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Aug 03, 2017 Issue #61 - Grizzly Bear By Jeremy Nisen

Katie Skelly’s My Pretty Vampire is a very fresh take on the iconic bloodsuckers-Clover is something of a kept object by a brother obsessed with her, and the actual violence and gore of the book is significantly less creepy than most of the subtext. Much of the book involves what happens when Clover is on the run, struggling to feed and keep a step ahead of her brother and the man he’s hired to find her.

The cartooning is distinctive and stylish, and Skelly wields it in a rather economical manner, with each image efficiently portraying action and emotion and, again, that all-important subtext. We were quite taken with the book until the end, which lands with a bit of a thud; the final resolution feels unearned by what came before and isn’t entirely satisfying.

It’s intriguing and original enough to keep Skelly on our radar, even if this book maybe deserved a few dozen more pages to flesh out an ending that was worthy of the frantic, fraught, and morally provoking story that preceded it. (www.fantagraphics.com)

Author rating: 6/10