SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Vampiro: Rockabilly Apocalypse is a five-part comic series that features former WCW wrestler and Lucha libre legend Vampiro in a starring role. The comic is made by Masked Republic Comics and Massive Publishing with writer Michael Kingston, who is the producer of the wrestling-themed Headlocked comic series. Kingston has collaborated with multiple wrestlers to create both art and stories for the series.
This is not a wrestling comic. It is a mix of horror, rock & roll, and modern storytelling that features a wrestling character in an entirely new environment. The humor and violence reminded me of the tone and storytelling of the Zombieland movies except this is about a vampire waging war with various evil monsters.
In this case it is vlogger Austin Everitt, who is based out of Austin, Texas trying to get to the bottom of the truth behind the urban legend that is Vampiro. Things quickly spiral out of control for Everitt after he sees Vampiro play an event that only has 200 tickets available. The scarcity of the ticket drives the prices into the five figure range. One of them is purchased by billionaire tech mogul Maddox Mars.
Everitt pays a security guard to give him access to the back where he hopes to encounter Vampiro after the show. Both Maddox and Vampiro, who is picked up by his friend, a luchardora named Estrella Nocturna. It isn’t long before Everitt encounters Vampiro at his regular job as a security guard at a mortuary.
Everitt finds out that Vampiro is a vampire in need of his help. Vampiro agrees to do Everitt’s podcast if he will help him and he agrees to the proposal. It turns out that there’s more to Maddox than being just a billionaire tech mogul and from that point forward the comic is literally off to the races down Highway 66, as Vampiro wages war with Maddox with the help of Everitt and Nocturna.
The 48 pages of the first comic in the series fly by. The interactions between Vampiro, Everitt, and Nocturna are genuinely funny because of Vampiro’s glib one-liners. Artist Martin Pouso also known as El Terrorifico Dr. Napalm does an incredible job of bringing Kingston’s story to life.
The over-the-top fight scenes and gory violence look incredible on the page, especially Vampiro’s signature guitar which doubles as an axe he used to combat his enemies. Vampiro’s guitar, which doubles as an axe in combat, is especially cool to look at when it is in action during combat.
Reading the comic, I could not help but think that this would make for a great animated TV series and Masked Republic already announced in December that they were going to be teaming with Trioscope Studies in an attempt to bring the comic to TV.
I give Vampiro: Rockabilly Apocalypse a high recommendation. The art and storytelling are fantastic and Kingston did a fantastic job of crafting a horror story with a mix of over-the-top violence. Vampiro’s character is brought to life in an exciting way that I wasn’t expecting, as he is genuinely great as an ass kicking good guy with some funny one-liners.
The first three issues in the series are currently out now at your local comic shop or you can purchase them online at Massive Publishing.
You can write Sean with any questions or comments at pwtorchsean@gmail.com. You can also follow him on bluesky @seanradican.
You can check out a trailer for Vampiro: Rockabilly Apocalypse below:
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.