Not really my cup of tea which is sucks because lesbians and vampires are my favorite thing. I would have loved to read more about the couple because to me that was the most interesting part of the entire story. Unfortunately, I had to sit through and read about an obsessed FBI agent. Also the ending was rushed and not properly executed. It could have used at least another 6 issues to be fleshed out better.

I say this all the time and I will say it again now: I love vampires! I'm not sure why but I have always had an afininity for them and I think this is a perfect example of why. This graphic novel had so many amazing things going for it! It has vampires, its queer, it spans decades, its got action, and love. This novel literally had everything.
I really enjoyed how this story was told and that it didn't shy away from exploring darker themes. A lot of times I see books or stories like this that just don't take it far enough but this novel did. I really enjoyed that.
I also loved the characters. Yes they were villains and definitely not the best people but they felt like what vampires would really be like in our world and throughout history. And not just them but the human characters as well felt very real in how they reacted.
This was just a solid vampire horror graphic novel. I throughly enjoy it for so many reasons and definitely plan of talking this one up for ages.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

When I was younger, I saw a cyberpunk anime where the Vampire was weary of creating new identities to survive in society. The technology was catching up on his tricks and making life difficult. The description for the Graphic Novel (GN) seemed similar and intrigued me.


The book starts with a robbery. A group of Vampires rob a blood bank.
At the same time, Felix, an FBI agent, is trying to get a case opened on a series of blood banks robberies. As the Vampires leave peacefully, a guard makes a racist comment towards one of the women, who happens to be black. I was watching the George Floyd murder trial just before reading the comic. Ironically, as I watched the trial, I thought there wasn't enough acceptance of racism and a lack of ethnic representation in literature. How if we increased social awareness, over time, the narrative in society might change. Then along came the comic Vain.

The artwork is excellent, and the vibe very noir. Something I love is that the story is told using the art with text adding to the experience. I've read too many comics where there is practically a wall of text. The book flows well, and I enjoyed looking, reading and immersing myself in the tale.

The book is divided into chapters. Chapter one sets the scene; We are introduced to the four vampires and FBI agent Felix. The world is built, and Felix's hunt for the blood bank thieves is explained. Chapter 2 jumps to WW2. Vampires fighting Nazis, it is hard not to love it. It is in chapter 2 that we discover the meaning of the title. The Vampires fighting the Nazis are codenamed "The Vain".

What was a reasonably tight tale now starts to jump through time in more significant segments. Initially, the story retains its cohesiveness; however, there is too much left unexplained towards the end. The final sections of the story felt rushed. I think it would have benefited from a new chapter for every decade before the final ending. The rush through time means most characters, except for the Vampire named North and FBI agent Felix are not developed.

I enjoyed the story for the first few chapters. Even in the middle, it was still good as time was not progressing so fast. Towards the end, I started to lose interest; time had jumped too far without explaining plot changes. The story was still good, and the ending bittersweet. I had fun reading the GN, and most people will enjoy reading it. If you like Vampires, you'll love this

I absolutely LOVED the style and the mood of this graphic novel BUT that is the only thing I liked.
I found this very uninteresting and when I finished it I was wondering what was the point of this

ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Vain had a really interesting concept, to begin with. It's a graphic novel that follows a group of four vampires starting somewhere around the second world war to present day. Parallely, we have an FBI agent who comes across them in his days as a soldier and he becomes obsessed with them and vows to hunt them down.

I really loved the artwork in this book! It's very reminiscent of like old DC comics, you know? Very...noir. And I also loved the inclusivity. Sapphic vampires and gay vampires, yess.. let's turn this allegory on itself!

The thing is, thought, nothing really spoke to me. It was a fun flip through, and I'm sure I could read it again if I'm bored, but I didn't particularly feel connected to any of the characters or have much of a stake in the story. It was just sorta...happening. It's a fun read, for sure, but it wasn't All That™ for me, unfortunately! Still, very grateful to the publishers for providing me with the eARC!

I really enjoyed this graphic novel. I loved that we saw a twist on history where vampires fight Nazis. I found that some of the time jumps went a bit too far and left too much unexplained.

