World Famous Comics: Baltimore,: Or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire
Baltimore,: Or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire
By: Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden Publisher: Spectra Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: Spectra Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 304 Publication Date: August 28, 2007 Release Date: August 28, 2007
Product Description: From celebrated comic artist Mike Mignola and award-winning novelist Christopher Golden comes a work of gothic storytelling like no other. Reminiscent of the illustrated tales of old, here is a lyrical, atmospheric novel of the paranormal—and a chilling allegory for the nature of war.
“Why do dead men rise up to torment the living?” Captain Henry Baltimore asks the malevolent winged creature. The vampire shakes its head. “It was you called us. All of you, with your war. The roar of your cannons shook us from our quiet graves…. You killers. You berserkers…. You will never be rid of us now.”
When Lord Henry Baltimore awakens the wrath of a vampire on the hellish battlefields of World War I, the world is forever changed. For a virulent plague has been unleashed—a plague that even death cannot end.
Now the lone soldier in an eternal struggle against darkness, Baltimore summons three old friends to a lonely inn—men whose travels and fantastical experiences incline them to fully believe in the evil that is devouring the soul of mankind.
As the men await their old friend, they share their tales of terror and misadventure, and contemplate what part they will play in Baltimore’s timeless battle. Before the night is through, they will learn what is required to banish the plague—and the creature who named Baltimore his nemesis—once and for all.
BALTIMORE by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire is an illustrated gothic horror novel by Christopher Golden and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. This is the tale of Captain Baltimore, who encounters a vampire in World War I, and of his three friends, who meet and share their own experiences of gothic horror while they wait for him.
Thusly this volume is, more or less, a bunch of smaller tales that are connected. Many of them draw heavily on folklore, which is vintage Mignola. And most of them are entertaining, although some are fairly predictable. None, however, is more predictable as the novel's climax and ending, which also manages to be rather anticlimactic. On top of this, the characters are not particularly well developed.
While the story is lackluster at times, the authors have done an excellent job with the tone. The writing, while overwrought at times, captures the gothic horror atmosphere for nearly the entire novel.
Mignola does the illustrations here. They are stark, black and white pieces, often extreme close-ups of objects, that do much more to help set the mood of the novel in a general way than specifically depict any particular scene. So even if the art is somewhat underwhelming, it still works.
A work of gothic horror like this cannot help but address religion. In Baltimore, faith is weak, and Christianity seems particularly neutered. The authors have thrown religion by the wayside in favor of hack-and-slash encounters with the supernatural.
Baltimore, then, is a decent but unspectacular gothic horror novel. It should appeal to fans of that genre, as well as fans of the authors, but probably not beyond that.
Is it good yet? Is it good yet? Might as well start off with the background -- I love Mignola's art and writing, and when I saw this title and the plethora of raving reviews that came with it, I one-clicked it so fast it made my head spin. It came in the mail and I ripped the package open, plopped down on my bed...
...and began several hundred pages of monotonous disappointment.
While Mignola's woodcuts are beautiful (as well as few and far between), they don't excuse a meandering story of poorly-described fantasy and vapid, indistinct characters. Despite the book's format -- three acquaintances exchanging stories with chapter-by-chapter switches in narrator -- the novel is carried by a single, somewhat uninteresting voice. The characters are indistinguishable, and none of them are particularly good at telling stories. I felt also that the reading level was far beneath the book's content, and the authors leaned heavily on a restricted vocabulary to establish time and place.
Yet, as a Mignola apologist, I read the whole thing. On the toilet. With each turned page I lied to myself -- "It's about to get good -- I can feel it!" -- and eventually, mercifully, the story ended. I kid you not, the only way I was able to make it through the entire novel was by convincing myself that it was "about to get good", page by page, for the duration.
This is not to say that Baltimore isn't a good story. It is a good story. It's just really, really boring and anticlimactic. The fastest parts of the read are at best tolerable; the worst bits are like reading the slow parts of Dracula on barbiturates. I'd say skip it, skip it, skip it, and if we're all lucky Mignola will take his (as I said, good) story and draw it for us.
DISAPPOINTING NOT THE GEM I HOPED FOR WHEN I READ EARLY REVIEWS AND SAW THE COVER ART OF THIS BOOK I WAS CURIOUS AND FOUND IT IN THE LOCAL LIBRARY. WHILE I GOT THRU IT I CAN'T SAY I WAS AS IMPRESSED AS SOME OF THE OTHER REVIEWERS. IT'S NOT A BOOK I WOULD READ AGAIN. I FOUND THE PLOT THIN AND FLAT. THERE WAS A GOOD IDEA HERE THAT SIMPLY NEVER DEVELOPED.
