Girlfiend

April 20, 2015
The Panders (Exquisite Corpse, Triple-X) return to comics after an absence of several years, penning a black-and-white tale of romance gone wrong in a world secretly infested with vampires. Morgue worker Nick, reeling from his girlfriend's infidelity, stumbles into a passionate affair with Karina, a vampire on the run. While Nick and Karina try to sort out their peculiar relationship, they accidentally enter a web of murder and intrigue involving the Blood Brothers, a murderous biker gang who are in turn pursued by two tenacious homicide detectives. Despite its gritty crime-story foundation and urban fantasy nuance, it doesn't take long for this graphic novel to lapse into bland cop drama. The Panders' distinctive visual styleâa jagged, high-contrast look akin to that of Mark Bagley crossed with Michael Avon Oemingâis certainly dynamic and action oriented, but it's severely lacking in finesse, as evidenced by sketched backgrounds, confusing inks, and 1990s-era exploitation poses. Without compelling characters, interesting art, or a satisfying plot (the book's resolution is completely unearned), this novel is something of a disappointment from these veteran creators.