Life Sucks

It is a tragic love tale between a girl who wanted to be a vampire and a boy who BECAME a vampire. And he would rather not have his love interest follow the same path. For many good reasons, too. One of them includes being an overworked slave to a master vampire who actually owns a dinky little CONVENIENCE STORE in a crime-ridden Los Angeles neighborhood, believe it or not. So he has to work there from dusk to dawn to pay his dues - for all eternity to come, too. The poor kid already hates himself and his life, so he feels he has nothing left if it isn't for a gorgeous Hispanic chick who regularly goes with the cloak-wearing crowd to the dance club at the very end of the depressing strip mall where his little shop is located. This smokin' hot Gothic babe has stolen his heart, yet he is afraid she wouldn't give him the time of day due to his pathetic dorkiness. Even worse, the reluctant young vampire has a powerful archrival, who happens to be a bronzed beach bum who has EVERYTHING from a sleek car to a trendy beach house to a pair of blonde girlfriends on his muscular arms, too. This smooth-operating surfer is also a murderous freak and he wants the raven-haired cutie, too! What can our bashful little hero do? At least he has a few nerdy friends to help him, maybe??? It is a very well-illustrated vampire-related modern fantasy with a very different kind of ending than you would have expected and yes, a lot of heart, too. Take that, "Twilight"!:)

Dave Miller is a typical 20-something Angelino in a dead-end job, managing an all-night convenience store for a boss from the Olde Country who lectures him about his work ethic. The difference is, in this generally good graphic novel, Dave is a recently-made vampire, his boss is also his master, and the store is a favorite quick-shop stop for LA's undead community. Dave's apparently doomed to a long, long lifetime of rotating the hot dogs and restocking the Blood Brew. Because, as much as the goth girls at the local juice bar would like to think otherwise, this is the reality of vampirism in the 21st century. Dave, who is cursed with a baby-face and a wimpish personality, has his eye on one of those girls but doesn't quite know what to do about it. His undead buddy, Jerome (who runs a quick-copy shop for another vampire master), tries hard to help out, but Dave's going to need a lot of help -- especially in dealing with the wealthy surfer dude who wants the girl, too. There's a good story here, some effective deadpan humor, and a pretty good grasp of life as it is lived, but the artwork isn't up to the level of the writing. The author should have gotten someone like Adrian Tomine or Michel Rabagliati.

I don't read all the graphic novels out there - I'm older generation, and still mostly like my books to be mostly words - but I do try to read all the vampire books I come across, and so I read this from the perspective of a vampire fan, rather than as a graphic-novel fan. And what I found was, this is a pretty good vampire story, a fun addition to the vampire subgenre, and not only for young adults. As far as basic stuff goes, BunRab's Standard Vampire Classification: (1)the book is romance as well as fantasy and graphic. (2) The vampires have fairly traditional superpowers and weaknesses: strength, ability to hypnotize humans, drink strictly blood, can't eat solid food, harmed by daylight although they can be awake and indoors during the day; long lifespans but can be killed by severing their heads. (3) The vampires have lives that include jobs; they don't exist just as vampires for the sake of being vampires, doing nothing but brooding darkly; they also exist in a milieu that has a presence besides just being a home for the vampires - it's modern day Los Angeles, with weather and beaches and cars, not some un-named place where there are only vampires and victims. I tell you this so that you can compare it to other vampire types that you like, or don't like, and see if this fits in. If you like your vampires deadly serious (pardon the pun) and ancient, then these vampires, who have senses of humor and are mainly young people, wouldn't fit your vampire profile. But if you like Tanya Huff's vampires, for example, who crack jokes, work for a living, and interact with humans a lot, then you should enjoy these vampires. Our hero works in a convenience store owned by his vampire master, a fairly neat conceit on which to start the story. The convenience store stocks products specifically for vampires as well as the usual run of things, for example, beer made from fermented blood! So vampires can pick up a six-pack for their poker game. And some of this is where the graphic-novel format adds to the story something one might not get just from a text novel: the visual element of seeing four old vampires sitting around in a basement den with a singing bass on the wall, arguing about the actors who played vampires in the movies. Or how Wes the surfer-dude can tart himself up pretty spiffily as Wes the rich man's son. I like the other characters, too - Merle the biker, who only makes a couple of brief appearances; Dave's roommate, a human who is awesomely comfortable with living with a vampire. The ending is a bit predictable, but there are a couple of original elements in it, and it was nice to have it not be too sappy or unbelievably happy. Overall, I would say there's as least as much plot and characterization as there is in many of the vampire series novels in plain text, and more than some; although it's not great literature, it is definitely an enjoyable read and a must for the collector of vampire books.

This was a very enjoyable read. I've read my share of graphic novels and this one can hold up to some of the best. The writing reminded me of Robert Kirkman's work on Invincible, as the teenagers are really believable characters. Sure, this is really a vampire book, but it's much more. There's a lot of philosophical reflection done in here, and also some scenes that very funny. In my opinion the character Rosa steals the show. I teach high school and have had many Latina students that struggle with identity like Rosa does. The goth club scenes in here are really well done, even if they are quite sarcastic.

First things first: I'm a friend of Jessica Abel's husband Matt Madden, and more recently a friend of Jessica, too. Take this review with a grain of salt if you must, but I'm not trying to do any log-rolling here. I'm not an avid comics reader, naturally. I'll occasionally buy one here or there if it looks interesting, but I'm no comics geek. Still, LIFE SUCKS has a lot of interesting thought put into it, and one of the phrases that comes to mind reading it is "blood-sucking capitalists", or "getting rich on the blood of the proletariat" (I guess that's two phrases, actually). LIFE SUCKS takes an economic view -- though one that is not heavy-handed -- on life, and applies it to vampirism, where the vampire "haves" prey on the "have-nots." Which is not to say it's a dense political screed, because it's definitely not. It is, by turns, funny, romantic, violent, noble, ignoble, and a study of characters. It's also about the compromises people make as they grow up, even if they will never grow old and die. I might even say that it offers the perspective that mortality is a benefit, in that one doesn't have to compromise whatever integrity a person has for an infinite amount of time, until there's no integrity left; a mortal can still die with pride intact. Which is to say that there's more to LIFE SUCKS than meets the eye. It works wonderfully well as entertainment, but it works on a more philosophical level, too -- it's thought-provoking!