Review: Vampire Loves

Vampire Loves
Written and Drawn by Joann Sfar
Published by FirstSecond Books. $16.95 USD

If there's any European cartoonist who stands a chance of becoming a huge star in North America, it's Joann Sfar. Autobiography, fantasy, humor, romance--the guy can do it all. And he does it all here, in this book, which collects four separate European albums featuring Ferdinand, our unlucky-in-love vampire as he deals with heartbreak and flirts and jealousy and missed opportunities and promise on the back burner.

Sfar draws Ferdinand very much like Nosferatu, but a cute version, his starched collar and thin, tailored suit fashionable and yet old-fashioned; he doesn't quite fit in. There are many funny bits, such as his distaste at the Goth crowd dressing as they imagine vampires to look, but there are also truthful observations about love and loneliness. The various women in Ferdinand's life are all appealing in different ways and it's a toss-up whom readers might want him to end up with. Yes, though there are murders and bloodsucking and tree people and witchcraft, this is really a romantic soap opera, and a very good one.