4 out of 5

Titan Comics is a great place for Dan Abnett: a full book length of pages to work his admirable story-telling chops – as compared to the short bursts of his 2000 AD output – and away from the soap opera and editorial demands of his Big Two (though mostly DC at this point) work.

And Kronos proved to be a great title for his premiere with the publisher: a somewhat standard vampire hunter book given great balance between gloom, gore and cheek by Dan, smartly matched to the striking line work of Tom Mandrake, with colors by his daughter, Sian, which manage to blend a modern, digital brightness with the vintage setting of the book.

Kronos and crew visit a small town during their vamp-hunting travels, agreeing to off a local undead baddie whilst they’re there.  Some clever visual hints and a casual feeling of unwell from Abnett make it apparent that something else is going on, and while it’s not a stretch to guess at the general nature of that something, the way it’s rolled out in the story is incredibly satisfying.  There’s also a good, core cast defined: wizened, peg-legged Grost, and our narrating, skull-cracking Carla – with Kronos himself actually given character when you know other writers would’ve left him as solely a stoic one-liner utterer; this is to say: I really hope to see this group again.

Adding value to the book are some very fascinating backmatter bits by Hammer historian Marcus Hearn on the book’s film source inspiration.  A lettering oddity – Simon Bowland changes to a boring, different font for the vamps in book four – and some clumsy choreography from Mandrake are minor issues in an otherwise very handsome, fun book, that only misses out on a five star rating for not being exactly ground breaking, but it’s an undeniably worth-your-dollars read, through and through.