“I finally had the guts to ask Dee-Dee out, but only after she saw me drive a stake through the heart of a vampire.”

That’s Dean Marklin, vampire hunter in suburban Pittsburgh, the star of Vampire, PA, the new 3-issue mini-series from Moonstone. The series is created and written by J. C. Vaughn and illustrated by Brendon and Brian Fraim. Dean’s found himself in the middle of two warring factions of vampires, and one of the vampires, Jocelyn, may be trying to play him for a sucker. Dean’s already killed her once and he may have to do it again.

This “Fistful of Dollars with vampires” set-up delivers the goods, in large part because of the characters. Dean treats his nighttime vampire hunting as a job – a thing that has to be done to clean up his hometown. He goes about it with precision and good-natured humor, and drags along his friend Scuba Dave and girlfriend Dee-Dee. And, except for the wooden stakes and Super-Soakers filled with holy water, he’s got a normal life – he’d like to get married and re-open the town’s aging movie theater. He’s not some super-human guy either – he’s simply doing the best he can to rid his town of these creatures and is still learning as he goes.

The writing here is fun and the characters banter well without a lot of angst-ridden hand-wringing. People still die and blood still splatters, but this is a welcome alternative to some of the other fang-enhanced works.

Brendon and Brian Fraim do a nice job with the art. Female vampires are sexy, the action sequences really move and Dean’s body language is very casual, further enhancing the idea that vampire-hunting is just a job, not some super-powered crusade. The art is enhanced by Mark Wheatley’s moody coloring.

I’m looking forward to issues 2 and 3. Somebody smart will pick this book up for a movie.

[Disclosure: J. C. is an old friend of mine and we’ve worked together on a couple of projects. So there.]

[Artwork: Cover to Vampire, PA #1, © Well-Deserved Productions]