Title - American Vampire, Vol. 1Author - Scott Snyder & Stephen KingIn the introduction to this graphic novel Stephen King writes - "...Here's what vampires shouldn't be: pallid detectives who drink Bloody Marys and only work at night; lovelorn southern gentlemen; anorexic teenage girls; boy-toys with big dewey eyes. What should they be? Killers, honey. Stone killers who never get enough of that tasty Type-A. Bad boys and girls. Hunters. In other words, Midnight America. Red, white and blue, accent on the red..."And that is what King and Snyder do. They write big, bloody, black as night blood, dripping and seething from every page and they make no excuses for it to the teenage romance vampires that degradate the genre. They just did it in graphic novel form. Which is pretty great since it gives Rafael Albuquerque the opportunity to show off his art work and he does that extremely well.Snyder tells the story of would be actress and dreamer Pearl Jones in the 1920s Los Angeles. In Big Break Pearl finds herself in a Movie Producer's home, only it isn't what it seems to be. Instead of a sex party the Producer and his friends are something else entirely and Pearl ends up bloody and torn up in the desert.King has written the origin to Snyder's anti-hero, Skinner Sweet. An outlaw in the 1880s, Sweet is awaiting execution but in his plan to escape the train derails and he finds himself face to face with a Robber Baron. The Baron is no regular banker though and Skinner dies, but in doing so, mixes his blood with that of his killer.Both Pearl and Sweet have been tainted with the blood of the vampires that killed them. Only these were old world vampires and when the curse comes to being in the new world, it takes on a different shape. A stronger more powerful vampire. One who can walk in the day. The older vampires look to control the younger breed but in fine American tradition, these new vampires refuse to become the inferiors of the European blood line and begins a vicious battle for control of the West. These are true vampire tales told in full with plenty of history and symbolism as it expected from a good vampire story. The monsters here are real. Their blood lust rules and there is no mercy shone. Snyder's tale holds it's own next to King's and the artwork is detailed fitting for the period.A very high quality story and graphics as should be expected from a Vertigo line of comics. And lots of fun too! I feel it's a sign of strong character building when you're torn between who to root for. In AMERICAN VAMPIRE's Skinner Sweet you have a villain who is so likeable you want to cheer for him even though you know he's the bad guy. But that actually happens pretty regularly in fiction. What makes this so strong specifically is how much you also feel for Book and Felix as heroes, and want them to win the day as well. You wonder what's going to happen further generations down the line and you want them to be victorious in the end. But then that would require Sweet losing, and you don't know if you want that either.... This could go back and forth forever, and while I'm really singling out Stephen King's story here, that feeling is enforced by Scott Snyder's story, where you can really rally behind Sweet.I'm not usually all that much of a fan of the art style of Raphael Albuquerque. It reminds me of Leinil Yu in that it has too many lines and looks messy. Where Albuquerque wins however, is in his vampire design (especially the American vampires) which is unique, legitimately scary, and pretty awesome.
What do You think about American Vampire #1 (2000)?
I feel it's a sign of strong character building when you're torn between who to root for. In AMERICAN VAMPIRE's Skinner Sweet you have a villain who is so likeable you want to cheer for him even though you know he's the bad guy. But that actually happens pretty regularly in fiction. What makes this so strong specifically is how much you also feel for Book and Felix as heroes, and want them to win the day as well. You wonder what's going to happen further generations down the line and you want them to be victorious in the end. But then that would require Sweet losing, and you don't know if you want that either.... This could go back and forth forever, and while I'm really singling out Stephen King's story here, that feeling is enforced by Scott Snyder's story, where you can really rally behind Sweet.I'm not usually all that much of a fan of the art style of Raphael Albuquerque. It reminds me of Leinil Yu in that it has too many lines and looks messy. Where Albuquerque wins however, is in his vampire design (especially the American vampires) which is unique, legitimately scary, and pretty awesome.
—bindy
I really enjoyed this, which is saying something, especially since I don't really like vampire stories. The art and coloring are superb, which is even more impressive since the alternating storylines have a distinct feel from each other. As usual, Scott Snyder writes a great script, and Stephen King's was good as well, although I felt that it didn't flow as well as Snyder's with the art (likely since he doesn't write comic book scripts regularly). I've been sucked in enough to want to know where the story is going, and how Snyder is going to explore themes about his vision of the light and dark sides of America through the decades in this series.
—butterfly
Great start to this series. Thank goodness I have volumes 2 & 3 in my possession.
—Martin
Stephen King's foray into comics. Cool story of real badassed vampires.
—Moo
