This was okay. I felt that the plot was a little all over the place at times. It jumped from here to there and it was hard to care for the characters, especially the members of The Vain. I felt entirely disconnected to them. I really liked how the history was brought in, but it started to become unbelievable with where everyone was and how they were getting there, etc. I also didn't care much for the art style.

Overall, this was not the best thing I've read, but I can see how some people would like it.

A book that with the glamorising of the lead baddies, and the crisp style of the narration and dialogue, wants to be a classy vampire story. Unfortunately it kind of gets turned into a vampire Forrest Gump variant, as our four bloodsuckers stop holding up blood banks and instead get involved in first being secret agents against the Nazis, then getting Nazi scientists covertly to America, then causing the Cuban Missile Crisis, and so on. All the while a lowly FBI agent is on their tail, not to realise the abject danger that position holds. It certainly does something the normal vampire story doesn't, but it didn't quite convince – especially in the body-ripping-apart images – and despite it not being a large part of the text, the grousing and quibbling from the undead got on my nerves a bit. Three and a half stars for the novel approach and for trying its best to be understated when it could have gone full-on wacky.

What would you do if you were a vampire? The story follows the lives of four criminal vampires who rob, kill, and do everything in between over the courses of their lives. They’re stylish, sinful, and will do anything to stave off their boredom and get blood. As with the changing world, new challenges arise and getting blood just isn’t as easy as it use to be and committing crime will get harder to get away with especially when someone from their past is hellbent on capturing them. It was definitely an interesting and fun read! The artwork was really nice and the story was action packed!

*Thanks Netgalley and Oni Press for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

This comic has so much potential but I really think it needed to be planned out and organized more. I only started to like the story towards the end and I do hope that it continues because I am pretty interested to see if it continues as interesting as it started to get.

“Spanning nearly a century in time, The Vain chronicles the criminal lives of four sinful and stylish blood bank-robbing vampires.”

The Vain follows a group of four vampires who steal blood in order to survive. The FBI quickly catches on and one agent, Felix Franklin, makes it his life’s goal to catch them. As the years pass it becomes harder to access blood, making them more desperate and with the FBI inching closer, it’s only so long before they are caught.

It really captured the style of old detective dramas and I’m glad it came across so well in this format. Around ten pages in, I was gripped as we see the first of many gore scenes. Lost’s “scared yet?” moments after blowing her brains out is easily one of my favourite scenes from any graphic novel I’ve ever read.

The only issue I had was with the timing, fitting almost a century into 140 pages left the story feeling a little rushed at times. However it didn’t affect how much I enjoyed the story and the characters. And what an ending!!!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy in exchange for my honest review.

The story allows the writer to have the characters morph their approach over the years, which means as the story goes on you get several different kinds of vampire stories. We start with vampires doing black-ops missions to kill Nazi in a Captain America-style story, then we get vampires toying with hippies in 1970s California, and a grand finish that's reminiscent of 80s action films. A little something for everyone...

The cover and premise for this sounded badass and fun as hell, but the actual comic left something to be desired. It was, in many ways, slight and underwhelming--the character development was underwhelming, as was the plotting. A few of the setpieces were very fun and bloody, but they weren't enough to make up for everything else. Also, I felt like splitting time between the group of vampires and the FBI agent dragged the pacing down (and, well, I wasn't interested in the boring white man at all).

The Vain is a pop culture tour of America’s bloody history, using the backdrop of theft, serial killers, military conflict, cults, and conspiracies this short read is fun romp. There are more than a few cinematic nods that are executed stylishly on the page, with a number of sequences that I would recommend to students looking for examples of how to balance action and character.

As a fan of Vampire stories The Vain’s exploration of the ethics of trading human blood for immortality was expected but welcome. The rules it set out for it’s vampires were reminiscent of Being Human or American Horror Story. However it concerned itself less with the psychology of the vampire protagonists leaving some chapters feeling a little unsatisfied. I was though entirely gratified with the conclusive ending cementing the story as the self contained narrative it needed to be.

The Vain is crispy and colorfully drawn and takes the reader into a world that blends historical crime and supernatural elements. There is a level of violence in the book that feels like it aligns with the direction that the books goes in, and the author/illustrator team share a story in pictures and words that trades of suspense with enjoyable genre-blending.

This was a very strange little book. I'm not entirely sure what happened and where it went? The story didn't seem entirely clear and while I enjoyed the art, I didn't always follow what was happening.