Coming up to the spooky spectacular that is Halloween, I love to read some great horror comics. Fiends of the Eastern Front is a classic 2000AD classic. It was written by the mighty team of writer Gerry Finley-Day and illustrated by the mighty Carlos Ezquerra, whom we unfortunately lost recently. It’s a World War II comic with a difference, it’s also a vampire story and this combination works incredibly well. It’s the story of Hans Schmitt, a German solider whose unit is joined by a mysterious company of Rumanian allies. The twist is that Schmitt discovers that they are, in actual fact, vampires.
There’s an incredible amount of violence displayed in this story, the Rumanian vampires proceed to tear apart their enemies. Their commander Captain Constanta continually assures Schmitt, who has discovered their secret, that he is safe as long as their are on the same side. During the course of the story, Rumania changes sides and then all hell breaks loose for the unsuspecting German soldiers. All the while, Schmitt is trying to warn his comrades and attempting to arm himself against the fiends.
The story is told in a flashback style with Schmitt’s body having been found by excavation workers. His diary is found and read by a foreman to a British soldier who is more than he initially seems. We retrace Schmitt’s steps and find out what led him to his fate. It’s a nice retrospective narrative which is incredibly gripping and unpredictable. There’s also a great emphasis on key characters which really tightens the experience and helps to make the characters memorable.
Carlos Ezquerra’s art is phenomenal with the detailed and atmospheric environments portraying war torn towns and the real menace of the fiends. There’s some wonderful and horrific facial expressions in the artwork which hammer home the personal horror that each character is going through when confronted by the fiends.
This is an amazing read for this time of year, a perfect synthesis of a war story mixed with horror. It’s unpredictable and features a shocking twist at the end.
Talking Comics 