Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: The Laughing Corpse, Volume 3: Executioner

Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: The Laughing Corpse #3

by Laurell K. Hamilton, Jessica Ruffner, Ron Lim (Contributor)

Current queen of the book charts and soon to be the star of her own television film, best-selling author Laurell K. Hamilton's vampire hunter continues to take comics by storm! As The Laughing Corpse enters its haunting final act, Anita Blake thinks she has the deadly voodoo priestess who's made her life hell dead to rights... but the necromancer is about to find out her nightmare's only just begun! Find out why everyone in America is talking about Anita! Collects Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: The Laughing Corpse - Executioner #1-5.

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

112 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2008

About the author

Laurell K. Hamilton is one of the leading writers of paranormal fiction. A #1 New York Times bestselling author, Hamilton writes the popular Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novels and the Meredith Gentry series. She is also the creator of a bestselling comic book series based on her Anita Blake novels and published by Marvel Comics. Hamilton is a full-time writer and lives in the suburbs of St. Louis with her family.

Reviews

[Cyndi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is ends the Laughing Corpse. I thought the book was gory but this art knocked it out of the park. Very cool! And Jean-Claude looks much healthier. Must be the steady influx of blood. 🧛🏻‍♂️

[Vivone Os · Rating 4 out of 5]

Orilium: Ruin of the Skye -read a book featuring supernatural elements

Sve se razrješava i Anita otkriva moći za koje nije ni sanjala da ih ima. A Jean-Claude vrlo pametno mijenja taktiku.
Zadovoljavajuć kraj. :)

[Ronald · Rating 1 out of 5]

Darnit, well stories can always get worse. I was thinking the last volume in this story I read was just suffering from being the middle. Sadly the story got worse in the final volume. There was just so much filler. So much abusing helpless or suddenly helpless women, suddenly strong women reduced to victim and the female forced to do something evil against her will. So sexist.
On the other hand if you enjoy a comic where everyone just stands around talking.
Where the villain and hero fight an invisible fight of power while just sitting still and not moving, not even getting a depiction of the fight in another realm or anything - they are just sitting / standing. Then this comic is for you.
They stand around a lot talking - standing around with a lovecraftian horror standing right there.
They stand around while a zombie hoard kills people, kills well *Spoilers*.
It turns out that even the all powerful Vampire Lord of the City just stood around and did nothing to help our heroine. He literally just stood around off screen "watching" and then shows up in his perfectly clean pirate shirt to help people home. Than this story is for you.
This was just bad.

[quinnster · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the first few novels in the Anita Blake series, before everything became a love triangle and boring sameness. So having the graphic novels of the first few books is exciting. The graphic novel so far is pretty much just an illustrated version of the novel and that is fantastic. It would be have been annoying if they changed it around. It's fun to have faces to add to the ideas you have in your head of what characters in the book should look like. The illustrations are brilliant & translation from novel to graphic novel is seamless.

[Sara Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume wraps up the Laughing Corpse series of the Anita Blake graphic novels. I rather liked this series (now that I understand how the books go). The story starts with a horrible murder caused by a rogue zombie. In this volume, Anita finds and destroys the zombie. The story behind the zombie's creation causes Anita to question her ability as a necromancer. More importantly, it asks the question what would we do for money and/or power.
I was a little disappointed that the vampire didn't come to her rescue but I suppose it's better for her to kick butt on her own.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. These graphic novels follow the story so well. I think they did a great job with Anita and Jean-Claude as well as Dolph and Zebrowski. You just have to keep in mind that it's going to be a bit cartoony because it's a graphic novel, but the artwork is really good in my opinion. It took me back. I think they are only going to book four with the graphic novels, just in time to introduce Richard! Can't wait to see how they create him.