This book was sent to me as an ARC on NetGalley. However all opinions are of my own.
I have any just started reading comics and graphic and I felt like this book was a perfect place to start. I did enjoy the art I thought it was pretty decent however I wasn’t completely attached to the story. I didn’t find it as intriguing as what I thought I would have. I’m not particularly a fan of vampires and I did feel like they were quite played down so it didn’t have that thrilling aspect which I think maybe it needed.

3 stars

This graphic novel has an interesting premise, and the art is gorgeous & punchy. Sadly, the plot was not very complex, & the character development was lacking. It was still worth the read for me, though.

[What I liked:]

•I love the colors of the art. They are bold, but also blurred in a way that gives them depth & shadow.

•There’s lots of fun stuff here! Bank robbers, FBI agents, espionage, hippies...fun stuff :)

•The ending is a bit melodramatic but...it’s so visually beautiful & striking that I really liked it anyway.


[What I didn’t like as much:]

•Felix’s life transitions weren’t explained very well. Like why was he so obsessed? I want to understand why, & then maybe I could get his actions & mindset.

•I wish there was backstory and/or more character development on The Vain themselves...Lost is the only one who really gets much of a personality.

•There are some plot holes. Since The Vain were so helpful during the war, why weren’t they retained by the agency? Why did Felix’s career go the way it did when his boss knew he was telling the truth? The Vain are worried that technology is making their existence tenuous, so why not go to another place or country where it would be easier to go unnoticed?

CW: murder, gore, forced asylum internment

[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]

this was actually a pretty good read, and it was far better than i was expecting it to be. as always with graphic novels, it had beautiful artwork also!

The story of four vampire friends kicks off in Chicago, 1941. But the timeline stretches until the year 2020, where the story then also finds its end. The timeline was a bit jumpy and hard to follow at times, because I feel like there wasn't a clear separation of the story line between the time period jumps. However, the story is filled with an action-packed plot. The vampire friends need to somehow find enough blood to feed on and sometimes encounter a lot of problems doing this. Multiple times they end up leaving behind brutal murder scenes which the police don't know what to do with.

An FBI agent witnesses them killing Nazis and figures out that they're vampires, but nobody believes him. And so it becomes his life's work to try and catch the four (also called The Vain).

I give this a 3 Stars rating, because I still not feel like there was a particular reason for me to like this graphic novel. I don't quite understand what the meaning of the story was or what the author is trying to tell us, if there even is a message there.

The Vain contains gorgeous art work, and carries some major Inglorious Basterds vibes. The story features a group of four vampires wreaking havoc during WWll, and moves forward over the course of decades.

One of my favourite things about vampire stories in general is that their worlds are typically queernorm, and The Vain did not disappoint in this regard. Queer graphic novels hold a special place in my heart. There were some beautiful interracial wlw panels that I would buy in full-sized wall prints in a heartbeat.

The pace of the story moved rapidly; every time it felt as if I was settling in to a particular time period, the plot would rocket forward and my adjustment would begin anew. This seemed very intentional, and while it was jarring on occassion, it did work to keep me engaged.

The Vain was a fun and quick read that I would absolutely revisit.

This was fun read, I loved the combination of vampires in history! I also just really enjoyed the characters themselves! The story was pretty slow moving overall which was a bit of a struggle for me but after I picked it back up and finished it, I enjoyed it. A very solid 3.5 star rating rounded up to 4

I enjoyed reading this and loved the art style but i didn’t find the story remarkably memorable. I didn’t feel attached to any of the characters like I hoped I would be. I think that if each chapter was longer so we spent more time with the characters that i would have cared more for them.

art style 4/5
plot 4/5
characters 2/5

This book had an interesting premise but a pretty poor execution. I think the timeline was the biggest issue. Events seemed to pass by extremely quickly. Maybe this setup was supposed to show how short years seem to immortal vampires, but the unfortunate result was that I was unable to emotionally connect with any of the characters. I really wanted to know more about the vampires. How did they become vampires in the first place? How do they decide who they will kill/spare? I had so many questions about them but none were answered.

