My Pretty Vampire
My Pretty Vampire. by Katie Skelly. Fantagraphics Books. Seattle. softcover, 2018. 108pp, $16.99.
Katie Skelly is a cartoonist that I admire a lot. I was looking over my library of books and it occurs to me that My Pretty Vampire is just the right book for Halloween. Of course, it’s right for any season, but the point is that Katie Skelly’s uncanny work is especially delicious at this time of year. Skelly pulls together elements from comics, manga, genre film and pulp fiction and makes it all her own. Her style is very smooth and clean. If you appreciate horror in its many forms, then you know that the good stuff can get pretty deep. Well, that is absolutely the case with this book. Even if you just give it a quick casual scan, you can’t help but sense there’s more than meets the eye. Skelly’s style defies easy categorization. Edward Gorey, Dame Darcy, Richard Sala come to mind for starters. Suehiro Maruo, for those swimming to the deep end. Another notable influence: Jean-Claude Forest, the cartoonist known for 1962’s Barbarella, the quirky Sci-Fi cult favorite of many a reader, including Skelly. Ultimately, Katie Skelly has put in the time, absorbed numerous influences, and emerged with a distinctive vision.
Highbrow Meets Lowbrow.
I love the irreverent vibe running throughout this book. You aren’t suppose to take anything too seriously. At the same time, the comic casts its spell upon the reader. The reader becomes immersed in the strange and creepy narrative. The deeper one gets into the story, the reader discovers a far more esoteric world than expected in the typical horror genre and is challenged to go beyond accepted tropes.
More Than Meets The Eye.
My Pretty Vampire is a beautifully pared-down work in comics with a unique haunting quality. Take any page at random and you can hang it up on a gallery wall. That is not an easy thing to accomplish. Some comics just aren’t meant to show in a gallery while some work, like Skelly’s, infused with such a rich assortment of elements, has the substance it takes to hold up to closer scrutiny.
When Horror is More than Horror.
Editor’s Note: Be sure to check out Katie Skelly’s most recent graphic novel, just out this month, Maids, published by Fantagraphics Books.
