Review by Ian Keogh

Dating back to the Victorian era, the Hellsing organisation deals with supernatural threats in the United Kingdom and beyond, and if their top agent Alucard is allocated the result is likely to be an especially bloody slaughter. Yet, for all that, their headquarters seems poorly protected as it’s easily invaded in the first story.

More so than the cover to Hellsing 1, this cover supplies Alucard in all his dandy glory, a throwback representative of styles that died out well over a century past, yet the image doesn’t represent the series. Rather than dealing with the romantic vampires of old as the psychological substitute for sexual yearning, Kohta Hirano’s vampires are decidedly modern creations relishing in their state, potty mouthed and exceptionally violent. They’re represented by the over-confident invaders, who’re as surprised as readers will be that Alcuard is far more than was disclosed last time round.

That revelation is accompanied by some phenomenal art from Hirano, who designs astonishing, slavering creatures, their impact not in the slightest reduced for being in black and white rather than colour. Perhaps it’s too early to say with Hellsing only just starting, but the feeling is that such moments are as important as the minimal ongoing continuity.

Readers concerned over the first volume that the Hellsing organisation was considerably understaffed will have those fears allayed as others are introduced, while we also meet the controlling board. They’re boring civil servants, though, and what might really pump up the excitement of Hellsing is some unreconstructed Nazis, and it looks as if they’re on the way. We’ll see in Hellsing 3.

Before then there’s another ‘Crossfire’ story, this time set in 1958 and slightly expanding on the Vatican’s murky interference in East Germany, while defining the Iscariot wing as agents of the Vatican’s divine punishment.

This is another high octane gorefest, unapologetically pulp action with a phenomenal bodycount, and if that’s what you want from a graphic novel Hellsing delivers.

The first four volumes are also available combined as the hardback Deluxe Edition.