A MAJOR PROBLEM I HAVE WITH IT IS THAT THERE IS JUST NOT ENOUGH ABOUT THE MAIN CHARACTER LORD BALTIMORE. HE APPEARS AT THE BEGINNING AND BASICALLY DOESN'T SHOW UP UNTILL THE VERY END OF THE BOOK.
I FOUND THE CLIMAX OF THE STORY DISAPPOINTING. AFTER ALL THE BUILD UP FOR THE FINAL CONFRONTATION THE STORY JUST DISAPPOINTS. BALTIMORE DISPATCHES THIS HORROR HE HAS BEEN CHASING FOR YEARS MUCH TOO EASILY.
THE REST OF THE BOOK INVOLVES THE STORIES OF THE THREE CHARACTERS WHO MEET BALTIMORE IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER. THE CHARACTERS ESPECIALLY BALTIMORE ARE NOT DEVELOPED ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU CARE ABOUT THEM. WHAT HAS BALTIMORE BEEN DOING DURING THE YEARS OF HIS QUEST. EXCEPT FOR A GENERAL THEME OF A QUEST FOR THE RED KING WE ARE NEVER TOLD. THE PLOT NEVER DEVELOPS ENOUGH TO MAKE THIS A PAGE TURNER. I KEPT READING AND HOPING FOR MORE,BUT NEVER GOT IT. THERE WAS JUST ENOUGH TO KEEP ME READING , BUT THE BOOK IN THE END DID NOT SATISFY.
ANOTHER MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT WAS THE ART. THE COVER WAS THE MOST IMPRESSIVE ART IN THE BOOK. THE INTERIOR ART WAS SIMPLE, REPETITIVE, AND STATIC. THERE WAS NO ENERGY IN IT AND IT DID NOT BRING OUT THE ACTION OF THE STORY. MOST OF THE DRAWINGS WERE VERY SMALL. IF YOU LIKE SKULLS YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED AS THE ARTIST DRAWS THEM AGAIN AND AGAIN. ONE ALSO FINDS A LOT OF DRAWINGS OF BUILDINGS AND HOUSES. NOTHING EXCITING HERE, VERY BORING ART. I KEPT THINKING THAT A MASTER OF BLACK AND WHITE ILLUSTRATION LIKE STEVE FABIAN COULD HAVE REALLY HELPED THIS BOOK.
Much better than Golden's Hellboy novels. I was skeptical when I first saw this book on the shelf at my local comic book store. My thought was "Wow, $25 for a thinly-illustrated vampire/horror novel? That doesn't seem like it's worth the money."
But then, working my way through my reading list, I bought this on Amazon for $16.50 and read it over the course of the last three days.
I was amazed at how rich and well-structured it was. And honestly, the illustrations--though not Mignola's best work--add a very appropriate (though understated) creepy tone to the story.
If Mignola and Golden team up for a follow-up story involving Baltimore, I will definitely check it out. In the meantime, you should buy this book and enjoy it as thoroughly as I did.
Ann Rice Readers: Look Elsewhere. This Book Is The REAL Thing! Finally! A vampire novel dealing with the ghastly, filthy creatures as ancient myth originally intended. Lord Baltimore's story, and that of his friends, weaves myth and folklore into a tale as dark and brooding as the cover art. Horrible beings from civilizations infancy crawl from the pages to remind us of the true terror that lies in the stories and tales of our ancestors. From the 1st dreadfull encounter on a bleak and hopeless battlefield, to a flame-lit showdown taking place at an inn just this side of hell, the story's lightning pace, brooding, dark landscapes, and demons from the darkest tales of several cultures will keep you reading until the last page has been turned. Baltimore does not face the lavishly comical, overly sexed, and ridiculously glamourous caricatures such as the characters portrayed by Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. He faces the vampire as myth intended: Full blown filthy demons straight out of hell, complete with the foul appearence and disgusting odors that linger over thier dead flesh. This book has brought back the vampire and rescued him/her from the obscene clutches of Ann Rice. For those of you that truly love dark folklore and myth, this book is for you. If your idea of a vampire is one of a snobbish clown, wearing "guy-shadow" and prancing around in a puffy shirt and attempting seduction of anything with a pulse, tuff luck.
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