Dampyr #172 (2014) page 5: Eternal Rome

This gallery contains the entire 94 page story "The Lady Pope of Rome." For background on its real-life inspiration, see its main gallery page here. Like many issues of Dampyr, this story weaves vampires into historical episodes and characters. That usually means that the first dozen pages of the issue are set in the past, as we see a vampire do something vampiric, and then flash forward to another dozen pages in which present-day characters somehow deal with that same vampire's continued presence.

This time, however, we begin with the present-day establishing scene, leaving the historical flashback for later in the issue. The title page is typically the first page set in modern times, so this time it too is on the first page.

This page announces the setting as "Rome, Coppede district." It has but a single line of dialogue: “They have arrived. Their car stopped in front of the side entrance.”

As usual for this series, the action occurs at night, with plenty of moody inks and highly detailed backgrounds. The street lights illuminate the bottom half of each building, leaving the tops lost in shadow.