Blood & Water

Blood & Water
Cover of the first issue
Publication information
Publisher	Vertigo
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Limited series
Publication date	May–September 2003
Number of issues	5
Creative team
Writer(s)	Judd Winick
Artist(s)	Tomm Coker Brian Bolland (covers)
Colorist(s)	Jason Wright Digital Chameleon

Blood & Water was a 2003 five-issue horror comic book limited series written by Judd Winick and illustrated by Tomm Coker, with covers by Brian Bolland. It was published by Vertigo Comics from March to July, 2003, with cover dates of May to September, 2003.

It stars Adam Heller, a young man with terminal illness whose friends offer to save his life, but through an unusual means that may come with a price.

San Francisco resident Adam Heller is a young man who had a bright future ahead of him. But a case of food poisoning when he was twenty gave him Hepatitis A, forcing him to drop out of college, and taking his once athletic body away from him. He has just been told of an inoperable hepatoma on his liver, and has not long to live.

Adam's best friend of five years, Joshua, and his lover, Nicole, tell him that they are vampires, and want to turn him into one to save his life. Adam is frightened, but they explain that vampires are not villains who attack innocent humans, and only drink animal blood, because human blood turns vampires into irreversible psychotics that the vampire community must then "take out". Although crosses and daylight are not fatal to them, they are sensitive to light, and wear sunblock and sunglasses regularly. They are immortal (Nicole is 278 years old), never become sick, and have five times the strength of humans, though they can die if they bleed to death or experience massive tissue loss.

Adam agrees to become a vampire, and drinks some of their blood. After a painful transformation, he is born anew, the ills suffered from his body having disappeared. Adam enjoys his new life, the powers he has, and the sex that he hasn’t had in three years.

One night, Josh is attacked and mauled by a mysterious assailant. Taking refuge at Adam's apartment before he dies, he begs Adam to make sure he is cremated within twenty-four hours, because vampires who die without cremation returns as emotionless zombies. After Josh dies, Adam and Nicky are joined by other members of the vampire community at a wooded ceremonial plot outside of Santa Cruz. Malcolm, the oldest living vampire, and the greatest hunter-tracker among them, says only another vampire could have killed Josh, and that a unit of the Taveen, a sort of royal guard of the vampire race, is already investigating. He refuses to help, however, because he is no longer Taveen, and is done hunting vampires. An altercation ensues, and Adam strikes Malcolm, sending him flying through the trees, much to the shock of the crowd, who wonder how a month-old vampire could do this to one of the Ancient Ones. Malcolm says that Adam is “old blood”, calling him “Tribe”. Nicky is horrified at this, and the other vampires flee in terror.