Life Sucks
"Life Sucks" is a graphic novel that offers a unique take on the vampire genre, presenting a story that combines the mundane aspects of life with supernatural elements. It follows the protagonist, Dave Miller, a young convenience store attendant in Los Angeles who has been transformed into a vampire by his boss, Radu, a Romanian vampire. Set against a backdrop of night shifts and interactions with eclectic customers, the narrative explores themes of slacker existence and the challenges of modern life, even for those with eternal life. The plot thickens when Dave becomes romantically interested in Rosa, a young Latina Goth, while navigating rivalries with other vampires, including the aggressive surfer vampire, Wes.
The artistic style by Warren Pleece complements the storyline, using vibrant colors and clean illustrations to depict the otherwise humdrum lives of the characters. This approach allows for a grounded portrayal of vampires, contrasting sharply with the glamorization found in works like "Twilight." The novel critiques capitalist structures and social inequalities, portraying vampires as ordinary individuals burdened by life's responsibilities rather than mystical creatures of privilege. With its relatable themes, "Life Sucks" has garnered a positive reception, particularly among young adult readers, for its refreshing blend of humor, realism, and vampire lore.
Life Sucks
AUTHOR: Abel, Jessica; Soria, Gabe
ARTIST: Warren Pleece (illustrator); Hilary Sycamore (colorist)
PUBLISHER: First Second
FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 2008
Publication History
Life Sucks was published as a 192-page volume by First Second Books, an imprint of Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers. Abel has also published Drawing Words and Writing Pictures (2008), a textbook for comics creation, with First Second. Life Sucks is co-author Gabe Soria’s first graphic novel. Illustrator Warren Pleece is a well-established illustrator from Great Britain who works regularly for DC Comics.
Plot
Life Sucks tells the story of Dave Miller, a young convenience-store attendant in the heart of Los Angeles. Unbeknownst to his many patrons is the fact that the owner of the twenty-four-hour convenience store, Radu Arisztidescu, a vampire of Romanian descent, has transformed Dave into a vampire.
The story begins with Dave waking up at night, drinking what appears to be V8 juice and leaving home to cover his shift at the store. That night, the shop is frequented by Goths who patronize nearby establishments. While Dave is talking to Jerome, a fellow vampire, a young Latina walks in, catching Dave’s attention. At this point, Dave and Jerome joke between themselves about being young vampires. Radu then walks into the store, checking on Dave.
The following day, Radu calls Dave to cover someone else’s shift. As Dave heads to work, Wes, a surfer vampire, cuts him off and damages his bicycle. After finishing his shift, Dave realizes he needs to get home before sunrise. Along the way, he meets Rosa Velasquez, the Latina he saw at the shop, and she gives him a ride. By the time he gets home, Dave cannot get her out of his head.
Next, the convenience store is robbed. Radu arrives and finds Dave wounded. Jerome arrives, having killed the convenience store robber by chance, a fact for which Radu is glad. When Rosa’s friend comes in, Jerome hypnotizes her and finds out where Rosa works.
On another night, while Wes is at the store, Rosa walks in and sparks the surfer’s interest. When Dave and his friends go to see Rosa at a fashion show, Wes shows up as well, and a rivalry begins. Trying to contain Wes, Dave forces him to take a vampire’s oath. Dave’s concerns about Wes’s treatment of women seem well founded after Wes ruthlessly disposes of one of his vampire brides, Simone, tearing her head off while they surf at the beach.
Rosa and Dave go to the movies to watch a vampire trilogy; it turns out Wes’s father owns the films. Eventually, Wes seduces Rosa, intensifying the conflict between him and Dave. One night, while Dave and Rosa are at a diner, Wes walks in with his two remaining vampire brides, making her realize she has been fooled. Dave then takes her to a beach, where, ignorant of his condition, a disenchanted Rosa speaks about her longing to become a vampire, imagining them to be beautiful, artistic people.
Rosa’s and Dave’s relationship grows, and, in due course, she learns the truth about his identity. (Wes has visited her at her work and insinuated Dave might hold a secret.) However, Dave refuses to turn her into a vampire.
The story’s resolution leads to a showdown at a party at Wes’s beach house in Malibu. By the time Dave arrives, he finds Rosa in Wes’s arms, turned into a vampire at her request. A fight ensues, and Merle, a biker vampire, comes to Dave’s assistance. In the end, Dave strikes a bargain with Radu, who forces Wes to renounce Rosa. Dave returns to his night shift at Last Stop, where he repeats the cycle by targeting an aimless child from Ohio, who has just arrived in Los Angeles to try his luck with a band.
Characters
•Dave Miller, the protagonist, is a young vampire who works at a convenience store in central Los Angeles. He shares an apartment with his best friend, Carl, and refuses to kill to feed himself, embracing alternate sources of food, such as the blood bank.
•Rosa Velasquez is a young Latina Goth with a predilection for vampires. She lives in Boyle Heights, where her mother chastises her for dating Caucasian Americans. She is Dave’s love interest, but Wes, the surfer vampire, seduces her. At her request, he makes her into a vampire. In the end, she finds a job at the Sunshine Diner with Sue-Yun, another young vampire.
•Wes is a stereotypical Southern California surfer dude, who has turned into vampire. Given his attitude, he failed as a worker at Last Stop, Radu’s convenience store. He is given to bouts of aggressiveness and has a dark past. In the course of the story, he savagely beheads three of his vampire brides. According to Dave, he even murdered his own brother. After he makes Rosa into a vampire, he is forced to renounce her as his vampire bride.
