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Bite Club #1
Bite Club
They say that blood is thicker than water, but it isn't thicker than money not even for a family of vampires like the Del Toro clan, whose cartel has run organized crime in Miami for nearly a century. When the Del Toro patriarch is rubbed out, the members of that family, all of them born bloodsuckers, are quick to start vying for new positions at the top of the heap. But the old man had already picked a successor his youngest son Leto, who left the family behind to become, of all things, a Catholic priest. Now Leto has to figure out not only who killed his father but also whether he will stay in the church or embrace his new inheritance, all while surviving the schemes of family and foe alike in this sly, hardboiled tale. SUGGESTED FOR MATURE READERS.
144 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2005
About the author
Howard Chaykin
1,055 books119 followersHoward Victor Chaykin is an American comic book artist and writer. Chaykin's influences include his one-time employer and mentor, Gil Kane, and the mid-20th century illustrators Robert Fawcett and Al Parker.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
January 24, 2024
art style was SO GOOD, plot was meh. could have done without the casual incest!
September 14, 2019
1 Star ★
A lot of cursing. A lot of nudity and sex. And a lot of backstory that fell flat. I couldn’t connect to any of the characters. The story tries to connect 3 people, a vampire slut, a crooked cop and a priest. Even that sounds like the beginning to a bad joke.
The art was okay but the dialog was bad. Very over the top. I’m not sure if I’ll give book 2 a try... maybe it will get better?
A lot of cursing. A lot of nudity and sex. And a lot of backstory that fell flat. I couldn’t connect to any of the characters. The story tries to connect 3 people, a vampire slut, a crooked cop and a priest. Even that sounds like the beginning to a bad joke.
The art was okay but the dialog was bad. Very over the top. I’m not sure if I’ll give book 2 a try... maybe it will get better?
March 20, 2018
Chaykin (and Tischmann) gets to really cut loose with here his double-entendres, blatant sexual come-ons and casual cursing. I loved it! I've never been big on vampires, but I like the way that Chaykin played them here - which is to say, he really downplayed lots of the vampiric elements and just used the vampire angle to play up the characters as strong, sexy, seductive, vulgar outsiders.
He does a great job of keeping the reader guessing - Will our protagonist Leto take the family legit, or will the corruption of his blood and family power pull him to the dark side? Or will he even survive?
There were a few twists at the end which felt a bit forced, such as the revelation that Leto's lover was having an affair with, and betrayed him in favor of, his own sister. Although, this shouldn't be surprising from Chaykin, I thought that he could've fore-shadowed it a little bit better. One moment there is nothing (former best friends, though they were, Chaykin did make a point to say that they did not like each other since Leto had gotten involved), then there's two women in the shower together.
Hahn's art is very nice. Crisp, clean and easy to read, although the pastel color pallete was a bit odd to me. Not horrifically off, like in Ex Machina, but it was a bit jarring when the color theme changed violently with every single scene change.
The family relationships were played nicely, particularly Eddie and his son Danny, as well as the conflict between Leto and Uncle Victor for leadership of the family. Bite Club is a pretty enjoyable, debauch book.
He does a great job of keeping the reader guessing - Will our protagonist Leto take the family legit, or will the corruption of his blood and family power pull him to the dark side? Or will he even survive?
There were a few twists at the end which felt a bit forced, such as the revelation that Leto's lover was having an affair with, and betrayed him in favor of, his own sister. Although, this shouldn't be surprising from Chaykin, I thought that he could've fore-shadowed it a little bit better. One moment there is nothing (former best friends, though they were, Chaykin did make a point to say that they did not like each other since Leto had gotten involved), then there's two women in the shower together.
Hahn's art is very nice. Crisp, clean and easy to read, although the pastel color pallete was a bit odd to me. Not horrifically off, like in Ex Machina, but it was a bit jarring when the color theme changed violently with every single scene change.
