Model (Tokyopop)

    (Tokyopop, 2004-2005)
™ and ©2001 Lee So-Young
Black and white

It’s a vampiric version of Beauty and the Beast, except it’s the vampire who’s the self–proclaimed beauty in this odd, post–modern supposed Gothic romance. It’s part Dracula, part Rebecca, as Jae, a Korean would–be artist living in Europe, has an unconscious drunk tossed on her couch by her gay friend.

The “drunk” turns out to be the vampire Michael, and these misfits strike a deal: He can feed on her, if she can paint his portrait, and soon she’s living in his dark mansion. Moreover, she has to deal with a housekeeper who’s more than she seems and with the comings and goings of increasingly strange strangers.

For someone who made such a pathetic entrance, Michael’s full of himself, going on and on about his attractiveness, power, age, etc., but luckily Jae has a low threshold for this sort of Vampire Lestat nonsense. It all leads to a lively non–standard master–love relationship that should appeal to the GloomCookie crowd.

— S.A. Bennett
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