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aceinit's review against another edition
5.0
I could really kick myself--hard--for waiting so long to give American Vampire a try.
I’ve been meaning to read it since Vertigo first started blurbing it in Hellblazer as an upcoming release, but I never quite made the commitment. I was skeptical. In the Twilight age, the vampire genre has taken a beating. Gone were the days when the undead were mad, bad and dangerous to know. Twilight and the urban fiction/romance genre had brought us a new breed of vampire. One who existed pretty much solely to fulfull every woman’s “bad boy” fantasy. Vamps were nothing more than pretty, pretty sex objects who were “dangerous.” And I use dangerous in parenthesis because there was usually way more brooding and emo angst involved than anything life-threatening.
Vampires, for me, had become a turn-off.
And now there’s American Vampire, which I finally sat down to read after seeing more and more of Rafael Albuquerque’s amazing art. I wasn’t expecting anything spectacular out of the story, so when it had blown me completely out of the water halfway through the first issue, I knew I was in for a treat.
Both Scott Synder and Stephen King’s (yes *that* Stephen King) narratives are top-notch. Pearl’s life in 1920’s Hollywood and Skinner’s in the Wild West of the late 1800s are woven together flawlessly, and provide a welcome break from a traditional, linear comic narrative. Each issue gives you just enough narrative for each character to leave you hanging, wanting to come back to find out what happens next.
It is a wonderful way to get to know two very different leading characters. Both Pearl and Skinner are a return to everything that’s great about vampires: good looks, violent as hell, and very, very unafraid to spill a little blood. Or blow up an entire town. Skinner is particularly remoseless, a wicked delight from page to page. Watching their separate stories develop and occasionally intertwine is what is going to keep me hooked for issues to come.
Rafael Albuquerque’s art and Dave McCaig’s colors bring the narrative to life in a way most comics fail to capture. This is the first time in a very, very long time that I have studied almost every individual panel, looking for hidden clues or nuances, or just admiring the beauty.
American Vampire is a perfect marriage of art and storytelling, one that shows the full and powerful potential of the comic book as a storytelling medium. It is the kind of collection that makes me realize just how ill-paired some of the stories and art are in other series I read. American Vampire, in short, is comic book storytelling done right, and flawlessly and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a damned good time.
I’ve been meaning to read it since Vertigo first started blurbing it in Hellblazer as an upcoming release, but I never quite made the commitment. I was skeptical. In the Twilight age, the vampire genre has taken a beating. Gone were the days when the undead were mad, bad and dangerous to know. Twilight and the urban fiction/romance genre had brought us a new breed of vampire. One who existed pretty much solely to fulfull every woman’s “bad boy” fantasy. Vamps were nothing more than pretty, pretty sex objects who were “dangerous.” And I use dangerous in parenthesis because there was usually way more brooding and emo angst involved than anything life-threatening.
Vampires, for me, had become a turn-off.
And now there’s American Vampire, which I finally sat down to read after seeing more and more of Rafael Albuquerque’s amazing art. I wasn’t expecting anything spectacular out of the story, so when it had blown me completely out of the water halfway through the first issue, I knew I was in for a treat.
Both Scott Synder and Stephen King’s (yes *that* Stephen King) narratives are top-notch. Pearl’s life in 1920’s Hollywood and Skinner’s in the Wild West of the late 1800s are woven together flawlessly, and provide a welcome break from a traditional, linear comic narrative. Each issue gives you just enough narrative for each character to leave you hanging, wanting to come back to find out what happens next.
It is a wonderful way to get to know two very different leading characters. Both Pearl and Skinner are a return to everything that’s great about vampires: good looks, violent as hell, and very, very unafraid to spill a little blood. Or blow up an entire town. Skinner is particularly remoseless, a wicked delight from page to page. Watching their separate stories develop and occasionally intertwine is what is going to keep me hooked for issues to come.
Rafael Albuquerque’s art and Dave McCaig’s colors bring the narrative to life in a way most comics fail to capture. This is the first time in a very, very long time that I have studied almost every individual panel, looking for hidden clues or nuances, or just admiring the beauty.
