If you are a verse-loving comic fan with a penchant for France, check out GirlFIEND in Paris, from Dark Horse. This “bloodthirsty bedtime novella” is a continuation of the previous GirlFIEND graphic novel.
In this chapter, Writers and Artists Arnold Pander and Jacob Pander position their characters in today’s Paris. Karina is a day-walking vampire, and Nick is a mortal who happens to prefer the night. Noctural, n’est ce pas. Okay. So anyway, alors, in digital art and poetic rhyming verse, the Brothers Pander dole out the sex, the blood, and suspense.
The drawings are bold, with thick, generous lines curving and bumping into naked body parts and bedsheets. The bold colour emphasis is on blue and black, with splashes of red as accents. The panels are BIG and wide, unlike the ancient streets of Paris, with the verse font confidentally dropping out of a dark tree here, a shadowed chemise there. There are Paris cafés, little espresso cups, and views of the Eiffel Tower and Metro to imply the “where”. But Paris, as enchanting as it might be, is not essential to the story, only a backdrop for enhancing the romantic undertones.
When Karina discovers that her latest criminal prey holds a secret involving an innocent girl, the plot starts to thicken, the vichyssoise of revenge starts to become prepared. The killing is served cold, the sex scenes are dished up hot, it’s a very lot of rhyming couplets, mon dieu!
Includes a bonus “Memoire” album of colour sketches, unexplained snippets of scenes of perhaps the previous GN (??), and other artwork.
Dark Horse, GirlFIEND in Paris, Hardcover Novella, $19.99 for 80 pages. Mature content, 16+
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