Girlfiend

by Arnold Pander (Illustrator), Pander Brothers, Jacob Pander (Illustrator)

The Pander Brothers are back and bloodthirsty with Girlfiend, their new vampire crime thriller! The brothers' first major work in comics in a decade, this meaty graphic novel finds them going back to what they do best: Taking comics to the edge. Known for their groundbreaking art in Grendel: Devil's Legacy, their terrifying Exquisite Corpse series, and their revolutionary epic Triple-X, the Pander Brothers now sink their teeth into this pulp-infused thriller in which a human and his vampire girlfriend hunt the criminal underworld to keep their love alive. Nothing could go wrong with that plan, right?

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Horror

280 pages, Paperback

First published April 14, 2015

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid story about a goth guy who falls in love with a vampire. I like the Pander Brothers art normally but this thing really suffers from being over-inked. It made it really hard to tell the male characters apart since about half of them had the same hair cut. They also tried this reverse negative thing and they might as well have just painted those panels black. I couldn't distinguish what was going on when they used this effect. The story does take some strange leaps. At the end of the first issue Karina has run off into an alleyway. At the beginning of the next issue, she's climbing into bed with Nick. I had to go back and make sure I didn't skip any pages.

[Maanu · Rating 3 out of 5]

embrace the campiness and you'll enjoy it

[Nate]

Look at the title. Look at the cover. You know what this is. Cheesy, B movie vampire romance that doesn’t take itself too seriously. And you know what, Girlfiend is entertaining. Don’t get me wrong: the writing’s not great, the art is difficult to make out sometimes, and there are plot holes. But for the goofiness and fact that it doesn’t try to be anything other than what it is, I have to give this book credit. It’s just as much a crime story as a romance, and the Pander Brothers balance everything pretty well. I also like how the vampires get a life flash of their victims when they bite them - that was a neat touch. So, Girlfiend is far from amazing but if you can embrace the camp you might have some fun.

[Victor · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded up bc I've been a fan of the Pander Bros since I read their Grendel run as a kid. I will grant that their art is often more easily distinguishable when it's in color, though, particularly if you aren't familiar with the highly stylized art style they produce. This was apparently originally intended as a screenplay and it feels like a decent vampire flick. Bonus points for accurately depicting Seattle without constant reference to the Space Needle (which is in here too, but so are multiple other landmarks).

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good, edgy read about the relationship between a vampire and her human lover. It’s gory & sexy, definitely not for kids to read. I would’ve given this 4 stars, if not for the art. Sometimes the art can be good. Other times, it’s so convoluted & messy that you have no idea what’s going on in a single panel. That aside, still worth reading for vampire fans, especially if you enjoyed the Underworld movies.

[Jefferson · Rating 2 out of 5]

A goth morgue attendant who is also a musician, a cartoonish gang of petty criminals, an overly intense police detective, and a female vampire who gets naked a lot -- this was like something you would see on late night cable tv in the 1990s. It seemed very dated and unsophistocated for a book published in 2015.

[Vanesa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the art work, although sometimes it was hard to really see what was going on. The story was interesting a typical vampire story and some romance in it.

[Alan · Rating 2 out of 5]

What can I say I remembered it being a lot better when I leafed thru it in high school. It's a shame, excellent plot summary and great title, story and artwork don't hold up.

[Jason]

Didn't really like the art. Too nineties-superhero-influenced. And the over-inking made it hard to distinguish characters and events on the page, especially when the inker did the alternating reverse inking (don't know what the official term would be). I liked the idea, but there was too much going on in the panels in which the technique was executed. There was an interesting outline of a story, but my issues with the art made it difficult to follow.

[Evelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay but with the black and white graphics the story gets lost. Everything seemed blurred and you had to "visualize" what was really happening with the characters in my opinion.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

An underwhelming story with paper-thin characters (particularly the female characters), confusing art, and a shlocky gore horror aesthetic. Pass.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

via NYPL - some decent shlock, but trite on too many levels.