American Vampire, Vol. 1

A vampire origins story. It was an interesting tale, but I find I struggle a bit with the graphic novel format. I think I would have preferred this as a true novel type thing. The vampire himself is interesting. A nice new twist on the vampire myth. His sardonic style is entertaining. The setting in the early part of the 20th century also adds a certain style to it as well.

I will read a bit more of the series when I get the time. There is some intriguing set up for further story here

This was my first choice while trying to get into comic books. As a Stephen King fan I was really interested to see a story of his in comic format. And yes, the story is fresh and filled with emotions, character depth and of course, gore and blood.

As a humble novice with comic books I can't compare or make an in depth look at the artwork so I won't try. But I found it fittingly gritty and detailed. The colors are kept pretty dark.

Turns out though, even if this story is fresh and outside of the mainstream, Vampires still aren't my thing. I'm not interested enough to see what else awaits.

I really like the bound book with it's embedded cover and the original scripts at the end were very interesting.

Pros: great stories, fantastic idea regarding vampire evolution, intriguing characters
Cons:
Art: rough strokes giving thick limbs and showing pencil lines, lots of motion, good shading and details

Too connected stories told by two writers, American Vampire is a great graphic novel.

Each comic (there are 4 in this collection) starts with a story by Scott Snyder involving aspiring actresses Pearl and Hattie. Things don't go as expected when Pearl's invited to a party hosted by the producer of the film she's an extra on.

The second story, by Stephen King, deals with the origin of the titular American vampire. A wild west bank robber is accidentally turned by a European bank owner during a bust gone bad. But where the European vampires have trouble in sunlight and can't cross water easily, their American counterparts have no such weaknesses.

The two stories work well together, slowly explaining the vampire situation in the new world and how they evolve as a species based on different blood.

The artwork is blocky and thick lined and while it's normally not to my taste, it suits the subject matter here surprisingly well.

Ultimately it's a great grapic novel.

Hm. Now, I like me some vampires. I prefer the gothic/scary kind, not the paranormal romance kind. I like my vampires sinister, mostly evil, maybe a little emo or exhausted. So of course, I'm going to look into something called ‘American Vampire.' I really wanted to like it, but part of me suspected I might not be totally into it.

I wasn't totally into it. The art was all right, but not my personal favorite. It wasn't so bad that I couldn't handle the story. It just wasn't my preference. The story though...Now, we all know I love me some Stephen King. But the story was just bloody boring. Even his part of the story was boring.

Hollywood, 1925. Young starlet gets to meet big film maker. He and his posse are vampires and eat her. But she gets inexplicably gets saved by our titular vampire Skinner Sweet, because, presumably, she's cute and spunky. Yawn. She gets revenge on the bad Euro-vamps. But she and Skinner are NEW, SHINY, differently evolved AMERICAN VAMPIRES, so they can walk around in the daylight, they can drip blood on people and vamp them.

The book also gets into Skinner's backstory, back in the Wild West, tra la la. And that part is dull too, with a goofy romance added, I assume, because the characters come back into it later. I don't find Skinner all that disturbing or engaging.

I really didn't care for the mythology. The writers acted as though walking around in daylight has never before been part of the vampire mythology. And I find it hard to believe a vampire wouldn't have been turned in America long before 1880, but I suppose that is irrelevant.

I'll look into volume 2 to see if it improves, but so far I am not into Skinner.