Puedo resumir esta novela en tres palabras: Vampiros vs nazis.

Amé el pequeño grupo pero en especial a Van y Fanny y su relación en general es hermosa. Van es una lider nata que sabe qué hacer y como hacerlo, que proteja a Fanny y que Fanny intente hacer lo mismo? Dude, me encanta. Fuera de ellas dos la historia es simple, pero como creo que su relación vale la pena le doy 3 estrellas.

Si les gustan los vampiros y un poco de tinte político leanlo, es ligero y las ilustraciones son lindas<3

A beautifully illustrated adventure through history following a group of vampires and their roles in major political movements and historic events throughout US 20th century history. I loved the journey through different eras, the alternate-history, and the artwork was lovely - the colours, character designs and clothing was really fun (and the occassional gore scary without being too graphic!) I just really wanted more - the story went far too quickly, and there was barely any exploration into the characters' personalities and backstories. I would love to own a printed copy!

I was gifted an e-ARC copy of "The Vain" graphic novel in exchange for an honest review. (Thank you Oni Press and Netgalley!)

Synopsis: Vampires throughout history, finding ways to stay alive, while being hunted by an FBI agent - what's not to love?! This graphic novel follows a troupe of four vampires from the 50's to modern times, as they commit crimes, murders, fall in love, and escape the clutches of the law.

My review: I am absolutely enamored by the art style, I found myself gawking and rereading pages just to take in the images again and again. I loved watching the characters transform throughout the ages, to fit in with current fashion, and to witness the power dynamic shifts within the troupe itself. My only reason I ranked it down one star was because I wanted even more character development, perhaps a tad more words or back story on the beautiful vampires themselves.

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

"For those who are fortunate, we can chose to wear whatever face we want, reveal ourselves to
whomever we want, and change whenever we want. We are a­ strangers. Even to those who love us the most. Life is a great masquerade that way."

This is the story of 4 vampires who have to evolve through the decades, starting in the 1940's, to avoid being discovered by humans. Until a FBI agent runs into them and becomes obssesed with the idea of exposing them to the world.
I really liked the different art styles, and the incorporation of history into the plot. The characters felt a little shallow though. I believe this story would be even more interesting if it became a full on series. It was a quick and fun read though.

I found this graphic novel to be a bit strange. I really did enjoy how it showed the vampires as they went through the different time periods and places in the country. It also tied in relevant current events for the time period. The illustrations were very clear, semi graphic and gory, but nothing too major. I liked how there were two different storyline viewpoints going on simultaneously. I am not an avid reader of graphic novels so I thought I would give this a try. The description sounded good and I really liked the cover that they chose.

The Vain is a horror comic which follows 4 vampires: Lost, Fanny, North, and Marquis - collectively known as 'The Vain' - across several decades. They are constantly evading the capture of Felix Frankin, an FBI agent who is investigating the suspicious burglaries which only seem to steal blood (he begins to wonder whether this is a war offence... or perhaps something more sinister). It reads much like a typical American style crime TV show.
My favourite part of this was, without-a-doubt, the comic style illustrations (I thought this was a graphic novel going into it, but I was soon proven wrong) and I LOVE the cover, how stunning! But, please be aware this is an adult horror comic, therefore, there are some extremely gruesome scenes, with lots of gore and violent scenes.
I also did really enjoy the sapphic representation and the ending was bittersweet (very controversial, as I know a lot of people dislike the ending, and thought it was anti-climatic, but I personally thought it was fitting and a nice conclusion).
So the premise of this really did sound great, however I think the execution just fell a bit flat and I was constantly left wanting more. I think the main issue stems from the plot and timeline. The timeline itself was just too long, and the short length of the comic (and lack of words) unfortunately didn't do the plot any justice. It felt rushed and each time period was over in the blink of an eye - you just start to properly get into the time period (such as WW2 - so cool, wish it would have focused on this era more!) and then it abruptly moves on, which just left me feeling disappointed. In my opinion, this would have been better off as a series of comics, which each volume focusing on the time period.
Nevertheless, I would mostly recommend this to fans of horror comics and vampire lovers!