[Amy Denim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A satisfying conclusion to this story. Lots of ends tied up, but room for more stories. The art is brilliant. It had to be lots of fun for the artists to do the china doll bridesmaid bit after all the blood and guts and gore throughout the rest of the story. Can't wait to read more.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice conclusion to the Dominga story line, and as ever, I love the art of these books. They really capture Anita as I've always seen her in my head.

[Alice Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed it. The drawings are beautiful.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book 2 of the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series, has not so much to do with vampires this time around – this time, Anita is up to her ears in zombie problems. Something nasty is out there, targeting small families and eating them – yuk.
Anita’s own powers are much more to the forefront in this story, as she explores and discovers more about her affinity with the dead, and we also learn about her history, and how she first discovered her macabre ability to raise the dead, rounding out her own character a whole heap more than in book #1. We hear about her family, and particularly about her links to the world of Voodoo. She may try to deny it, but she has great untrained power, and that’s where she comes a little unstuck – her insistence on remaining ignorant is not in her favour when she has to go up against the most powerful Voodoo priestess in the region.
I’m not a zombie fan, but the story gripped me nonetheless, and as ever Anita is dealing with more than one problem at a time, which means there is never a dull moment. With vampires, at least you get respite when the sun comes up – not so with zombies, or nasty wealthy creeps who want you to work for them even when you’ve said ‘no’ in no uncertain terms. The very short, sharp sentences ramp up the pace and the tension, and I sailed through this book without pause, then started straight into the next one, which always says plenty about how much I enjoyed it. This series is not for the squeamish, but if you enjoy that edge of horror, definitely try them out.

[Michael Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part of that found box stuff. This story is from when the Anita Blake series was new and different a lot better than to recent tales. This interpretation of the characters is OK and the overall in good.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you love Zombies, vampires and murder, if you do this book is for you.

[Raymi Slays Windmills · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.6 stars
Nicely done conclusion to the story, well written and easy to follow, and the art was much better than book 2.

[Vel Addams · Rating 2 out of 5]

The library didn't have the novel version of this story (and I refuse to spend money on this), but had this second half of the comic book adaptation, and seeing as how I'm not really in love with this series to begin with I totally cheated and am just going to read this and put the first part of the story together in my head with the help of the internet. I have to say that Anita Blake isn't quite so agitating in comic book form as she is in the books. I think it's because comics allow characters to be so larger than life that her rampant arrogance and wanna be "brawny" allure isn't nearly so out of place in the world of spandex wearing super heroes with double D's that defy gravity and a 16 inch waist that by all the examples of physics in the world should not be able to explode into 36" waist with the grace of a swan. I also had serious difficulty following Hamilton's directions during her fight scenes so having the artist interpret them for me was a huge help not imagining Anita as a cognoscente human version of the game "pong".

All things considered, she's still about as endearing as a petulant five year old who thinks he's supreme master of the universe with really uninspired story lines to drive the (kind of) plot forward. I'm dragging my way through until the fourth book as everyone of the Anita fans I know insists I do. I'm certainly not enjoying it though...I'd rather watch Buffy or read Witchblade, but not at the same time.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this when I did was a good way to remind myself what Anita was like before she started dealing with the monsters on a personal level. This was my love/hate phase with Anita because she was such an extremely judgmental, holier-than-thou piece of work when she was younger. But at the same time she was a hard ass who knew enough to be afraid of what went bump in the night, since she knew it was real. The graphic novel just gave another dimension to the world that she lives in.

Anita as always has more going on than she can deal with alone. She has been asked to raise a zombie which will require a human sacrifice and refuses. She is also approached by Dominga Salvador to come and help her with a project she has with zombies, and the Senora does not like to be turned down. There is a killer zombie running around the city killing families and the police need Anita to help them capture and/or destroy it. Not to mention the fact that the Master of the City wishes to speak with her about her future. What's a girl to do when she is this popular?

I loved this because the art work made it come alive so much more and has given me a visual to work with when I read the novels. I would recommend it to fans of the series or anyone who just wants to be entertained.

