Day Men Volume 1 + Day Men 5

For thousands of years, the world has been controlled by the “50 Families,” a secret network of vampire covens engaged in a timeless struggle for power. But when the sun rises, the vampires are forced to employ the services of a human who acts as their daytime fixer and protector. Trained for centuries to be the mortal soldiers of their vampire employers, the Day Men go forth at sunrise, alone into the world, to do the bidding of their sleeping benefactors. Collects issues #1-4.

The start of a new story arc! It has been centuries since the last “Dog Fight”—a one-on-one battle between Day Men—but Azalea’s fate now rests completely in David’s hands. That is, unless he and the rest of the Virgo family are able to uncover evidence of the Scourge’s involvement in the fang trade.

So, this review is going to span across a trade and a single issue.  Day Men is a vampire story, but in the traditional sense.  For this series, the vampires aren’t the main focus, rather their daylight counter parts, or “Day Men” is where the spotlight rests.  Most people know, vampires don’t function too well in the daytime and by that I mean it downright kills them.  The vamps have come to learn that they can’t conduct all of their business at night, so they take on liaisons to take care of things while they sleep.  These Day Men know what they’re signing up for, but that doesn’t make things any less easy for them.  Especially when not only do they have to deal with all of the “messes” from the previous night, but also the constant threat of another family’s Day Man out for retaliation, not to mention the possibility of death by displeasing their own family.  For new recruit David Reid, the Virgo family has become his life and he will stop at nothing to keep them safe.

The series is an interesting one, as it takes a well-known plot device and shifts it a little to create something new.  At least to my knowledge, not many people think about what goes on during the day when it comes to vampire stories.  The daytime is when vampires are most vulnerable so of course they would need someone to take care of things while they’re tucked away in seclusion.  The high society vampires have been kind of overused throughout the various medias, but when you live forever, I guess you would accumulate quite a bit of wealth.  Aside from that though, Day Men manages to keep things interesting, especially with this third party that is sure to stir things up in the vampire world.  With great writing by Matt Gagnon & Michael Alan Nelson and stunning visuals by Brian Stelfreeze, the Day Men trade, which collects issues 1-4, and issue 5 are definitely worth a look.

Sex, violence and vampires is the name of the game with this series. So, if you crave any of those things then look no further than Day Men. A tale about a guy who takes his day job very seriously so that his family can survive the night. For more info on where to find these books, visit the Boom! Studios website, or the Boom! Studios Facebook page.

Geek-o-Rama received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments and opinions are those of the individual reviewer.