Comic Review: The Strain: Master Quinlan, Vampire Hunter #4

The Strain: Master Quinlan, Vampire Hunter #4
Writer: David Lapham
Penciller: Edgar Salazar
Inker: Keith Champagne
Colorist: Dan Jackson
Dark Horse Books
December 14, 2016
Genre: Action/Adventure, Horror

Format: FC, 32 pages; Miniseries

Read the comic! Watch the series!

Quinlan races against time to move the dwindling troops into place and support Tacitus’s surge against the Berber horde. Can he hold out against the vampire menace lurking in the desert and fulfill his mission?

* The origin of Mr. Quinlan from The Strain—by Pan’s Labyrinth and Pacific Rim director Guillermo del Toro and writer David Lapham—begins here!

Quinlan and his Roman soldiers battled vampire hordes in this issue. During the last hour before dawn, and later, when the vampires hide during the day in the desert.

The Strain: Master Quinlan, Vampire Hunter is a vampire tale that is gritty, bloody, with a taste of humanity.

5 vampiric sheep

Pamela Kinney

Comic Review: The Strain: Master Quinlan, Vampire Hunter #3 from Dark Horse Comics

The Strain: Master Quinlan, Vampire Hunter #3

Writer: David Lapham

Penciller: Edgar Salazar

Inker: Keith Champagne

Colorist: Dan Jackson

Genre: Action/Adventure, Horror

Dark Horse Comics

November 09, 2016

Format: FC, 32 pages; Miniseries

Price: $3.99

UPC: 7 61568 00065 8 00311

While leading heat-stricken and water-deprived Roman soldiers through the scorching desert to fight back against the Berber hordes, Quinlan uncovers a grave scheme that has the potential to obliterate his troops entirely.

buy from amazon

In this issue, Master Quinlan has fought with the Roman army against Berbers for five years. His commander is Tacitus, and Quinlan is his most trusted centurion. He would gladly die for him…if he could die. And though he is in the Roman army, he not fighting for Rome, who has not always treated him well, but for himself, a free man. More so, six years ago he learned through the other ancient ones like the Master that they needed him to learn so they could determine if he would be their ally, or must be destroyed. Thinking the Master had more to worry about than searching for him, Quinlan is told to lead some men to a pass to cut off a Berber army, while his commander would lead the rest to surprise the enemy. Quinlan would find more than Berbers though.

This is well written, keeping to historical accuracy, while giving us more insight to Quinlan and his past.

Review: Issue #1, Issue #2

5 vampiric sheep

Pamela Kinney

Comic Review: The Strain: Master Quinlan, Vampire Hunter #2 from Dark Horse Comics

The Strain: Master Quinlan, Vampire Hunter #2

Writer: David Lapham

Penciller: Edgar Salazar

Inker: Keith Champagne, Dan Jackson

Genre: Action/Adventure, Horror

October 12, 2016

Format: FC, 32 pages; Miniseries

Price: $3.99

UPC: 7 61568 00065 8 00211

Dark Horse Books

Preview

Now a champion in the ancient arenas of Rome, Mr. Quinlan finds himself up against the fiercest of all of the gladiators. But his chances of survival outside the arena are even worse, as the Master closes in on Mr. Quinlan after years of searching!

* The origin of Mr. Quinlan from director Guillermo del Toro and writer David Lapham—begins here!

The comic issue begins with  Mr. Quinlan as an arena gladioator in Rome, 55 A.D. At that time, he is known as Bellator Candidus, and almost undefeatable. But the Emperor is not impressed and feels his favorite warrior, Spiculus, will beat the white newcomer. Spiculus fought with honor, skill and dignity, something the vampire half-breed aspired to. And when Quinlan does defeat the other gladiator, the Emperor thinks he fights like a demon. It is at that moment a stranger appears—the Master.

It is great to see how Quinlan began with the first issue and now this second one. Hopefully, it will go all the way to the time when the Master first arrives in America on a plane, like the first book and in the TV series.

5 vampiric sheep

Pamela Kinney

Comic Review: The Strain: Master Quinlan, Vampire Hunter from Dark Horse Comics

The Strain: Master Quinlan, Vampire Hunter

Writer: David Lapham

Penciller: Edgar Salazar

Inker: Keith Champagne

Colorist: Dan Jackson

Cover Artist: Juan Ferreyra

Dark Horse Comics

Genre: Horror, Action/Adventure

September 14, 2016

Format: FC, 32 pages; Miniseries

Price: $3.99

UPC: 7 61568 00065 8 00111

The origin of Mr. Quinlan!

A vampiric abomination seeks to destroy the monster that sired him. Born as a mistake of a powerful vampire known as the Master and raised in the brutal gladiatorial arenas of ancient Rome, Mr. Quinlan must survive long enough to carry out his mission when his target begins hunting him.

* Go back to the beginnings of a popular character from The Strain.

* Watch The Strain on FX!

In this first issue, we learn the origins of the half vampire, half human vampire hunter, Quinlan. Like Blade the vampire hunter, he too can walk in the daylight, unlike the vampires in The Strain. His life began in his mother’s belly, as she and other slave girls were brought to the Master, now called Thrax. Thrax was a trusted confident of the mad Roman Emperor Caligula. Before he could finish her, guards came to get Thrax because Caligula needed him. Quinlan’s mother was already infected and changing and able to overpower her guard to escape. She gives birth to Quinlan, who grows like a normal child, except he has the vampire tongue like her and subsist on blood. Unlike her, he can hunt in the daylight and he doesn’t have the worms in his blood, so he cannot infect others. Thrax is chased away after Caligula’s death, but he searches for the woman and her child.

Dark Horse gives us the frightening horror, blood and darkness from The Strain, but this time, takes us into the past, adding a historical aspect to it. If you enjoy historical vampire horror stories, you will enjoy reading this comic. The Strain: Master Quinlan, Vampire Hunter could be called the bloody love child of Anne Rice if Guillermo Del Toro was the father.

I give The Strain: Master Quinlan, Vampire Hunter 4 sheep.

Pamela K. Kinney