Wulf and Batsy is a new black and white series written and illustrated by Bryan Baugh and published by Viper Comics. Baugh has an interesting resume grounded in animation. In his words: “During the day I work for Disney Animation, where I make a living as a storyboard artist, on a new Winnie the Poohanimated TV series. But then I come home at night and draw horror comics, which have monsters and blood and half naked girls in them.”

The story follows Wulf – a.k.a. Cevin – and his vampire “ladyfriend” Batsy. Cevin and Batsy are itinerant, wandering from town to town, looking for some place to call home. When they get to the village of Eppworth Ruddy they hope for a place to settle down, but when a young shepherd woman interrupts Wulf feeding on her father’s flock Batsy intervenes to save the young woman’s life then puts her to sleep to facilitate their exit.

The next day Batsy sleeps while Cevin explores the town. By explore of course I mean slink into the local brothel. And where else would the local shepherd maiden run to first when she woke up but the brothel to let everyone who’s anyone know about this latest monster infestation. I’m not sure if Baugh is trying to be tongue in cheek or if these types of things are merely unintentional incongruities. Either way it’s amusing.

Another thing that is left too vague is the nature of the relationship between Wulf and Batsy. They obviously have a sort of symbiotic relationship where one supports the other, Batsy with the brains and Wulf with the muscle. I imagine this sort of interpersonal relationship development will be explored more in later issues but the first issue has few meaningful interactions between them. I want to care about his characters, but I just don’t know enough about them.

I may be being a bit too harsh. There is a good amount of story going on between the lines here. He is also balancing a horror story with a comedy which is no mean task. He even begins an examination into what it is to accept who you are despite what society thinks of that, which I hope he’ll continue to explore in future issues. Wulf and Batsy have no compunctions with being monsters; they just want some place to live where no one is going to try to kill them.

I’m thoroughly impressed with Baugh’s art. It’s difficult to make a black and white comic seem vibrant but Baugh succeeds mostly through his masterful line work. Line takes on an added importance in black and white art as the artist doesn’t have any color to communicate with. The range of scenes and textures he creates is a testament to his skill.

His character work is also top notch. Wulf/Cevin and Batsy are distinctive and instantly recognizable. Even his background and secondary characters feel unique and original. I get the feeling we’ll be seeing more of some of the more unique secondary characters and hopefully some Wulf and Batsy flashbacks shedding some more light on their past.

I’m going to pick up the second issue this June because I have a feeling some interesting things might start to happen and I really want to see the full power of Batsy when she lets loose. If Josh Howard continues to draw the covers for the series that won’t hurt me buying it either.