Life Sucks

Written by Jessica Abel and Gabe Soria
Art by Warren Pleece

This is a fantastic little graphic novel that came out with very little fanfare, and was criminally overlooked.

Life Sucks is Twilight meets Clerks.  In the Life Sucks world, classic Old World vampires sire themselves slave to run their business empires while they hang out in a wood-paneled club-house hidden in a scary old castle.  Dave is stuck working for Lord (Radu) Arisztidescu at his all-night convenience store, where among other things, he sells 'Blood Beer' and 'Blood Orange Juice' to a certain select group of customers.  Dave has to do his master's bidding, and so he is trapped in this menial job.

One of his closest friends is a vampire working for one of Radu's friends, as his Wes, his nemesis.  Dave's roommate is not a vampire, but is fully aware of his friend's status as a 'vegetarian vampire', refusing to hunt and drinking only blood bank blood.  Dave has fallen hard for Rosa, a local Goth girl who festishizes vampire culture.

The majority of the story deals with Dave's building up the nerve to begin to talk to Rosa, only to have Wes declare his interest in her.  In many ways, this book reads like a very intelligent sitcom, with the rivals competing for the girl's attention.  There are tons of small touches that are quite amusing, and the characters are very likeable.

A lot of credit has to go to Warren Pleece, who has never failed to deliver when working on a character-driven comic.  This is a fun, and funny, book, which should be adapted into film or would work well as the basis of a television series.