The family relationships were played nicely, particularly Eddie and his son Danny, as well as the conflict between Leto and Uncle Victor for leadership of the family. Bite Club is a pretty enjoyable, debauch book.
May 4, 2018
I really wanted to like this book, but I can't. It was just poorly plotted, cliche, and derivative. I gave it more than one star for attempting feminism.
January 14, 2022
Frank Quitely's covers for each Bite Club chapter are magnificent. Howard Chaykin's premise--vampires existing as a visible minority for hundreds of years--is interesting. David Tischman's interior art is economical and cool. Brian Miller handles color nicely. Jared Fletcher's balloon-placement is excellent, but I wish he had read the script aloud, and placed BOLD emphasis on different words in many, many, many places. Much of the dialogue is an awkward read, though not as awkward as McCloud's Reinventing Comics, the WORST OFFENDER of MAKING nearly EVERY other WORD a BOLD word, d'you KNOW what I MEAN?
For a tale called Bite Club, very little is vampire-y. You want to shake up vampire lore? Awesome, I'm all-in for that. But these vamps are just run-of-the-mill noir mobsters, as easily killed as anyone else, as lacking in empathy as any other fictional crook. Sure, there's lip-service to super-strength, but we don't really see it. The on-the-page vampirism is criminally under-utilized window dressing.
Chapter three drags especially. There's a noticeable amount of repetition of story details in the narration. Perhaps that's a weakness of serialized fiction, but the last time it was so obvious in a collection (to me) was in the 3rd TPB volume of The Walking Dead. Non-judicious exposition is annoying. (Thank you Marvel for popularizing the intro-recap page.)
The story doesn't fire up until the last chapter, where each character's irritation and paranoia climax in scene after scene. Where was this energy earlier?
"It's not the first time Leto's committed murder," says the narrator after Leto's second killing. Yeah, we know. We saw his first killing in the previous chapter. That kind of melodrama is fine for a character with a mysterious past. Thing is, we know Leto well by now, and he's lived a goody-good life as a priest.
Also, would it kill the narrator to finish sentences in the panel they start in? Extra-annoying was how the cut-up narrations traversed panels while leap-frogging similarly cut-up dialogue. For too many pages I had to read through the captions, and then re-read the page to follow the dialogue.
*sigh* Quitely's poster art is so good though. I can imagine each original issue proudly hanging on fans' walls. If only that were enough.
For a tale called Bite Club, very little is vampire-y. You want to shake up vampire lore? Awesome, I'm all-in for that. But these vamps are just run-of-the-mill noir mobsters, as easily killed as anyone else, as lacking in empathy as any other fictional crook. Sure, there's lip-service to super-strength, but we don't really see it. The on-the-page vampirism is criminally under-utilized window dressing.
Chapter three drags especially. There's a noticeable amount of repetition of story details in the narration. Perhaps that's a weakness of serialized fiction, but the last time it was so obvious in a collection (to me) was in the 3rd TPB volume of The Walking Dead. Non-judicious exposition is annoying. (Thank you Marvel for popularizing the intro-recap page.)
The story doesn't fire up until the last chapter, where each character's irritation and paranoia climax in scene after scene. Where was this energy earlier?
"It's not the first time Leto's committed murder," says the narrator after Leto's second killing. Yeah, we know. We saw his first killing in the previous chapter. That kind of melodrama is fine for a character with a mysterious past. Thing is, we know Leto well by now, and he's lived a goody-good life as a priest.
Also, would it kill the narrator to finish sentences in the panel they start in? Extra-annoying was how the cut-up narrations traversed panels while leap-frogging similarly cut-up dialogue. For too many pages I had to read through the captions, and then re-read the page to follow the dialogue.
*sigh* Quitely's poster art is so good though. I can imagine each original issue proudly hanging on fans' walls. If only that were enough.
October 21, 2023
I appreciate the real, raw, edgy nature of the book and the fact that the story isn’t just straight into vampire violence, but vampire kids at the beach putting on “SPF 150” is silly in a way that doesn’t fit, and this is most if the book for me. Too many things that work next to things that don’t.
