Vampire’s Portrait vol 1
Story and Art by Hiroki Kusumoto
Published by the Juné Imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
ISBN10: 1569705909
ISBN13: 9781569705902
Review by Linda Yau
Lou is a portrait street artist who one winter afternoon catches the eye of Sein, a mysterious gentleman. Sein commissions Lou to pain for him a portrait of his true face. What Lou doesn’t realize, until after a particularly violent session of where Sein destroys several of his canvases, is that his new patron is a vampire.
Realizing this fact though, Lou speculates a real reason why Sein would want to commission him, is to want to confirm his existence, within a portrait. Since the length of time has passed so long, that Sein doesn’t remember how he looks like. Now Lou agrees to stay with him, until the image that he draws satisfies Sein. Still, Lou feels satisfied that he has found his ideal model, so he wants to stay by his side for as long as he can.
Lou finds out some detail of Sein that he didn’t know, concerning his grandfather – with Lou being the same likeness as his grandfather. There is love/attention competition from the deceased as well as several other sutors that would vie for the attentions of this vampire.
Like any yaoi story, their relationship develops, but Vampire Portrait is a pretty serious and dark story. There are no sex scenes in this book, but with the 18+ rating, probably in the later books there is going to be something serious. Volume 1 ends with a pretty juicy cliffhanger, so now I am waiting for the sequel. Hope that Juné won’t take too long in releasing the novel.