Nobody would expect Guillermo del Toro -- genius filmmaker of things dark, grotesque and fantastical -- to make drooping romanticized vampires. 
 So we got the Strain trilogy, a gloriously grotesque, apocalyptic tale of vampires attacking the US. And like a lot of bestselling books, "The Strain" is getting a comic book series -- while it's a little disjointed for a comic book series, the solid art and brilliantly horrifying vampires make it a riveting experience. Half gut-clenching horror, half police procedural. 
 When Flight 753 lands at JFK, the entire plane goes dead -- and all but a few passengers are found pale, bloodless and peacefully dead. And a giant cabinet goes missing from the hold. While a special disease unit tries to figure out the cause of death, Dr. Eph Goodwater (from the CDC) starts investigating the mysterious disappearance of the cabinet. 
 Then strange physical changes begin occurring not only on the four survivors, but on the undecayed corpses in the morgue -- white blood, tracheal growths, enhanced senses, and a growing thirst for blood. While ordinary people begin transforming into stinger-tongued horrors, Eph and his assistant Nora find Abraham Setrakian, an elderly pawnbroker who has fought the vampires since World War II... 
 In some ways, "The Strain" initially seems like a 21st century version of "Dracula": a plane full of the dead, a coffin full of soil, and a little old man who knows way too much about vampires. But this book doesn't have a shred of Victorian romanticism or ornateness -- it's an intricate twist of New York City, scientific analysis, and grotesque horrors from darkened corners of the Old World. 
 And this comic-book adaptation is a pretty brilliant, faithful one. The storyline feels a bit fragmented because it keeps jumping between characters, some of which haven't yet fulfilled their purpose. But it sticks to del Toro's powerful writing (one whole issue is devoted to Setrakian's recounting of vampires in Nazi concentration camps) and pervasive sense of growing horror (a woman sends a nasty neighbor in to "feed" her vampirized husband). 
 The art style takes some getting used to, since most of the body types are long and thin, blobby or blocky, and sometimes they look a little rough. But they make effective use of color, relying on black, white, greyish-blue and the occasional splash of blood-red -- and there are some astoundingly effective images, such as a bunch of half-autopsied vampires rising up to attack the coroner. 
 And yes, we end on a cliffhanger. Just hang on until "The Strain Volume 2." 
 And the vampires del Toro creates are the most horrific I've seen in a long time -- trust me, these are not sexy, romantic angsty immortals. They're corpses possessed by a ghastly virus that reshapes the body into a dead-white, mindless thing with a stinger-tipped tentacle-tongue. And while del Toro freaks us out enough with the biological changes, he also infuses the vampires with a genuine sense of evil. It's more than just a disease. 
 There's a pretty wide-ranging cast of characters here -- billionaires, housekeepers, doctors, street thugs, lawyers, and even a shock-rock-star in the Marilyn Manson vein. Eph is a likable protagonist -- a kindly genius with family issues and a rocky custody battle. Abraham serves as the Van Helsing of this story, and a powerful flashback chapter shows us how his battle started -- in a concentration camp. 
 "The Strain Volume 1" effectively adapts the first part of del Toro and Chuck Hogan's brilliant horror novel, and leaves you dreading what is ahead for the human race.