaptations usually leave the reader pretty dissatisfied with most of the "casting." It's clear how much Hamilton was involved in making sure that the books really reflected her vision of the story and it says something about her writing that it seems to be pretty consistent with so many of the readers' visions as well, her imagery must have been pretty powerful if so many of us are in agreement about how things should look.
As for the story, it stuck very tightly to the novel. They did a good job of adapting a long book to short episodes and still managing to convey a lot of information. It may be somewhat confusing to newbies, but if they're more used to the graphic novel format then perhaps it won't bother them. I'm still having some trouble grasping the format, although this was a pretty wordy and well-explained graphic novel, so I didn't miss much.
It was interesting to me to contrast this book to the Wizard of Oz graphic novel I just read. There really was a clear attempt here to contrast the lovely elements with the horror, both with the text and the visuals. Hamilton really wanted to show that all that glitters is not gold, to show the hidden darkness beneath some things that present themselves as beautiful and safe. The art reflected this contrast very well. They got the idea across much more than the Oz artist did, one of my complaints about that book. And this book knew the audience it was catering to better as well. It was kind of funny that they could have vampires and gore and people killed by guns,
and stakes and lots of violence, but you can't say "shit", it's "#%@$" because it might be classified as a YA book (like the one I borrowed was) and swearing is no-no in teen graphic novels, I guess.
So of someone asks why they should read this if they've already read Guilty Pleasures, I'd say that it's a different perspective on the story. Seeing it visually makes you notices things that can only be described in the print book. You see that Anita is shorter than the men she has to question. You see her scars, there day in and day out, whether she wants them to be seen or not. You see her femininity, easy to forget a bit when she's just a cypher on a page. And you see the penguins and the funny tee-shirts, a good contrasts with Anita's tough side. I definitely think that fans of the early Anita books will enjoy this if they get a chance to check it out.
It had been so long since I read the earlier books in the series that I didn't remember the plot of this book almost at all, it was fun to go back to the beginning and revisit this early Anita and see how everything got started. And because I forgot that these graphic novel adaptations were coming out I was able to get the complete twelve-part series to read all in one very lovely hard cover edition from my library. This edition would definitely make a good gift for fans of the print books or the graphic novel series (a prequel came out already and several more books have come out since this one as well), it's quite a good adaptation of the story and the artwork overall is how I imagined things.
As I said, overall I liked the art. Anita was pretty but not too comic-book exaggerated. It is an on-going theme in the books that she has hips and and a chest, so that needed to be represented here, but it was done in a classier way, not a hootchy sexed-up comic book way. I did like the drawing for her better in the second half of the book after the new artist took over though. In the first have there were just too many times where she looked sad and dewy-eyed, or big-eyed and innocent. I like that she had some vulnerability and and hurt feelings, and fear and worry for her friends, she shouldn't have been Anger Girl all of the time, but the big-eyed innocent looks just didn't work when she should have looked pissed, determined, angry, murderous, scared, etc. it was too cute. The faces in the second half might not have been quite as pretty overall but the expressions were better and that's more important to me.
And both Anita and Jean-Claude's beautiful heads of hair and curls in their faces were a little overdone, especially in the first half and on the cover. It's pretty in an almost tattoo style, but too frequent and distracting. At a glance I frequently thought they had bugs crawling on their faces. And there was that one curl that's constantly between Anita's eyes, that was irritating, I'm surprised a woman didn't point that out in the read-throughs and make them change it. Any real woman would just brush it away, she'd never let her hair tickle between her eyes like that for so long, it would annoy her to feel
more than it bugged me to see it. And Anita isn't a normal woman, visibility is important to her, she wouldn't allow hair in her face that could obscure her vision. It's a small thing, but it's in so many scenes, it almost became a joke, it was very distracting.
Most of the other characters look pretty much how I imagined them. Dolph looks younger than I imagined, but about the same. Edward was about right, maybe a little too good looking, he's supposed to be more average to blend in. But it's the comics, after all, they like people to have an edge. Ronnie, Luthor, Phillip, Malcolm. Irving, all really close to how I'd imagined them. The only surprise was Raphael, the king of the rats, who I'd imagined much older and handsome in a more debonair way, I guess; I didn't expect him to be a young hottie. I thought he'd be a slimmer, more mature man. But the batting record is pretty good, considering that these adaptations usually leave the reader pretty dissatisfied with most of the "casting." It's clear how much Hamilton was involved in making sure that the books really reflected her vision of the story and it says something about her writing that it seems to be pretty consistent with so many of the readers' visions as well, her imagery must have been pretty powerful if so many of us are in agreement about how things should look.