American Vampire is a perfect marriage of art and storytelling, one that shows the full and powerful potential of the comic book as a storytelling medium. It is the kind of collection that makes me realize just how ill-paired some of the stories and art are in other series I read. American Vampire, in short, is comic book storytelling done right, and flawlessly and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a damned good time.
bookishmood's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
stephen_arvidson's review against another edition
5.0
American Vampire, Volume 1, comprises the first five issues of the ongoing graphic-novel series. This book features two interconnected stories—one by Scott Snyder, the other by legendary horror writer Stephen King—that provide a fresh take on the vampire mythos. King's story is set in 1880 and tells the grisly origins of notorious candy-loving outlaw, Skinner Sweet, who awakens from death after being infected by blood of the undead. Sweet is a new breed of vampire, stronger and faster than all the heretofore vamps. He's an American vampire, after all. Snyder's story, which takes place in 1920s Los Angeles, follows Pearl Jones, a struggling actress hoping to make it big in Hollywood. The naive Pearl is brutally attacked by a coven of European vampires and left for dead, that is, until Skinner Sweet revives her. Skinner then offers Pearl a chance to exact vengeance on those that killed her.
Artist Rafael Albuquerque deftly captures both the 1880s Old West and 1920s Los Angeles. When it came to translating Stephen King's story, the artist gave the panels a grungier look that blends perfectly with the untamed Western motif—a roaring contrast to the effete Art Deco style of mid-1920s Hollywood that occupies the other half of the book. He relies heavily on shadows and black profiles, but also suffuses the daytime portions with strong desert sunlight. Albuquerque delivers a brilliant vision of deadly vampires that's similar to Ben Templesmith's red-smeared approach in 30 Days of Night. Horror readers will lap up the moody, macabre artwork of American Vampire.
As for the narrative, you really can't say enough about the expert storytelling that we've come to expect from Stephen King and Scott Snyder. King's opening introduction gets to the bloody heart of why American Vampire rises above the undead deluge that's reduced the classic vampire monster to "anorexic teenage girls [and] boy-toys with big dewy eyes." Both writers have a strong knack for creating real and likable characters. Pearl Jones is an especially appealing protagonist, a strong young woman with dreams of fame yet she's afflicted by doubts and homesickness. Less endearing, though, is the wonderfully psychotic and impulsive Skinner Sweet with his flaxen hair and insatiable sweet tooth; the dude makes for a memorable anti-hero. Still, what I liked most about American Vampire is its innovative and refreshing spin on the vampire mythos, with the elder vampires seeking to control the younger breed (which they see as an 'abomination'). Yet, in fine American tradition, this new species of vampires refuses to become the inferiors of the European bloodline and savagely battles for control of the West.
American Vampire, Volume 1, is a promising start to a series that seeks to change the contemporary perception of vampires as teenage heartthrobs. Unfortunately, because Stephen King was only contracted to the first five issues, I haven't bothered to read the subsequent volumes. Nevertheless, Volume 1 is vibrant, creepy, and wonderfully gruesome, and best of all, its rich and expansive plot works well as a stand-alone story. Because it's ultra-violent and incredibly dark, I wouldn't recommend it for younger readers. Twilight twinks would do well enough to avoid this book, for they'd be unable to fathom the idea of vampires as remorseless killing machines. Modern-day horror literature is congested with romanticized and hypersexualized representations of vampires, but it's laudable yarns like American Vampire that strive to recapture the vampire genre—it's a refreshing and thoroughly enjoyable romp. This is what a vampire story should be!
Artist Rafael Albuquerque deftly captures both the 1880s Old West and 1920s Los Angeles. When it came to translating Stephen King's story, the artist gave the panels a grungier look that blends perfectly with the untamed Western motif—a roaring contrast to the effete Art Deco style of mid-1920s Hollywood that occupies the other half of the book. He relies heavily on shadows and black profiles, but also suffuses the daytime portions with strong desert sunlight. Albuquerque delivers a brilliant vision of deadly vampires that's similar to Ben Templesmith's red-smeared approach in 30 Days of Night. Horror readers will lap up the moody, macabre artwork of American Vampire.
As for the narrative, you really can't say enough about the expert storytelling that we've come to expect from Stephen King and Scott Snyder. King's opening introduction gets to the bloody heart of why American Vampire rises above the undead deluge that's reduced the classic vampire monster to "anorexic teenage girls [and] boy-toys with big dewy eyes." Both writers have a strong knack for creating real and likable characters. Pearl Jones is an especially appealing protagonist, a strong young woman with dreams of fame yet she's afflicted by doubts and homesickness. Less endearing, though, is the wonderfully psychotic and impulsive Skinner Sweet with his flaxen hair and insatiable sweet tooth; the dude makes for a memorable anti-hero. Still, what I liked most about American Vampire is its innovative and refreshing spin on the vampire mythos, with the elder vampires seeking to control the younger breed (which they see as an 'abomination'). Yet, in fine American tradition, this new species of vampires refuses to become the inferiors of the European bloodline and savagely battles for control of the West.
