Dawn After Dark #2 is a comic written by Matt Warner with art & inks by Jesse Thomas and colors by JJ Scott. Dawn tries to stay alive as the situation between the werewolves and vampires becomes more deadly. This is a supernatural comic with drama, violence, and grittiness that takes place in Ireland. The leading lady for this tale is Dawn Keenan, she is a vampire hunter who has been dragged into a dangerous conflict with many different players. In her investigation she comes across Michael Devlin, he is a werewolf skilled in combat who is basically second-in-command of the pack led by the Dogfather. The story begins with Dawn getting notified about a violent attack at a pub called O’Bannon’s. She swiftly heads there to check it out and runs into Michael, who had the same idea. This story takes place in Dublin, Ireland. The violence here is very bloody and gory with gruesome attacks. The pacing here is a tick slower than steady with a light horror and organized crime tone. There are many intense moments due to violence and danger. The dialogue is mainly conversational with some narration of Dawn’s inner thoughts. The talking style seems to be specific to the region with some slang and words used that I, an American, was unfamiliar with. There are no word-heavy pages here. This is a sequel issue that brings action and excitement to an already intriguing story involving supernatural creatures while starring a strong lead that isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty.

            The art here is decently detailed with slight roughness and a strong focus on lighting and shading. The color range seems realistic with a somewhat washed-out and brown-gray palette. For scenery there are fields of grass with surrounding forest but most of this story takes place in and around buildings. The location changes frequently with some scenes taking place in pubs and trailer parks while others happen at abandoned factories. The panel backgrounds usually show the surroundings with it being gradient colors the rest of the time. The expression level here is around average as the characters here like to maintain a hard look. The main emotion here is anger with some fear and irritation. The faces are decently drawn but can look simplistic at times but most emotions should come across clearly. The violence here is mostly physical with gruesome attacks leading to large amounts of blood and flesh all over the place. The action scenes tend to come in short bursts and feature a good amount of panels.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like supernatural stories with werewolves and vampires that star an Irish woman and features violence and drama then this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Violence, blood, gore, sexual situations, nudity.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Looks like they didn’t listen. bad dogs.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hellboundmedia/thedogfatherpart2/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 22

Violent Pages: 6, for 27% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 3, for 14% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 3

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 5

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 4

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 3

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”