As for the story, it stuck very tightly to the novel. They did a good job of adapting a long book to short episodes and still managing to convey a lot of information. It may be somewhat confusing to newbies, but if they're more used to the graphic novel format then perhaps it won't bother them. I'm still having some trouble grasping the format, although this was a pretty wordy and well-explained graphic novel, so I didn't miss much.
It was interesting to me to contrast this book to the Wizard of Oz graphic novel I just read. There really was a clear attempt here to contrast the lovely elements with the horror, both with the text and the visuals. Hamilton really wanted to show that all that glitters is not gold, to show the hidden darkness beneath some things that present themselves as beautiful and safe. The art reflected this contrast very well. They got the idea across much more than the Oz artist did, one of my complaints about that book. And this book knew the audience it was catering to better as well. It was kind of funny that they could have vampires and gore and people killed by guns,
and stakes and lots of violence, but you can't say "shit", it's "#%@$" because it might be classified as a YA book (like the one I borrowed was) and swearing is no-no in teen graphic novels, I guess.
So of someone asks why they should read this if they've already read Guilty Pleasures, I'd say that it's a different perspective on the story. Seeing it visually makes you notices things that can only be described in the print book. You see that Anita is shorter than the men she has to question. You see her scars, there day in and day out, whether she wants them to be seen or not. You see her femininity, easy to forget a bit when she's just a cypher on a page. And you see the penguins and the funny tee-shirts, a good contrasts with Anita's tough side. I definitely think that fans of the early Anita books will enjoy this if they get a chance to check it out.
August 4, 2020
It's been almost a decade since I read the first Anita Blake book and I was excited to reread it in graphic novel format, but it didn't work for me at all. I didn't like the sequencing of the dialogue - which was hard to read in the correct order at times because of the flow of the panels. The artwork was beautiful and that's why it got 2 stars instead of 1. I wasn't drawn in and the story did not seem familiar at all to me.
February 14, 2023
Graphic novel artwork ranks high-enhances storyline.
August 10, 2023
I must say I really do love the artwork Marvel did for Anita Blake.
February 26, 2025
Gone to B ✅
June 3, 2014
I just finished the book. I love Laurell's writing in this book. I love the character development. I love the right balance of horror and mystery and darkness and believability.
I love Anita in Guilty Pleasures. Mostly apart from everyone else, she tries to act like she doesn't care about people's feelings, but... she cares about the important human feelings and struggles. You don't like what she said or did? Did it hurt your pretty wittle feewlings? Tough shit, grow up and suck it up... but when a person is being victimized or betrays her or humankind, she is there to risk her life for friends and strangers alike or to take down the bad guys, whether they're dead, undead or alive. She does everything with verve and gusto. She's loyal and brave and not conflicted. Once she sets her mind to a decision, she is fully committed and unapologetic. To use her words, "You don't want me as an enemy...".
Another character introduced, which I have an affinity for, is Rafael the Rat King. I don't want to spoil future books, but some of his personal traits which I most admire in his character are already coming to light. His integrity, strength, leadership and his loyalty to his Rodere are already brilliantly displayed even considering his brief appearances in this book. Rafael goes on become one I'd my MOST FAVORITE characters in the series.
How can I give a review without mentioning Jean-Claude? He's not "on screen" much directly, but his brief appearances are impactful and the side-effects of them, far-reaching. Although he looks like the atypical Vampire from Rice with his lacy, ruffled shirts and his leather pants and his knee high boots, like an undead Musketeer, he has the ability to appear dangerously romantic and "good" while still retaining the Vampire diseases of self preservation at any cost and a lack of consideration for anyone or anything outside of his goal-set. One thing that sets Jean-Claude apart from the Vampires introduced so far, is that he does not underestimate humans... especially not Anita which works greatly to his advantage.