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite their occasional flaws, once upon a time I did sincerely love LKH's Anita Blake series before it took the pornarific turn of latter days that torpedoed any notion of plot, suspense or common sense. And while I've read lots of urban fantasy since I gave up on Hamilton, I have never found a substitute for sociopathic Anita and the alternate universe St. Louis where she works as a corpse animator and state-appointed vampire executioner. I picked this up on a whim from the library and actually Anita Blake works better in graphic format I think than she does in print. Part of this could be because while dialogue was never Hamilton's strongest facet, she could shine in story and atmosphere. The art work was well done and brought the action sequences to life in a new way. The visual at the end of the floral collar hiding Anita's multiple bruises was also hilarious. This book made me reconsider my reluctance to read graphic novels.

This was a lot of fun to read and made me want to re-read the first 7 or so books of the series. It sucks they split what was one paperback into 3 separate graphic novels though. This particular entry is the last third of the book.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The final episodes in The Laughing Corpse graphic novel series were absolutely epic! Anita really comes into her power, power that she didn't even realize she had, but she uses it for good rather than hurting others. Well, she didn't hurt anyone who didn't deserve it.... Quite enjoyable and I would highly recommend it!

[Cassy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, so this is kind of a review of all six or so Graphic Novels. The story line hasn't changed, and I still love it. Badass girl fights all sorts of monsters. Never gets old.

However, the drawing kind of killed it for me. Richard was not at ALL how I pictured him, Jean-Claude was more fun to picture in my head, as was Anita. Anita wasn't as overly-sexualized in the books as she is in the Graphic Novels (because they're all drawn/written by men and so big boobs with skinny waists is what you get. Lame.) She just doesn't seem as awesome when she comes to life like this. Not to mention, the artist can't seem to decide if her face is going to be the pouty teenage look or the seductress look.

Really, I would stick to the books. There wasn't anything overly interesting about this that would make me consider it over the books themselves.

[R. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as good as the full book, but still interesting. I'll admit part of it is just actually seeing Anita in the ridiculous pink bridesmaid dress at the end. Could be a lot more detailed for how descriptive the book is, just speaking in the character drawing department, not even the story line. Though considering it's a comic, I guess they felt they should smudge some details as a hunter series is a little more gory just on principle. Still is an interesting version bringing a new facet to life of some well known characters. Different seeing them all drawn out than imagining the details in your own mind as you read.

[Janna · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a review to the whole three-volume set:

The art is clean; I like it. I did like the dirty-lined look of the original artist but the new artist has added realism to the shapes even while making the lighting a bit cartoony. The variant covers are cool too.

The story carried over well. I really enjoyed reading it; I did all three in a day.

[Shandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recently realized I'd never read the third and final book in the graphic novelization of "The Laughing Corpse". I read the first Anita Blake books long enough ago that the story is vaguely familiar, but not too familiar to take away the fun. I also love the quality of the art work. Definitely an enjoyable read, though I wonder if they make as much sense to people who have not read the books...

[Emma-Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant conclusion! Although I can't stand the later books in the series, these early ones will always have a special place in my heart. Especially the Jean-Claude and Anita moments. Roll on Circus of the Damned!

[Page tranquility · Rating 5 out of 5]

The artwork is very impressive and the character's expressions very detailed. The last volume of the three contains most of the action and from start to finish moves very fast. To see the first LKH books in graphic novel form is a treat and is a look back to when her writing was top notch.

[nidah05 (SleepDreamWrite) · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know I like Anita in the early books. So far anyway, or so I heard. Anyway this was good. Intense but at the same time I like that Anita is at least likable all the while gets the job done but knows something's wrong. Anyway, good volume.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good again other than Anita's inexplicably long red fingernails.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anita is such a badass I love her!!!

[Nomad nimrod · Rating 3 out of 5]

Onto the next one then.

[Tiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

They did a good job following the story, and the graphics were good.

[Eleni Konstantine · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars