Review by Frank Plowright

It might be thought that discovering the woman you have a crush on is actually an apprentice harvester of souls from the dead might be off-putting, but Becka and Kim overcame their difficulties in Grim Beginnings. Vampire Island starts with Kim learning of Becka and her friend Tyler’s obsession with vampire themed drama, and drops the startling revelation that vampires are real, and they’re confined to an island, but the portals opened by Kim’s scythe can lead to anywhere.

It turns out that even when having a party vampires are actually deadly dull until they smell blood. Unfortunately for Becka and Tyler, when Tyler accidentally cuts himself Kim has been called away to collect a soul.

Grim Beginnings was characterised by a good starting point and lively cartooning, but also by poor plotting and character inconsistency. While primarily an extended chase sequence, the plot to Vampire Island is an improvement, with reasons for most of what happens despite switches of location from chapter to chapter. The title is Vampire Island, but that’s only really the starting point. Character inconsistency remains, though, along with irritating interruptions for a person to lecture another on their lack of tolerance, or for being judgemental. Pulling someone up for ignorance or insult in real life is fine, but it happens so frequently here that creator Sarah Graley’s making a point, and Becka’s neediness isn’t charming, it’s off-putting.

The attractive cartooning compensates, though, with Graley conceiving interesting looking vampires along with a redesign for Kim, and along the way it’s revealed how Kim picked up her job in the first place. The plot broadens into two threads of blood being needed and the renegotiation of Kim’s soul collecting employment and by the end it’s been a viable madcap comedy, improving considerably on the first outing.