I gave 4 stars and not 5, because I didn't feel like the world was as fleshed out as I'd have liked it to have been, but it was damn close. Also, I feel like there should have been a little more care and follow up as to the involvement of human law enforcement concerning the deaths of a couple of humans in the book. Seemed a little odd that human deaths received less police notice than a vampire death. Would like to have seen that brought to more balanced closure.
I love Anita in Guilty Pleasures. Mostly apart from everyone else, she tries to act like she doesn't care about people's feelings, but... she cares about the important human feelings and struggles. You don't like what she said or did? Did it hurt your pretty wittle feewlings? Tough shit, grow up and suck it up... but when a person is being victimized or betrays her or humankind, she is there to risk her life for friends and strangers alike or to take down the bad guys, whether they're dead, undead or alive. She does everything with verve and gusto. She's loyal and brave and not conflicted. Once she sets her mind to a decision, she is fully committed and unapologetic. To use her words, "You don't want me as an enemy...".
Another character introduced, which I have an affinity for, is Rafael the Rat King. I don't want to spoil future books, but some of his personal traits which I most admire in his character are already coming to light. His integrity, strength, leadership and his loyalty to his Rodere are already brilliantly displayed even considering his brief appearances in this book. Rafael goes on become one I'd my MOST FAVORITE characters in the series.
How can I give a review without mentioning Jean-Claude? He's not "on screen" much directly, but his brief appearances are impactful and the side-effects of them, far-reaching. Although he looks like the atypical Vampire from Rice with his lacy, ruffled shirts and his leather pants and his knee high boots, like an undead Musketeer, he has the ability to appear dangerously romantic and "good" while still retaining the Vampire diseases of self preservation at any cost and a lack of consideration for anyone or anything outside of his goal-set. One thing that sets Jean-Claude apart from the Vampires introduced so far, is that he does not underestimate humans... especially not Anita which works greatly to his advantage.
I gave 4 stars and not 5, because I didn't feel like the world was as fleshed out as I'd have liked it to have been, but it was damn close. Also, I feel like there should have been a little more care and follow up as to the involvement of human law enforcement concerning the deaths of a couple of humans in the book. Seemed a little odd that human deaths received less police notice than a vampire death. Would like to have seen that brought to more balanced closure.
April 21, 2014
The graphic version of Laurell K. Hamilton's incredibly popular Anita Blake series, Guilty Pleasures is an excellent introduction to the world Hamilton has created. Many graphic adaptations spend too much time "telling" the reader about the world rather than "showing" them; this is usually in an attempt to stay true to the original text. Guilty Pleasures does not have this problem. The story is adequately explained through narrative and graphic illustrations.
Having mentioned the illustrations, I would like to praise the illustrator highly. Scars are a key element of the story and Anita's characterization. The illustrator has a unique style for scars. Instead of raised and lumpy flesh, the scars are smooth and spiderweb like. More significantly, the vampire bites are not two pin prick holes, they are are ravaged and torn flesh leaving large and imposing scars. Its more realistic and greater emphasizes the danger and animal like behavior of the vampires.
Ultimately, I can't deny my love of strong female characters who are capable of doing what needs to be done and can admit to being afraid. Bonus points that her outfits are easy to cosplay! Black jeans, black wig, penguin t-shirt and a silver corss...I will be ready to raise zombies, fight vampires, and go to ComiCon.
Having mentioned the illustrations, I would like to praise the illustrator highly. Scars are a key element of the story and Anita's characterization. The illustrator has a unique style for scars. Instead of raised and lumpy flesh, the scars are smooth and spiderweb like. More significantly, the vampire bites are not two pin prick holes, they are are ravaged and torn flesh leaving large and imposing scars. Its more realistic and greater emphasizes the danger and animal like behavior of the vampires.
Ultimately, I can't deny my love of strong female characters who are capable of doing what needs to be done and can admit to being afraid. Bonus points that her outfits are easy to cosplay! Black jeans, black wig, penguin t-shirt and a silver corss...I will be ready to raise zombies, fight vampires, and go to ComiCon.
May 16, 2016
OK, I used to love Anita Blake. She was this strong female character who could handle a bunch of difficult situation and never let her friends down. To be honest, at the beginning I didn't like her chastity vote 'cause I kind of miss the romance part of the books. Then it all became about sex and I simply couldn't take it anymore.