I read through issue #2 and flipped through issue #5 and find that the character building is there, but doesn’t matter much. The fact that they are vampires doesn’t matter much. So the whole thing seems not to matter much. Another one that I’d like to like more than I do because of the parts that are good, but falls short.
I read through issue #2 and flipped through issue #5 and find that the character building is there, but doesn’t matter much. The fact that they are vampires doesn’t matter much. So the whole thing seems not to matter much. Another one that I’d like to like more than I do because of the parts that are good, but falls short.
May 9, 2020
This book had a late 80s early 90s feel to it. Too much back story and exposition dragged the story down. The artwork should have been utilized better so written exposition wouldn’t have been used as much.
There was a nice twist at the end but nothing clueing you in that this might happen.
Just not my thing. :( I haven’t picked any good vampire books lately. Hopefully my luck will change. :/
There was a nice twist at the end but nothing clueing you in that this might happen.
Just not my thing. :( I haven’t picked any good vampire books lately. Hopefully my luck will change. :/
September 30, 2020
Got this for $3 during my vacation in Philly. Read this is one day because I love a shit show of a series and this was a fun shit show. I loved the twists and turns in this supernatural thriller. Loved Risa, she was probably my favorite character. I probably won't read the second volume though, it'll be hard to find at a store.
July 5, 2024
Good concept not executed overly well.
March 10, 2025
literally didn’t finish this because like what…😭 the art styles soooo cute tho
September 20, 2007
The premise of this series has lots of potential. Vampires have been done before, and the Mafia has had plenty of representation in pop culture - but I don't think I've seen a Vampire-Mafia blend before. Chaykin and Tischman take two disparate themes and put them together with some positive results. I've read some reviews that compare it to an HBO series. It definitely does feel like a show which might run on HBO. It seems like there might be quite a bit of story to be derived from this premise. This potential is what makes the book somewhat of a disappointment - it doesn't live up to it.
The main flaw with the story is that it has very little to do with vampirism. This rather substantial fact has almost zero impact on the story. It adds a couple of racy scenes, as well as some narrative discussing the need for sun block. Aside from that, there was no need to make the characters vampires. Only minimal changes would need to occur to change this to a pure Mafia story. I can almost imagine that Chaykin and Tiscsh had what they thought was a cool title, and wrote the story around the title.
With this caveat, the actual story is pretty enjoyable. It does a good job introducing all of the characters. Most of them have the potential to be interesting, but unfortunately they are never utilized to their full potential. Still, the plot moves along and is fun to read. I had issues with the end of the story - there is a huge twist meant to surprise the reader, but the only reason it is surprising is that there were no hints dropped for the reader's benefit along the way. It comes across as a cheap surprise.
There is gratuitous sex and violence, but I don't think anybody picking up a Howard Chaykin book is going to be surprised by that. These scenes don't always add to the story (often they do not), but they do add a certain flavor to the book. It doesn't feel like the book is an excuse to show sex and violence, which is about the only time the inclusion of them would annoy me.
The art is beautiful. I hadn't run across Tischman before, but I'll keep an eye out for him in the future. Aesthetically, everything comes together quite nicely. The colors are very nice, and the book is printed on a glossy paper which shows it off nicely despite the fact that the art is shrunk to fit in a smaller sized book. You don't feel like the art has suffered due to size constraints. This is good, as this trade is priced between a full size trade and a digest trade.
The Frank Quietly covers are great. They almost make the book worth buying all by themselves. This is the one part of the book I found wishing was normal sized. The cover they used for the trade paperback is my favorite, but all of them are good.
