The Complete Bite Club

Bite Club #1-2

by Howard Chaykin, David Tischman, David Hahn (Illustrator)

A blood curdling collection that includes both the original critically acclaimed Bite Club series and its sequel Bite Vampire Crime Unit features the Del Toros, a beautiful, rich, and immortal vampire clan that has run organized crime in Miami for nearly a century.

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

272 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2007

About the author

Howard Victor Chaykin is an American comic book artist and writer. Chaykin's influences include his one-time employer and mentor, Gil Kane, and the mid-20th century illustrators Robert Fawcett and Al Parker.

Reviews

[J. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Shortly before reading this, my wife and I watched the new Netflix movie Bright, a "gritty" cop movie set in a fantasy world. It's an odd movie, full of weird hits and misses, but a big complaint I had was that, while it seemed to have figured out how the proposed world should work, it didn't really affect the plot, a pretty straightforward affair. This book makes the same disappointing error. Aalleged as a vampire-mobsters story, it is really just a mobsters story. In fact, you could easily remove the 'vampire' aspect of the story without really changing anything important in the plot. Since I don't really care about mob movies or books, this didn't really leave me much to enjoy.

It has a couple more glaring flaws, as well: it's pretty boring, so that I barely made it through it; the narration is ever-present and not always very well done; there's lots of unnecessary T&A (which I see as a trashy flaw); and the story telling is pretty choppy, particularly closer to the end. Also, while both stories lead up towards big finales, in both cases these are pretty understated and underwhelming.

Overall, unless you really like mob tales, I just don't think this has much to offer.

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Vapid, banal, and completely forgettable...and not in a good way.

[ash · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think graphic novels are becoming more easy for me to understand (or maybe I'm just picking better ones). This one had a great story line and great art. I liked the raunchiness too; gotta say I'm a fan of the raunch.

[Zachary King · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a real slog to read. I liked the coloring in the art, but the story was nasty and overloaded with double-crosses. The writers could have made the vampirism a more integrated part of the world-building, but it’s more a curiosity than a plot point.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good premise that never paid off, with far to many questions and not enough answers. To make things worse, in the second volume, where stories are supposed to get bigger since the groundwork is already laid, the scope narrows and the story gets muddy.

[Reyel2107 · Rating 4 out of 5]

could be better , amazing covers !!!!!

[Whatcha Reading Heather? · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a 3.5/5 stars.

I really want this to be a tv series because I think that a lot can be expanded plot wise. Overall, I liked the premise and the characters.

[Chris Stephens · Rating 3 out of 5]

choppy and lacking depth.
tries very hard to be edgy.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

The cover gallery at the end convinced me that Frank Quietly should never do anything but covers of a much more raunchy nature than he does on the capes and tights books.

This a raunchy and hard-boiled collection that may have other contributors but feels like classic Chaykin. There's graphic sex and nudity, vampires, and a Jewish character for comic relief and kicking ass.

This book is going to have a limited audience but luckily I'm part of that audience and am glad to have stumbled upon this book.

[Jon · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you like vampires, you might want to pick this one up. The first series collected in here had some interesting characters, but I never really liked how they developed. The second story/series collected is better on this front, but shorter.[return][return][return]It's been a while since between when I read this and reviewed it. Main overall thing I kind of remember is being a bit disappointed.

[A. Nixon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was great. They really created the vampire-inhabited universe quite well. It was a fun read, great art. Definitely something I enjoyed and will read again. Great fun if you're into vampires or graphic novels or both!

[Reetta Saine]

Näppärä vampyyri-mafiosotarina, jossa juoneen oli käytetty paukkuja oikein tosissaan. Jos tapanani olisi revitellä naiskuvilla, sanoisin tästä jotain, mutta jätetään ballcrusher tekemään sitä, missä hän on paras...

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

[Meriba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entretenido, realmente me gusto. Pero siento que el personaje de Leto hubiera terminado de forma mejor. Aún así Risa era genial.

[Sterlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an AWESOME comic. It was a great mix of Vampire Culture; Mafia Crime Families; and Nitty-Gritty Police Business... A must read for comic fans!

[Kris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read all of these, and have all of these, as the original comics and not the trade paperback.

[Onírica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Correcto, sin más. No añade nada nuevo a los géneros en los que se enmarca: terror y policíaco. Las historias que contiene se han contado mil veces, y aquí no se esfuerzan por hacerlas atractivas.

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listen to my review at http://vforvertigo.blogspot.com episode 54.

[Cha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed opinions. Some wasted potential that didn't quite pay off. Some potentially interesting characters that never quite had the time and space to develop. For a trashy comic about vampires we're doing pretty well here though.