So why did I pick up the graphic novel? Well, this is still the first volume. No out-of-the-plot sex here. In addition, I've read those books so long ago that I almost forgot everything about them. I needed to refresh my memory. Plus, the art seemed interesting.
And here we are again. Back in a St. Louis which populated by vampires and all kind of were-creatures. I loved that setting back then. I have to admit that it was difficult for me to image the kind of world those critters were living in and the artists kind of did it for me. I love the colors and the drawings in this volume.
You know, while I was reading this graphic novel I had the feeling that I was meeting again an old friend. And it did good to the rating, I guess. ^__^
I'll probably look for the other Ultimate collections of Anita. I still don't know if they plan to turn into graphic novels the whole series though. I have mixed feelings about this because I'm not sure I'll read past the eight or ninth book.
This one was good though. Glad that I read it.
So why did I pick up the graphic novel? Well, this is still the first volume. No out-of-the-plot sex here. In addition, I've read those books so long ago that I almost forgot everything about them. I needed to refresh my memory. Plus, the art seemed interesting.
And here we are again. Back in a St. Louis which populated by vampires and all kind of were-creatures. I loved that setting back then. I have to admit that it was difficult for me to image the kind of world those critters were living in and the artists kind of did it for me. I love the colors and the drawings in this volume.
You know, while I was reading this graphic novel I had the feeling that I was meeting again an old friend. And it did good to the rating, I guess. ^__^
I'll probably look for the other Ultimate collections of Anita. I still don't know if they plan to turn into graphic novels the whole series though. I have mixed feelings about this because I'm not sure I'll read past the eight or ninth book.
This one was good though. Glad that I read it.
July 21, 2016
I always enjoyed the Anita Blake Series and I was wondering if the graphic novel would do her justice. Well, I just so happen to love it.
Granted there are the money shot scenes that you see in just about any graphic novel with a primary female character but I like that they stay true to her body type and looks.
I do however think that the reading of these are enriched when combined with prior reading of the initial novels. Only because it is impossible to stick every single scene and nuance in a graphic novel or it would be impossibly long! There are small jumps and things said that I think only made sense to me because I read the novel. Unless they were intended to be little ++ for the initial fans. Perhaps, I only even noticed jumps because I read the novels first.
I can see the graphic novel be very good on it's own as well.
Granted there are the money shot scenes that you see in just about any graphic novel with a primary female character but I like that they stay true to her body type and looks.
I do however think that the reading of these are enriched when combined with prior reading of the initial novels. Only because it is impossible to stick every single scene and nuance in a graphic novel or it would be impossibly long! There are small jumps and things said that I think only made sense to me because I read the novel. Unless they were intended to be little ++ for the initial fans. Perhaps, I only even noticed jumps because I read the novels first.
I can see the graphic novel be very good on it's own as well.
July 16, 2014
I thought that this wouldn't be like a re-read since it was a graphic novel. While I love the Anita Blake Series.. I think that it lost some of its luster the second time around.
Anita is a kickazz animator who reluctantly takes a contract to find a vampire killer. There's a surprise visit from an old enemy and maybe some new friends in the snake pit.
This is your typical first installment of the best series ever type book. It starts off slow, but take my word for it, it really helps you build a relationship with the protagonist.
I admire Hamilton for always coming up with an ending you never saw coming without insulting your intelligence. This is a good series even if this installment isn't the best read. Graphics aren't bad either.
Anita is a kickazz animator who reluctantly takes a contract to find a vampire killer. There's a surprise visit from an old enemy and maybe some new friends in the snake pit.
This is your typical first installment of the best series ever type book. It starts off slow, but take my word for it, it really helps you build a relationship with the protagonist.
I admire Hamilton for always coming up with an ending you never saw coming without insulting your intelligence. This is a good series even if this installment isn't the best read. Graphics aren't bad either.
April 16, 2026
I can't say I recommend this. That's not to say it's BAD; the writing is functional, and the universe consistent. That said, I didn't find anything compelling about the characters: Jean-Claude just comes off as a generic Oh-so-pretty oh-so-sexy vampire, Anita's friends are too busy being stupid so that Anita can explain one part or another of the world to us, and Anita herself seems too busy letting us know how uncool it is to care about anything to actually get anything done. It's certainly not a "so bad I'd judge a person for liking it" book, like Twilight, but it's not something that prompted me to care about it. It is what it is, but what it is isn't something I wanted.
