My Rating
“Fairy Tale Team-Up: Robyn Hood & Van Helsing”
Somebody has been dumping corpses in the back alleys of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and the Infernal Court is beginning to take notice. Last night, the vigilante known as Robyn Hood crashed a nightclub called the Ambrosia Lounge in search of the murderer. But why would a well-known vampire nest make trouble for itself when willing “donors” flock to the dance floor every night to make offerings of blood?
After a brief scuffle with a couple of Newblood initiates, Robyn retreats to the mansion of her longtime friend, Liesel Van Helsing. The world-class archer has a plan to shut down the elder vampires and their establishment, but will a retired fang hunter help Robyn even the odds? It’s vampire elder versus vampire elder as two rival clubs go to war over who will control their culture for the next 10,000 years!
Can Robyn Hood convince Liesel Van Helsing to pick up her wooden stakes one more time for Brooklyn’s sake? What happened in Liesel’s past that convinced her to work alone? Is there really a new trend in the “donor” community involving plastic Halloween fangs? Buy the issue to find out!
Review
I picked up Fairy Tale Team-Up: Robyn Hood & Van Helsing and Van Helsing: Hexed last week because the cover art really caught my eye. Back in the 1980s, I was a huge fan of independent publishers, and more recently the comic books from American Mythology Productions (AMP) have been finding their way into my collection. When I spotted these two Zenescope releases at my local comic shop, they reminded me so much of the AMP horror books I’ve been reading that I figured I might as well give them a shot. After all, the Relic Keep always has room for another vampire or two.
As someone who had never read a Zenescope comic before, I did a little research into the characters after finishing this one-shot. Holy cow! I had no idea just how enormous the Grimm Universe backlog had become. Zenescope has built an entire interconnected world filled with familiar names that have been twisted, reinvented, and dropped into a modern supernatural setting. Robyn Hood and Liesel Van Helsing are only two characters in a library that stretches back years. For a new reader, that creates the wonderful—and slightly dangerous—feeling that I may have just discovered another giant rabbit hole for my comic-book collection.
Indie Comics
There has been plenty of talk across social media over the years about the health of the comic-book industry and how dependent it is on Marvel and DC Comics. Reading books like this reminds me just how much material exists outside the Big Two. Smaller publishers such as Zenescope and American Mythology Productions continue to put horror, fantasy, and supernatural comics on the shelves. If anything, discovering another publisher with a substantial backlog makes me want to dig deeper into the independent side of the hobby.
As for Fairy Tale Team-Up: Robyn Hood & Van Helsing, I thought both the artwork and writing were well done. The book moves quickly, the action never overstays its welcome, and the supernatural nightclub setting gives the story a fun urban-horror atmosphere. Robyn and Liesel also make an entertaining combination. One brings the attitude and arrows while the other brings plenty of experience dealing with things that prefer their meals served at body temperature.
The target audience definitely seems to be older teens and adults, particularly horror fans who enjoy shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and The Umbrella Academy. There is enough action and horror to keep things moving, but the characters and supernatural world are what really caught my attention. When I’m ready to dive into another comic-book universe, I can definitely see myself exploring more of Zenescope’s Grimm Universe and its massive cast of characters.
Finale
I give Fairy Tale Team-Up: Robyn Hood & Van Helsing four out of five stars. Not bad for my first trip into the Grimm Universe! If you enjoy horror comics and have never checked out Zenescope, there appears to be a mountain of supernatural material waiting to be explored.
Now it’s time for me to crack open that copy of Van Helsing: Hexed sitting on my coffee table!