"Another vampire story? Aren't there enough?" you groan.
"Never!" I respond.
The thing about vampire stories, good vampire stories that is, is that they can be told over and over, as long as you keep the blood fresh.
King's foreword in the graphic novel American Vampire reveals that he jumped onboard this train because he was lured by the prospect of Snyder's SCARY vampires. Not to say this hasn't been done before, but at the moment it's not exactly a secret that the media is leaning towards one specific type of vampire: the sexy vampire.
Somewhere along the line we lost the idea that vampire's are alluring to humanity because they represent a taboo. There are dark and despicable things that humans often succumb to and vampires are a realisation of that. Recently, we have this trend that vampires are hot because they are physically attractive, and they are simply so desired because they get to be young and hot forever, not because they represent a dark part of our humanity.
Snyder's bringing scary back. And I, for one, welcome it. Not because I don't enjoy sexy vampires, I do, but because I so sorely miss vampires with a ...ahem... point.
Scott Snyder's American Vampire follows Pearl Jones, a young ingénue in 1920's Los Angeles, as she struggles to realise her Hollywood hopes and dreams. Needless to say, these dreams are brutally dashed when she's unwittingly served up as an all you can drink buffet to some elitist European vamps.
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| Pearl Jones - our heroine |
Stephen King's part to play in all this is that he's penning the story of Skinner Sweet, a heartless murderer and theif in the 1880's who wronged the wrong unpeople, as he discovers what he's become: a vampire with no sensitivity to sunlight, silver or the usual vampire hoodoo. What the book calls an American vampire.
The stories merge with Skinner changing Pearl (she's still breathing after the attack, and Skinner finds her still dying in the ditch where they've left her) into an American vampire, and sets her on the path of revenge, against the same that carries the rest of part one.
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| Skinner Sweet... |
I'm not going to lie, these ideas are things we've seen before (Blade, for instance, featured "daywalkers"). But the characterisation, and the non-attempts to make Skinner at all sympathetic rather than selfish - or invalidate Pearl's revenge plot - are refreshing. Skinner is a badass. There's no apology for that. But even though he is villainous, Skinner isn't the main antagonist in this story either. It's great. He's no woobie, and he received no karmic payback either.
I'd definitely recommend it, the writing is sharp and though-provoking. Also, the art by Rafael Albuquerque (and colourist Dave McCaig) is both at times beautifully sweet and eerily freaky. Combo of both great story and art is rare for me in graphic novels - I usually like one and not the other.
Let's see if the magic continues into part 2...