March 20, 2012
When we stopped by the library last week hubby found this book, so I decided to borrow it. I used to be a huge fan of the Anita Blake series, but sstopped reading after the eleventh book because I just couldn't take it anymore. But I still reckon that the first ten books were awesome.
I enjoyed the comic book version. Probably not as much as I enjoyed the book the first time I read it, but it was nice to actually see the characters on paper. The art in this book is lovely, too.
I enjoyed the comic book version. Probably not as much as I enjoyed the book the first time I read it, but it was nice to actually see the characters on paper. The art in this book is lovely, too.
July 26, 2012
It took me a while to really get into it. Not sure if it was the fact that I kept getting destracted or not. But once about half way through I was stuck like glue. Anita is someone I can really relate to, I mean other than the fact that she's a vampire hunter, zombie raising, partial detective petite girl with a death wish. I love that she is so bold and brave yet also gets the crap scared out of her. She's quick with the tongue, which can be quite humorous. Jam packed with action that just keeps going and going. Im awaiting the arrival of The Laughing Corpse now and cant wait!!!"
January 15, 2011
Anita Blake is the executioner...and she kills vampires...she DOESN'T date them.
I'm currently reading Bloody Bones, book 5 in Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series. The series is about Anita, animator and professional vampire executioner. The illustrations in this graphic novel version of the first novel Guilty Pleasures is simply stunning.
This is actually the book that turned me onto the series.
Highly Reccomended!
I'm currently reading Bloody Bones, book 5 in Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series. The series is about Anita, animator and professional vampire executioner. The illustrations in this graphic novel version of the first novel Guilty Pleasures is simply stunning.
This is actually the book that turned me onto the series.
Highly Reccomended!
May 9, 2015
I enjoyed this very much. The art is effective and Anita is a good character. The characters tend to have excellent physiques -- more than one would expect in the general population. This is just an observation; I am not complaining. Anita's origin as an animator and vampire slayer is never explained and there were some things that did not make sense, but maybe it's me for not having read the source novel. All in all this was a very enjoyable graphic novel.
March 20, 2012
So I don't care much for Anita Blake novels, but I really enjoyed the graphic novel version of the series. It cuts out the crap... i.e. the cheap romance novel portions, and keep it more plot oriented. Not to say some of the romance isn't left in it, it's just no longer the main focus. And yes I love her penguin T-shirts. I also really like the artist style, and Anita looks kickass.
September 29, 2015
I really like the writing of these books. These are such a quick read and you want to keep turning the pages. The characters are enjoyable and the plot is great. Please be aware, however, that the writing changes to much more adult contact and lots of sexuality in the series...be careful about getting attached if you are not interested in that direction.
May 23, 2013
While the story stayed true to the book, the art was not very good. Everyone looked the same. Everyone had the elongated super skinny body type that was just weird. All faces were the same except for a couple squiggles here and there. I don't think that the comic added anything to the story for me.
December 24, 2014
If you're a fan of The Anita Blake series, you will like this. It stays pretty close to the storyline of the book and some of the artwork was fantastic. The actual novel of this is kind of like an extended movie, while this graphic novel is the theatrical version.. you get the best parts but miss out on some of the details that made the story so good. Worth the read though.
January 31, 2014
Ah if only the books stayed like these earlier ones. I don't think we'll get many comic versions of the later books. Least not without a lot of black out pages.
But this one is an excellent retelling of the novel. Good artwork, well imagined characters and good details. If you enjoyed the novel, and like comics, you'll enjoy this one.
But this one is an excellent retelling of the novel. Good artwork, well imagined characters and good details. If you enjoyed the novel, and like comics, you'll enjoy this one.
July 5, 2015
The first book of the ongoing series, Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter.
I have read all current 21 books of the series and decided it was time to start over again since it's been years since I read from the beginning. These books are awesome, exciting, sexy and hard to put down. Still loving every minute of it!
I have read all current 21 books of the series and decided it was time to start over again since it's been years since I read from the beginning. These books are awesome, exciting, sexy and hard to put down. Still loving every minute of it!
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