•Radu Arisztidescu is a Romanian vampire, owner of the Last Stop convenience store, and master of Jerome, Dave, and Wes. He enjoys playing cards with his fellow immigrant vampires, while his slaves assure him a steady income through sales at the convenience store.
•Jerome is a young vampire and friend of Dave. Unlike Dave, he has decided to feed himself through victims. In addition, he has developed his vampire skills somewhat better than Dave has: He practices hypnotism, is able to go through walls, and can transform at will.
•Carl is African American and is Dave’s best friend and roommate. He knows Dave is a vampire.
•Merle is a middle-aged biker who befriends Dave. He encourages Dave to get rid of his master and embrace vampire freedom. At the end of the story, Merle defends Dave and beats Wes at the latter’s beach party.
•Sue-Yun is a young, independent Asian American vampire who works at the Sunshine Diner. After Wes sets Rosa free, Sue-Yun offers Rosa advice and guidance, getting her a job at the Sunshine.
Artistic Style
Life Sucks is a single, full-color volume, a format embraced by First Second for many of its releases. The notebook-sized format allows for several panels per page, usually, between five and nine, arranged in a straightforward style, emphasizing the humdrum lifestyle of the main characters. Given the nature of the story, most of the action takes place at night or in closed quarters; thus, black is a prevailing color. However, Pleece’s art relies on neatly drawn figures and the dexterous use of color to add vivacity to the story. Despite the novel’s emphasis on the monotonous existence of these particular vampires, Pleece’s illustrations come across as lively and engaging.
Pleece’s style of illustration tends to emphasize cleanly shaped forms, with finely drawn shading and minimal scratchiness. Though the story line does not emphasize a sense of place—Wes’s house by the beach is one of the few concrete symbols—Pleece’s art conveys a clear notion of setting. In it, Southern California appears as a location with solid colors, lacking gradation or tones.
Occasionally, Pleece gives in to cartoonishness, and his characters attain an almost Archie-like quality. Faces, in particular, range from careful delineation (Wes, Radu) to iconographic simplicity (a surprised Jerome). Nevertheless, generally speaking, images tend to be realistic and portray characters in a fairly factual manner.
Dialogue appears in balloons with clear lettering, adding to the story’s overall sense of realism and consistency, though it mixes in sporadically with the framing of vignettes. In short, vampires become regular, everyday beings without any degree of idealization.
Themes
Life Sucks bears the influence of two main texts: the film Clerks (1994), directed by Kevin Smith, and the Twilight (2005-2008) fiction series, by Stephenie Meyer. Like Clerks, the main action in Life Sucks revolves around routine life in a convenience store. In a sense, the novel is a snapshot of the life of slackers, noting how days go by without remarkable differences. However, in this particular case, the duration of routine is informed by the fact that Dave is a vampire, meaning his life is an endless cycle. Thus, the novel not only alludes to but also updates the film.
When juxtaposed with Twilight, Life Sucks is a critique of vampires. Unlike the well-known book series, Life Sucks does not attempt to glamorize vampires. Rather, it portrays vampires as common individuals who must pay the rent, for example, and conform to the forces of capitalism. Centuries of existence do not imply amazing wealth or a sense of refinement but, rather, decades of exploitation at hands of a corresponding master.
Even instances of dramatic action in the novel, such as Simone’s decapitation at the beach, are set against the backdrop of laid-back activities—such as surfing—setting the tone for a narrative bent on a more “realistic” view of vampires (as opposed to the idealization of vampires in Twilight). It is evident in the power relations between owners and employees, poor and rich slackers, that capitalism is ever-present. Hence, in this case, vampires fit within an economic order based on social inequality, rather than being glorified representations of aristocratic privilege.
Impact
Life Sucks builds on Abel’s reputation as an author, even if it results from a collective effort. Thanks mostly to La Perdida (2001-2005), which firmly established her as a new talent in the field of graphic novels, new opportunities surfaced for Abel, encouraging creative growth. Accordingly, Life Sucks differs greatly in subject matter and style from La Perdida and suggests the potential for variety in Abel’s work. Life Sucks is Soria’s first work in the field of graphic novels. Building on the fashionable topic of vampires, the book seems to have generated a solid audience and has consistently enjoyed good reviews. In particular, it has been marketed at a young-adult readership. In September, 2010, Square Fish Books, an imprint of Macmillan, published a new edition of the book, confirming that the book sold well in its first run.
The book is celebrated for its down-to-earth approach to vampires, shying away from romanticization (à la Twilight), or violence and action, as in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) television series. Its ability to combine slacker sensibility with postadolescent angst, embodied in the Goth penchant for vampire topics, is an unlikely formula for success.
Further Reading
Hamilton, Laurell K. Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter (1993-2010).
Jensen, Van. Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer and the Great Puppet Theater (2010).
Niles, Steve, and Ben Templesmith. Criminal Macabre: A Cal McDonald Mystery (2004- ).
‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. 30 Days of Night (2002).
Roberson, Chris. iZombie (2010- ).
Snyder, Scott, and Stephen King. American Vampire (2010- ).
Bibliography
Brophy-Warren, Jamin. “Generation Vampire.” Wall Street Journal 251, no. 97 (April 25, 2008): W2.
Fletcher-Spear, Kristin. Review of Life Sucks by Jessica Abel and Gabe Soria. Library Media Connection 27, no. 2 (October, 2008): 76-77.
Review of Life Sucks by Jessica Abel and Gabe Soria. Publishers Weekly 255, no. 8 (February 25, 2008): 59.