Love that vampire
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If Edward Gorey and Tim Burton collaborated on a comic book, the result might be something like "Vampire Loves," which shows that even the undead have romantic troubles. Joann Sfar's quirky undead story is a charming little read, with some wonky humor and tender moments.
A "square and Nosferatu-like" vampire named Ferdinand has broken up with Lani, a sultry mandragora who slept with his pal. After a quarrel with her, he encounters a pretty goth vampire Aspirine, while Lani heads off to stay with the lumbering Treeman.
The following stories follow Ferdinand's adventures -- he goes to Paris and looks at sunlit paintings, stays with an old Jewish bookseller and his golem, embarks on a ghoulish cruise and is taken captive by evil mummies, accidentally creates life from monster putty, and is called on by the police to help find a serial killer.
And along the way, he dances with a pretty Japanese tourist, flirts awkwardly with the vampire-and-witch sisters Aspirine and Ritaline, dates a wailing phantom, and confronts the ex-friend who slept with Lani. But though the women adore him, his heart is still hooked on his forlorn, unfaithful tree-girl.
"Vampire Loves" is a very sweet book, and in some ways the supernatural edge doesn't affect the main story. Everyone has had that one relationship like this -- you love each other, but you're also angry with each other, and that is what is happening for poor Ferdinand.
The pages of "Vampire Loves" crawl with all sorts of beasties: werewolves, ghosts, mummies, witches, vampires, specters, invisible men, monsters with braces, lonely androids, golems, and various nature spirits. Sfar's artwork is simple and angular, but full of colours, kooky action and strange dialogue. ("My skin's all mushy!")
And the stories are funny as well -- Sfar spoofs gothic pretensions, clubbing, spy movies, and detective work. It's a bit too much when Ferdinand's conscience starts buzzing around, but fortunately that peters out. And Sfar can include sweet moments too, like Ferdinand telling the tourist how he loves to look at paintings with sunlight, since he can't go out in the sun now.
Ferdinand is also a unique vampire -- meek, scrawny, gray-skinned and fond of cats and old folk recordings. He won't even really bite, using one fang so the victims will think it's a mosquito. There's a lot of winning supporting characters -- the grandmotherly witch who housesits, the unhappy tree-man, the amoral ex-pal, and so on.
"Vampire Loves" may star a vampire, but it's a quirky, twisted love story at heart. A delicious little gothic read.
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