While the book does not live up to its potential, it is an enjoyable read. I'll likely check out the subsequent series; though that's not saying much. I'm not the hardest guy to sell a comic book too. :)
The main flaw with the story is that it has very little to do with vampirism. This rather substantial fact has almost zero impact on the story. It adds a couple of racy scenes, as well as some narrative discussing the need for sun block. Aside from that, there was no need to make the characters vampires. Only minimal changes would need to occur to change this to a pure Mafia story. I can almost imagine that Chaykin and Tiscsh had what they thought was a cool title, and wrote the story around the title.
With this caveat, the actual story is pretty enjoyable. It does a good job introducing all of the characters. Most of them have the potential to be interesting, but unfortunately they are never utilized to their full potential. Still, the plot moves along and is fun to read. I had issues with the end of the story - there is a huge twist meant to surprise the reader, but the only reason it is surprising is that there were no hints dropped for the reader's benefit along the way. It comes across as a cheap surprise.
There is gratuitous sex and violence, but I don't think anybody picking up a Howard Chaykin book is going to be surprised by that. These scenes don't always add to the story (often they do not), but they do add a certain flavor to the book. It doesn't feel like the book is an excuse to show sex and violence, which is about the only time the inclusion of them would annoy me.
The art is beautiful. I hadn't run across Tischman before, but I'll keep an eye out for him in the future. Aesthetically, everything comes together quite nicely. The colors are very nice, and the book is printed on a glossy paper which shows it off nicely despite the fact that the art is shrunk to fit in a smaller sized book. You don't feel like the art has suffered due to size constraints. This is good, as this trade is priced between a full size trade and a digest trade.
The Frank Quietly covers are great. They almost make the book worth buying all by themselves. This is the one part of the book I found wishing was normal sized. The cover they used for the trade paperback is my favorite, but all of them are good.
While the book does not live up to its potential, it is an enjoyable read. I'll likely check out the subsequent series; though that's not saying much. I'm not the hardest guy to sell a comic book too. :)
April 13, 2009
The premise of this series has lots of potential. Vampires have been done before, and the Mafia has had plenty of representation in pop culture - but I don't think I've seen a Vampire-Mafia blend before. Chaykin and Tischman take two disparate themes and put them together with some positive results.
Eduardo Del Toro is the family patriarch, who reigns over his family and its interests with an iron fist. But, since Eduardo is killed on the very first page, you can bet the story isn't about him. Rather, his family -- a mixed pack of ambition, greed and carnal desire -- steps into the gap left by his death in a struggle to take over the business. But, to the surprise of all, son Leto -- both a vampire and a Catholic priest, believe it or not -- is handed the reins of power. And that doesn't sit well with others of the Del Toro clan, siblings and cousins and family satellites who have a varying array of vices and a similar yearning for control.
Aesthetically, everything comes together quite nicely. The colors are very nice, and the book is printed on a glossy paper which shows it off nicely despite the fact that the art is shrunk to fit in a smaller sized book. You don't feel like the art has suffered due to size constraints.
"Bite Club" draws the reader in much like many other great series from Vertigo; shockingly seductive and blood curdlingly violent from beginning to end, with the final twist something that you won't see coming.
Book Details:
Title Bite Club: Die Now, Live Forever
Author Howard Chaykin and David Tischman
Reviewed By Purplycookie
Eduardo Del Toro is the family patriarch, who reigns over his family and its interests with an iron fist. But, since Eduardo is killed on the very first page, you can bet the story isn't about him. Rather, his family -- a mixed pack of ambition, greed and carnal desire -- steps into the gap left by his death in a struggle to take over the business. But, to the surprise of all, son Leto -- both a vampire and a Catholic priest, believe it or not -- is handed the reins of power. And that doesn't sit well with others of the Del Toro clan, siblings and cousins and family satellites who have a varying array of vices and a similar yearning for control.
Aesthetically, everything comes together quite nicely. The colors are very nice, and the book is printed on a glossy paper which shows it off nicely despite the fact that the art is shrunk to fit in a smaller sized book. You don't feel like the art has suffered due to size constraints.
