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

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.

Quite an interesting take on vampires, that's for sure! When Twilight first came out, vampires were everywhere, and it was so overdone and so tired. I started hating vampire stuff because it had become so cliche. But this, this is good. This was really different and unique and I liked it so much more than I thought I would! Thank you, Scott Snyder and Stephen King, for making me not hate vampires anymore. Can't wait to read more of this series!

If you'll allow me to go off topic from this graphic novel for a bit, I need to tell you about my love affair with vampires. From the time that I was 10 years old, and saw Dracula (the 1931 version with Bela Lugosi of course!), I was absolutely enamored with vampires. I read the original Dracula book, I pawed my way through all the Anne Rice vampire novels (which I probably shouldn't have read at 11, but shrug), and my bookish world became centered around finding more vampire reads.

Then in 2005 Twilight came out and I was so excited. I bought the book, read it, and promptly threw it across the room. What had happened to my vampires? Where were the cunning and vicious predators that I loved? Keep in mind that I hadn't read much YA at this point. I all but skipped it, with the exception of Lurlene McDaniels books, since my mom essentially let me read whatever I wanted. So I wasn't used to paranormal romance on a YA level, and I was angry. I pushed my vampires away, and moved on to other topics. It wasn't until 2011, when I picked up Enter, Night by Michael Rowe on a whim, that I finally started to fall back in love. Still, to this day, I'm very wary about anything vampire related. I'm always afraid to be burned.

Which is why my comic book loving friend had a very tough time convincing me to read American Vampire. He pushed, he prodded, he used my love of Stephen King against me. Finally, I gave in.

I have to say that, while I wasn't totally in love with this first volume in terms of the story, I am definitely in love with the vampires here! Putting these characters into the late 1800's and the early 1900's was a brilliant choice. There's nothing more perfect than the vicious deeds of a the notorious Skinner Sweet, set against the backdrop of the Old West. When Pearl Jones, a 1920's silent film actor, was introduced? I was hooked. These two characters couldn't be more different, but the vampirism flowing through their blood ties them together in the best way possible.

If you'd allow me, I'd go on for ages about the clever ways that these two stories are tied together. How brilliant Stephen King's writing for Skinner Sweet's origin story is, and how much my heart was happy at the art here. The illustrations are gorgeous, plain and simple. They're gritty and violent. I'm tentatively in love. I'm looking forward to Volume 2, and having a more fleshed out view of these two characters as they move forward. I'm glad I gave in and finally read this, because my bad-ass vampires are back!

I'm not a big fan of Stephen King, but love Snyder's work and a friend recommended that I try this one out. As luck would have it the library had it just sitting there the other day so I picked it up and cracked it open.

I really enjoyed the story, especially Pearl's vengeance driven story line. I wasn't as fond of the old west story (and not because that was King's part), but I'm just not a big fan of westerns although I did find it entertaining nonetheless. I'm not sure that I liked the whole thing enough to continue to read through the series (is there more?), but I did enjoy this volume.

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.

Fast, stylish, very nice art, but I lost (or stopped caring about) the plot halfway through. And my tolerance for gore was pushed to the limit here.

Loved the art and story! Can't wait to pick up volume two and discover just how evolved the American Vampire is.

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.