Karen L. Newman has been a published writer since 2004 in the horror, science fiction and fantasy genres. Over two hundred and fifty of her short stories and poems have been published both online and in print. Her books include EEKU (Sam’s Dot, 2005) and ChemICKals (Naked Snake Press, 2007) and her work has been nominated for a Dwarf Star Award. She won the 2005 Mary Jane Barnes Award and two of her poems received honorable mention in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. She edits the online magazine Afterburn SF, which publishes speculative short stories, and is the editor for the print poetry magazine Illumen. She also write reviews for Dark Discoveries. Her reviews have also been featured in Noneuclidean Cafe, The Dream People, Night to Dawn, and Gothic Review.
Angel: Old Friends is a five comic book series based on the syndicated TV show Angel, created by Josh Whedon and David Greenwalt. Angel is a vampire cursed with a soul and a conscience by a band of Romanian gypsies in retaliation for his killing one of their women. Angel tries to make amends for his brutal past by saving humanity from themselves or supernatural beings.
This collection follows Angel: The Curse, also written by Jeff
Mariotte, illustrated by David Messina, and published by IDW. In this
new series, which is a stand-alone comic with no added fiction, former
friend and associate, Charles Gunn, visits Angel, who at first resents
the intrusion, at a remote mountain cabin. Gunn asks Angel to return
with him to Los Angeles to help him kill a vampire rumored to be
Spike. Angel is only too happy to fight his former enemy.
When Angel and Gunn arrive in LA, they find that things aren’t as they
seem. The vampire menacing the streets is a Spike clone, killed in
front of them by Spike himself. Together the three of them meet with
old friends Illyria, Fred, Wesley Wyndom-Pryce, Lorne, and Cordelia
Chase, some real and some not. Eventually, Angel, Gunn, and Spike
figure out the source of the clones and go there for a final showdown.
The snappy dialogue and high quality artwork mirror that of the first series. However, unlike Angel: The Curse, I found parts of Angel: Old Friends confusing, particularly for those unfamiliar with the TV show. For example, Illyria disappears from the story without explanation and the old friends are introduced without much background information. Still, this comic series is entertaining and well worth the price. I recommend it.