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REVIEW: American Vampire #2

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Vertigo’s American Vampire marks Stephen King’s first writing work in comic books ever. Several of his stories have been adapted to or expanded upon in the medium, but apparently he’s never written any of those stories. Most interesing of all (to me at least), American Vampire isn’t even a King property. Instead it is a property developed by writer Scott Snyder.

American Vampire follows the adventures of this continent’s first vampire, Skinner Sweet, and each issue is divided into two stories. One of which is written by Snyder and one written by King.

Sweet, as the first vampire created in the United States, represents a step forward in terms of evolution into apparently a whole new species. What exactly that means we have yet to be told specifically. In fact, in a bit of meta-text, Sweet specifies in a note in issue 2 that he doesn’t want to ruin that surprise.

What we do know is that Sweet can travel in the daylight with no problem and survive for years underwater. The book at least suggests that maybe other vampires would not have survived such a flood.

Snyder’s story takes up the first half of the book and features Sweet’s
Adventures in Hollywood in 1925. His character during this era is creepy but his true nature remains unclear. Some of his actions seem typical of an anti-hero.

The second half of the book features King telling Sweet’s secret origin as an outlaw in the old West. During that era Sweet is an unrepetant outlaw. There seems to be nothing redeemable about him. Which makes some of his actions in 1925 more interesting.

We’ll have to see where it all goes.

The art by Rafael Albuquerque ranges from cartoony to having a sort-of-painted feel. Some pages are stonger than others, but I definitely like it overall.

Both stories are oddly compelling. They certainly strive to make vampires more terrifying than the way popular culture has portrayed them in recent years. (Twilight, I’m looking right at you.) The book certainly has more in common with 30 Days of Night than New Moon.

The key problem is something that has been debated for years: Can comics even be scary? While an enjoyable read, American Vampires suggests no. It is not scary, at least not in the way a film or a novel can be… even when written by inarguably the most successful horror writer of the last 30 years.