Written by Julian Lawler
Art by Martin Montiel
Colors by Nei Ruffino
Letters by Oliver Lee Arce
Published by Blacktooth Comics

“Emo Girl is a Noir-ish tale with an angry, moody, bipolar, with a take no prisoners attitude, troubled teenager at the center of its universe. Emo Girl, aka Jemini Moon, is in state custody.  Her father is in jail, accused of hunting down and killing a homeless man. The pair claim it was not a homeless man, but in fact, a vampire.  Turns out the self-professed vampire hunters have been doing it for years. No one knows who the father/daughter duo truly are or where the pair come from. The state shrink is asking her to claim coercion and she could escape the justice system fairly unscathed. But she refuses and sticks to her story. As Emo Girl goes on the hunt, can she survive high school?”

When looking to select a book to add to your pull list, you may not have heard of Black Tooth Comics before, as was the case for me. However, after learning about Emo Girl, a coming-of-age vampire hunter story, following Jemini Moon coping with her father’s arrest for the murder of a homeless person, I will definitely be checking out more of their books. To Jemini and her father, the homeless person was anything but just a normal person. He was a vampire and he was not the first one they had hunted.

I really enjoyed how this book seemingly accurately depicted what might happen to Jemini if her father had been arrested for murder in a real-life situation, including talking about the foster family and her court-mandated therapist, but also how they up the drama further with the detective harassing her because he thinks that she might have been participating in the murder and not just an innocent coerced into following her father around.

This story is gritty but humanizes our vampire hunter “Emo Girl” in a way that is both delightful and poignant. As a reader, I feel connected to Jemini as she seemingly nonchalantly deals with life, but is breaking on the inside about her father’s allegedly wrongful arrest. As I flipped through the book I was really questioning if the supernatural really exists or if this was all some level of manipulation or delusion from her father. Jemini is a badass character that is looking at Buffy and saying “I’m coming for the crown.”

Montiel’s linework is extremely detailed and really works to emphasize the shadows in each scene. Ruffino’s colors keep to dark and bring that noir-inspired vibe to the pages and take you into their world of the supernatural.

The mix of the fantastical and the really grounded aspects of this story make for the foundations of a great world. This is a hidden gem in the indie comics world of the Previews catalog! Issue 1 was released on February 23, 2022, and issue 2 is planned for May 25th, 2022. Be sure to check this one out!