Many thanks (fangs?) to Chatelaine for the review of this trade paperback comic, it was a blast to read. It was pretty much a no-brainer anyway. Stephen King? Good. Vampires with balls? Good. Fantastic and creative artwork? Good.
So we have the story(ies) of Skinner Sweet, an 1880’s outlaw with a penchant for candy, who meets an unfortunate end at the hands of a vampire. But it doesn’t end there. Even buried and covered in 60 feet of water when the area is flooded due to dam construction, he becomes something else: a new kind of vampire. Stronger, faster and impervious to daylight. This, my friends, is the American Vampire. Once freed, Skinner sets on a path to learn about what he is and take his revenge on the Old World vampires that inadvertently created him.
Skinner also figures into the story of Pearl Jones, a country girl who has gone to Hollywood in the 20’s to break into show biz. She works three jobs and takes all the bit parts she can get. Then she gets invited to a party at the studio heads mansion, but what awaits her isn’t an opportunity of a lifetime but torture at the hands of a cabal of Old World vamps. Skinner Sweet makes an appearace and makes Pearl a vampire like him. Seeing how Pearl goes about dealing with her new reality and exacting her own revenge was a nice counterpoint to the rise of Sweet.
The stories by King and Snyder are solid and the artwork is terrifyingly gorgeous. I read this on a Kindle Fire and it was absolutely breathtaking.
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