"Bite Club" draws the reader in much like many other great series from Vertigo; shockingly seductive and blood curdlingly violent from beginning to end, with the final twist something that you won't see coming.
Book Details:
Title Bite Club: Die Now, Live Forever
Author Howard Chaykin and David Tischman
Reviewed By Purplycookie
September 12, 2012
I found this book at a little whole-in-the-wall comic store in San Diego a few years ago. However, during one of our moves, it ended up being misplaced, and my husband found it while cleaning our back bedroom. To this day, the cover still draws my attention!
The story line seemed rather interesting, and I was willing to give it a shot. Since vampires are immortal, it made sense that a vampire cartel could run the crime syndicate of Miami. However, I felt the graphic novel just fell flat. There was more time spent narrating than actually getting any story from the characters. There were little hints dropped about the relationship between the characters, but not enough. I found myself groaning every time I flipped a page to find another huge chunk of narration and no dialogue.
Some of the character development was good. The audience learns a lot of Rise due to her underhanded dealings in her business and in the family. However, the hints that are dropped about her relationship with Leto and her father really disturbed me.
For me, the only thing that this graphic novel had going for it was the art style. For me, a big turn-off is poor art. But with this graphic novel, I think the sacrificed story for awesome graphics. At that point, I'm not sure if it's worth it.
On the whole, this graphic novel was pretty forgettable. I think there are other volumes out there; however, I am not curious enough to pick them up.
The story line seemed rather interesting, and I was willing to give it a shot. Since vampires are immortal, it made sense that a vampire cartel could run the crime syndicate of Miami. However, I felt the graphic novel just fell flat. There was more time spent narrating than actually getting any story from the characters. There were little hints dropped about the relationship between the characters, but not enough. I found myself groaning every time I flipped a page to find another huge chunk of narration and no dialogue.
Some of the character development was good. The audience learns a lot of Rise due to her underhanded dealings in her business and in the family. However, the hints that are dropped about her relationship with Leto and her father really disturbed me.
For me, the only thing that this graphic novel had going for it was the art style. For me, a big turn-off is poor art. But with this graphic novel, I think the sacrificed story for awesome graphics. At that point, I'm not sure if it's worth it.
On the whole, this graphic novel was pretty forgettable. I think there are other volumes out there; however, I am not curious enough to pick them up.
February 3, 2013
Bite Club reads like a hopeful screenplay for cable tv in which True Blood and the Sopranos have a baby and set it loose to play on the set of Dexter. Raunchy and violent with complicated weaving of characters throughout the short volume leave the book relying heavily on "voice over" to fill in the significantly tangled history of the Del Toro vampire/mafia family. Fairly entertaining but felt like it needed a longer format to present the story less through background information and more through actual encounters with the characters having those experiences.
Read
September 23, 2013Vampires as a visible, powerful but widely disliked minority; dynastic struggles played out with lashings of sex and violence. I don't recall this miniseries doing much business back in the mid-noughties, even though the covers caught everyone's attention, but now that True Blood and Game of Thrones are such mainstream hits, it's surely due a new edition and a big push.
July 8, 2007
Cool color art and a fun story about an alternative universe where vampires live, love, and have lives alongside "regular" human beings. I especially like the products marketed to vampires that are slyly slipped into the art. A nice escapist take on the vampire legend.
November 1, 2007
Not a good Chaykin at all, and he can be quite good. But I think this is where we start to see the slow drift into the mediocre, doing-the-same-thing-all-the-time Chaykin that shows up most of the time these days, unfortunately. Only for extreme fans of the creator.
September 7, 2009
Howard Chaykin is always good at crime fiction. The only problem I have with this story is that it could just as easily have been written as a straight-up mob story without the vampire aspect. The vampire backdrop didn't really impact the plot or outcome of the story.
Read
July 28, 2011An enjoyable vampire mob romp. Nothing ground breaking here, but the story is a fun quick read.
May 17, 2012
I liked the premise of this book and I wish there were more to the story.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews