A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night Vol. 1

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night #1-2

by Ana Lily Amirpour (Writer), Michael DeWeese (Artist)

Written by the director of the film of the same name rated 96% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, strange things are afoot in Bad City. The Iranian ghost town, home to prostitutes, junkies, pimps and other sordid souls, is a bastion of depravity and hopelessness where a lonely vampire, The Girl, stalks the town's most unsavory inhabitants. Collects the first two stories.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Horror, Comics, Fiction, Vampires, Fantasy, Iran

66 pages, Paperback

First published January 20, 2021

About the author

Ana Lily Amirpour is an Iranian-American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. She is most known for her feature film debut, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, that made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014, and which was based on a previous short film she wrote and directed with the same title that won "Best Short Film" at the 2012 Noor Iranian Film Festival.

Reviews

[mentalexotica · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are familiar with Iranian culture - the literature, music, the cinema - you will at once understand how seminal this book is. I read the comments - the crappy digital art, a forgettable story, etc. I can't agree. Sometimes you like a book because it exists. It stands out, it does something that breaks the clutter and makes you sit up and take notice.

An Iranian vampire protagonist is as unlikely as an American pacifist (tongue-in-cheek) and as I read I doubt I blinked once. The premise alone has shattered stereotypes. For this and perhaps mainly this, I give this book 5 stars. It is brave. It does the unthinkable - forces you to push your imagination into hard to reach places.

Sure, I wish it were more fleshed out (pun unintended and IYKYK), wish it had more backstory, but I also admit I liked the sparse, spartan storytelling. It is unembroidered and and uncluttered. It is a story served up cold and to its credit the art is as unencumbered. There is little I would change.

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mediocre story, digitilized art that you forget 5 mins after reading. Don't bother.

[Lauren]

Evocative and fantastic art - very sparse on story.
Teenage vampire that wears a chador ... and kills people.

[Matthew Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very stylized and artsy type of book. There isn’t a ton of dialogue, but what is here simply and mildly provokes thought on purpose. Glad I picked this one up very cheap because it maybe took 5 minutes to read and was basically a single issue comic, though technically, I believe this volume collects the entire series of two issues.

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

1/12 of (my own, NOT Goodreads') Read A Graphic Novel / Comic A Month Challenge 2023.

A strong 3 1/2 stars. Impactful, fluid and very lucid (especially for someone like myself who has yet to watch the film it is based on) but maybe a little too brief?*

*I read this in a bookshop in less than 10 minutes (probably closer to 5, tbh) and I’m a notoriously laborious reader… so

[Jay Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the art and vampires, obviously

[RP Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Does a hurricane question it's purpose?'

I loved this but I also loved the film The Girl is pulled from. This slim volume is not heavy in terms of prose or dialogue but I loved getting inside of this blood suckers head. A beautiful companion piece to the film but if you've never seen it I'd avoid this until you have.

[Manasven Raina · Rating 2 out of 5]

At the moment, there is not much to read. The plot if there is any, is paper thin. Took me about 10 minutes to finish it. However, there is cool imagery in some sections. These early issues seem to be setting up a story, they are just not very good at it. Let's see where this goes.

[Rin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not enough for a single book in my opinion. It seems really cool but it was all vibes no content.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spooky and interesting premise I'd like to read more of, doesn't really explain much in the first volume it's very short. The artwork has nice bold shadows, works really well at complimenting the story.

[oh-deanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have not watched the movie this graphic novel is based on but I can tell you that I will be watching it soon after reading this. This was so intriguing and left me with many questions that I’m sure the movie will answer. Haunting and gorgeous, it’s a quick read, but it’s worth it!

[isabella · Rating 4 out of 5]

definitely biased because of how much i love the film but this is really cool, short, sweet, spooky

[Mekatill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really short comic that is atmospheric and beautiful. I love the art style and the mysterious vibe of the book. It's a nice addition to the film, but as a standalone I think it works only as a teaser. I'll still give it 4 stars, as I actually enjoyed it.

[Tom Garback · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Critical Score: B
Personal Score: B
Reading Experience: 📘📘📘📘📘/5

I didn’t realize this is adapted from the film and not the other way around, and this is also only a tiny snippet of content, so there’s not much to judge here, but it was fine enough to make me want to see the movie and finish the comic series.

[Nerdmaling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Serien är en adaption av en film som jag inte har sett. I den första volymen händer det egentligen inte så mycket. Vi presenteras för en kvinnlig vampyr som befinner sig i Iran. Serien är ett inköpsförslag och jag blev lite intresserad eftersom jag tyckte att den lät ganska originell.

Men här är något som överraskar mig lite:

Serien är lite Frank Miller/Sin city inspirerad. Den är aningen mer superhjälteaktig än jag trodde. Huvudpersonen är överraskande Batmanlik, till och med staden (Bad City) skulle kunna vara något från Judge Dredd eller varför inte Basin City (från Sin City).

Det känns både noir (eller neo-noir som det ibland kallas) och med en hyfsat klassisk pulphjälte men med ett kvinnligt perspektiv och det blir ett spännande komplement till den lite mer grabbiga stilen vi ofta ser i de här sammanhangen.

Anledningen att det inte är högre betyg är kanske för att det egentligen inte hunnit hända något än.

[Farnz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 ⭐️

Very short & quick graphic novel! I enjoyed the story & art style. I’m Iranian so I always get excited to see us in literature & to have an Iranian vampire protagonist??! So unique! I also like how everything is white & black, makes everything so stark. If you’re into graphic novels, this is an easy one to read. I just wish it was longer & more fleshed out. I need to watch the movie & find the other volumes now!

“Written by the director of the film of the same name rated 96% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, strange things are afoot in Bad City. The Iranian ghost town, home to prostitutes, junkies, pimps & other sordid souls, is a bastion of depravity & hopelessness where a lonely vampire, The Girl, stalks the town's most unsavory inhabitants. Collects the first 2 stories”

[Juniperus · Rating 3 out of 5]

The movie of the same title is one of my favorites of all time, so I was very excited for this comic, hoping for some backstory or clues to the Girl’s origins. I suppose the story does take place before the events of the film, before she gets to Bad City, but it doesn’t really explain much else, it’s just more of the same but in a less suitable medium. It seems more like an objet d’art than a graphic novel, because there’s very little dialogue or panels, just a lot of full page pictures and narration, which made it like a 10 minute read at most. The art however, is gorgeous and atmospheric, and the idea of printing white ink on black paper is genius.

[Pete Krolczyk · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love independent and comic book companies. This book just needed more. More dialog, art and plot. Now, I'm not saying more is better. I'm saying that this particular book needed to be fleshed out. (No pun intended). Ana Amirpour, this is a great start. But it fell a little short.

[Wren · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5

Basically nothing happens in this graphic novel but damn if it isn't all kinds of awesome! It's all black and white imagery and there's no dialogue. It's just a vampire thinking about life and death and what's the point of all of it. It's so weird and so great and I loved it!

[Paul M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thw art for this book was stunning; All graphics and playing with negative space. The story though was minimal

[Jeik Dion · Rating 4 out of 5]

Artwork is very moody and fits the tone of the story perfectly. This is only volume one and wears kind of thin. Promising great horror comic. Can't wait to read the whole thing.

[Tuni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Atmospheric but so.... sparse. I mean the art is a very cool reverse with black pages and minimalist white art. That was great. But the actual story was very lacking.

[S. Wigget · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw the film, and this graphic novel takes place before the events of the film.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

love this art style

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to see more - the story has just begun...

[Elias]

The art is gorgeous but I wish it was longer. *fingers crossed there will be a second volume

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shorter than it should be, but a welcome prequel to the movie.

[Heather Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE this movie and am ecstatic that the writer is making a comic book series. The debut is only ~40 pages long but a very exciting introduction to the series.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Pat · Rating 2 out of 5]

The art fantastic, the story though is lacking. When a book is less than a five minute read it leaves me wondering why I would spend ten bucks for such an experience.