Vampire Loves [Paperback]

Joann Sfar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2, 2006

Meet Ferdinand, a vampire who bites his victims with only one tooth in order to pass as a mosquito, who loves the music of dead singers, and who has no end of trouble trying to make sense of his relationships--some with the living, some with the undead. Vampire Loves follows the strange and comically romantic adventures of Ferdinand and his friends as they flirt with, seduce, cheat on, break up and make up with all manner of strange creatures, including ghosts, other vampires, tree-folk, and golems. Edgy, charming, and filled with Joann Sfar's inimitable blend of tenderness, comedy, melancholy, and philosophy, the four stories in this volume are drawn as much from the Jewish mysticism of eastern Europe as from twenty-first-century Goth culture.

At once silly and serious, wild and poetic, Joann Sfar's disquieting tales are filled with intelligence and rich humanity. Vividly illustrated and sensitively written, Vampire Loves is alive with color, wisdom, and humor.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ferdinand is a vampire who lives in Lithuania, wears three-piece suits and receives regular visits from an adoptive "grandmother" witch who looks after his Siamese cat when he's off on trips to Paris. But none of this is any protection against the more mundane realities of being a newly single guy stuck forever in that period of new adulthood when hormones meet emotions and confusion results. Ferdinand's exploits, as detailed by award-winning French artist Sfar (Little Vampire Goes to School, The Rabbi's Cat), read like a classic slacker tale—when he isn't sleeping in his coffin, Ferdinand carries his favorite records around in a messenger bag. Ferdinand's adventures and companions are at once otherworldly and oddly familiar. A tree-man has a crush on Ferdinand's ex-girlfriend, Lani, a girl/plant who cheated on Ferdinand with his best friend. Ferdinand alternately longs for and is angry at Lani, finds himself the object of a teenage vampire crush and cruises bars in search of new love. Just when the troubled relationships begin to seem too commonplace, Sfar slips in a magical detail about a golem or a crying tree. As usual, Sfar's artwork is effortlessly charming, filled with classically stylish ink hatching and lettering, for a story that is funny and unpredictable. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up–From the author of the delightful Little Vampire books (S & S) comes an inexplicably grown-up version of the same character, thirsty for both blood and love. Ferdinand is a sweet, charming bloodsucker who considerately sips from his victims with one fang so they will only think it is a mosquito bite and not panic. When not quenching his thirst, he spends much of his time either with his pet cat or flying around town trying to pick up women. Great characters, weird plot twists, and fantastic drawing and coloration make for a terrific graphic novel that will appeal to Goth teens and vampire aficionados. There are references to implied promiscuity and drug use–this is, after all, a story about an undead creature who gives away his conscience because it is annoying him. An excellent choice for public libraries.–Dawn Rutherford, King County Library System, Bellevue, WA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: First Second; 1st edition (May 2, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596430931
• ISBN-13: 978-1596430938
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #834,720 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Would you care to see his etchings?, June 28, 2006

By 

E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vampire Loves (Paperback)

I swore to myself I'd only review children's books. I told myself I didn't have time for all the young adult novels, books, and GNs out there competing for attention. And I think I did a pretty good job at avoiding anything and everything YA until "Vampire Loves" fell into my lap. Even then, I wasn't convinced that I'd want to read it. For me, author/illustrator Joann Sfar is a touch-and-go kinda guy. On the one hand he's written a whole range of infinitely interesting graphic novels with a unique comic edge. On the other hand, I was not blown away by his "Sardine" series for the kiddies. But there was something about "Vampire Loves". Partly it was the cover design. Partly it was the premise. And partly it was the snatch of dialogue on the back of the book between Ferdinand and Lani. Before I knew it I was staying up late devouring, "Vampire Loves" as quickly as my little brain could parse its dialogue. By and large I do not read YA graphic novels, but when I do you better believe they're going to be pretty special. "Vampire Loves" is.

Ferdinand the vampire is a delicate sensitive soul, by and large. His girlfriend, Lani, recently cheated on him with his good friend Michael and the two have been apart ever since. Ferdinand would love to get back together with Lani but she's just so utterly unremorseful about everything that occurred. In the meantime, he has other thoughts to occupy his mind. There's fellow vampire Aspirine who absolutely adores Ferdinand in spite of all his efforts to escape her. There was a Japanese girl he met in Paris that seemed an ideal mate for him until he lost her. And in the meantime there are people like the Tree Man who's been dating Lani and a peculiar mass murderer that Ferdinand is asked to track down. In the end, the book is more a look at relationships, dating scenes, and the difficulty of finding someone to love (or, in Ferdinand's case, seduce), even when there are plenty of people to choose from.

Elements I've found so difficult to stomach in Sfar's past works turned out to be a strength in the case of "Vampire Loves". In the "Sardine" books, Sfar's storylines jump willy-nilly from plot to person to person to plot without much in the way of logical transition. The same could be said of this book, but here it works to the author's advantage. Now we can see Ferdinand's past relationship foibles with the ladies. At the same time, Lani's subplot is carefully laid out and in some ways she comes across as the most believable of characters. Sfar sometimes even stops the action dead and will fill a page with something entitled, "A few notes on the protagonists of this story". These come across more as rough sketches than filled out story elements, but what they add is infinitely interesting.

As for characters, Sfar is at his best here. Adults reading this book (and there are bound to be more than just me) will find some of the people in this story horribly familiar. Ditto the relationships. At the same time, Sfar isn't afraid to just toss in a new character, say a Golem or a Jewish bookstore owner, without any preface or understanding. Under normal circumstances, this kind of thing would bug me. Here, it comes across as an extra added tasty treat, filling out an equally colorful narrative.

I wish that I could say that "Vampire Loves" is for kids, and certainly there's a lot to it that children would enjoy. But there is a bit of sex talk (that'll go over their heads, but still...) and just the adult nature of the relationships in this book calls out for a more mature reader. Honestly, if a nine-year-old asked me for the book I wouldn't hesitate to hand it over. There are some references to drug use and some sex discussions, but interestingly enough the act itself never occurs on the page.

I like my graphic novels, but I don't read them as voraciously as most. In the end, however, "Vampire Loves" is probably one of the best YA GNs to come out this or any year. A compelling story, it actually had me thinking about the characters long after I put the book down. Who knew you could get so much depth out of a cartoon bloodsucker? As "Buffy the Vampire" has taught us, vampires make for wonderful metaphors, both on the page and off.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Love that vampire, January 29, 2007

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vampire Loves (Paperback)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good read!, May 23, 2006

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vampire Loves (Paperback)

Graphic author Joann Sfar has filled Vampire Loves with her own blend of tenderness, humor, melancholy and philosophy.

Ferdinand is a vampire who bites his victims with only one tooth so it appears like a mosquito bite. First he licks them to desensitize the area. What a guy.

He, too, finds it difficult to make sense of his relationships (some with the living; some not) as we follow him through these relationships.

The colors Sfar uses are vivid, the drawings great fun. The edgy, funny and poignant text was translated from French by Alexis Siegel.

Ferdinand falls in love with Asprine, whose sister is Ritaline. He may be dead, but he can still have his heart broken. His "granny" could wave her magic wand and affect his love life if he'd let her.

Every chapter is based on relationships--but we do travel to different places, including the Louvre Museum in Paris (at night, because they ARE vampires).

Vampires in Love...vampires in relationships--well, it IS the 21st Century so anything is possible.

Armchair Interviews says: Subtle and edgy content is combined with intricate cartoon drawings that will keep your interest. Vampire Loves is a very good read.