American Vampire, Volume 1, is a promising start to a series that seeks to change the contemporary perception of vampires as teenage heartthrobs. Unfortunately, because Stephen King was only contracted to the first five issues, I haven't bothered to read the subsequent volumes. Nevertheless, Volume 1 is vibrant, creepy, and wonderfully gruesome, and best of all, its rich and expansive plot works well as a stand-alone story. Because it's ultra-violent and incredibly dark, I wouldn't recommend it for younger readers. Twilight twinks would do well enough to avoid this book, for they'd be unable to fathom the idea of vampires as remorseless killing machines. Modern-day horror literature is congested with romanticized and hypersexualized representations of vampires, but it's laudable yarns like American Vampire that strive to recapture the vampire genre—it's a refreshing and thoroughly enjoyable romp. This is what a vampire story should be!
oumaima_mekni's review against another edition
4.0
Vampires back to basics.
This is what happens when an old clan of aristocratic European Vampires accidentally turn a psychotic American Western outlaw into a bloodsucking nightwalker. MAYHEM BREAKS OUT!
Oh wait, did I say a nightwalker? Nope. The rebirth of Skinner Sweet, the first American vampire, marked the beginning of new a bloodline of vampires that are invincible to sunlight and whose strength transgress the power of the Euro-vampires.
Filled with vengeance and bent on payback, Skinner goes on a crazy killing and burning (literally) spree.
It gets better! This story has intertwined narratives, this is where Pearl Jones comes to into picture. Once a 1920's aspiring extra who's waiting for her Hollywood breakout, to a broken shell of a woman who wants to seek revenge from the monsters that defiled her then threw her away in the mid of nowhere.
Two different persons, two tragic fates but one common target.
Between Scott Snyder and Stephen King's storylines, I enjoyed King's a little bit more. Nothing against Snyder, his storyline was absolutely amazing but damn it, King knows how to entertain his readers. In his story, the villain is the protagonist and Skinner Sweet is by far one of the most bad-ass and intriguing characters I've come across. King kicked it old school and set an example of how vampires really should be represented, not good-looking seductive supernatural creatures with a sexy smile (although i'm still kinda into that) but the ruthless sadistic freaks of nature.
This is what happens when an old clan of aristocratic European Vampires accidentally turn a psychotic American Western outlaw into a bloodsucking nightwalker. MAYHEM BREAKS OUT!
Oh wait, did I say a nightwalker? Nope. The rebirth of Skinner Sweet, the first American vampire, marked the beginning of new a bloodline of vampires that are invincible to sunlight and whose strength transgress the power of the Euro-vampires.
Filled with vengeance and bent on payback, Skinner goes on a crazy killing and burning (literally) spree.
It gets better! This story has intertwined narratives, this is where Pearl Jones comes to into picture. Once a 1920's aspiring extra who's waiting for her Hollywood breakout, to a broken shell of a woman who wants to seek revenge from the monsters that defiled her then threw her away in the mid of nowhere.
Two different persons, two tragic fates but one common target.
Between Scott Snyder and Stephen King's storylines, I enjoyed King's a little bit more. Nothing against Snyder, his storyline was absolutely amazing but damn it, King knows how to entertain his readers. In his story, the villain is the protagonist and Skinner Sweet is by far one of the most bad-ass and intriguing characters I've come across. King kicked it old school and set an example of how vampires really should be represented, not good-looking seductive supernatural creatures with a sexy smile (although i'm still kinda into that) but the ruthless sadistic freaks of nature.
knod78's review against another edition
5.0
Loved the illustrations and the story and the little guy that kept asking, "can I come along?"
tifftastic87's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
There are two stories occurring simultaneously. The first is the past and the origin story for Skinner Sweet a new breed of vampire that can walk during the day and loses all his powers during the new moon. In the second story, a woman working multiple jobs and trying to make it as an actress is sacrificed to a den of vampires, Skinner finds her partially alive and turns her so she can get her revenge.
Honestly, this just wasn't for me. The plot felt really confusing in the back story bit. I didn't like a lot of the aspects of it. The current day story had a big element of pitting women against eachother that just didn't do it for me.
Honestly, this just wasn't for me. The plot felt really confusing in the back story bit. I didn't like a lot of the aspects of it. The current day story had a big element of pitting women against eachother that just didn't do it for me.
laura1980458's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
lsparrow's review against another edition
1.0
I found the story had too much Americana in it. The Americian dream narrative I find too problematic. The illustrative style was not one that appealed to me so overall despite my fascination with the vampire theme I could not get into this series.