American Vampire Book One

by Scott Snyder, Stephen King, Rafael Albuquerque (illustrator)

Genres: Graphic Novels, Dc Comics

352 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2024

About the author

Scott Snyder is the Eisner and Harvey Award winning writer on DC Comics Batman, Swamp Thing, and his original series for Vertigo, American Vampire. He is also the author of the short story collection, Voodoo Heart, published by the Dial Press in 2006. The paperback version was published in the summer of 2007.

Reviews

[Chloé · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting take on the vampire figure !

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 for story, 4 stars specifically for the Black Label package. Book One of Black Label Has Issues #1-5 of the original run with Stephen King with King writing the B plot surrounding Skinner Sweet and Scott Snyder doing the A plot around Pearl Jones.

So I've been delving more into vampire media these last couple years and I have of course heard of American Vampire. A graphic novel series written by Scott Snyder who has quickly become one of my favourite comic writers (The Black Mirror, Court of Owls Saga) and co-created with Stephen King. I had not heard of Rafael Albuquerque, but the artwork in this series in my opinion is under appreciated.

This series had a lot of hype around it. The marketing seemed to mention how this was different than the other vampire books of its time that would have been peak-Twilight era and vampire romantasy. This is definitely not that. Skinner Sweet is an Outlaw and generally awful human being before becoming a vampire. The fact that he got turned by accident, makes him feel like a real genuine threat throughout the series.

I liked Sweet for that reason. There was no morally grey aspect. Skinner Sweet lives for himself and I kind of like that. There's always the temptation to make characters like this with some sort of sob story but no, Sweet is a bad man because he derives pleasure from being bad. The vampirism just heightens it.

While a lot of people loved the Pearl Jones stuff, I wasn't quite as much of a fan. It's cool to have a strong female protagonist as a vampire, but a lot of the criticism about lovey-dovey vampires doesn't quite make sense since a lot of the Pearl Jones stuff is around her romance with Henry Preston with a notable sex scene. So kind of a double standard there.

I did like the later arc with the Hoover Dam. I thought the twist was great, but in hindsight in makes the idea of Skinner Sweet a little less novel in my opinion. And that's really my biggest complaint. Is that everyone goes on about how this is such an original idea and it's like really? You never heard of a vampire cowboy before? I doubt that.

I really think the artwork deserves a fair amount of praise because even though people will laud Snyder (as they should), Albuquerque has some great visuals, and I loved how experimental and gritty it sometimes got in the Skinner Sweet section.

So far my conclusion is This is good. Very good even. Just not great. 3.75 stars.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed views about "American Vampire". I like the worldbuilding, the overall plot, some of the characters, and the action. However, I have issues with some of the characters and their relationships and how much was crammed into this book.

First, I felt the worldbuilding was great. The story is primarily set in the 1920s and 1930s and vampires are integrated well into this historical setting. Snyder and King do a good job in showing the various types of vampires and the hatred between European vampires and American vampires. We learn about their weaknesses and strengths as well. It's an intriguing world and historical events, like the Great Depression, the Hoover Dam, etc. fit in quite well.

The plot of the story was good too. It dragged a bit at times, but most of it was fast-paced and intriguing. There were multiple storylines and each of them individually were good. I was engaged for much of the book.

With that said, there were a lot of stories to keep track of. As a result, there were also multiple characters to remember. It got a bit confusing and difficult to remember everyone and the various threads.

The characterization was a mixed bag. Most of the characters were morally ambiguous, which led to complexity and helped to keep the stories interesting. I also like Pearl and her arc. Her struggles were depicted well. I like Cashel and Felicia and their arcs also. The conflict between the vampire killers and vampires was depicted well too, and I can see the motivations of both parties.

However, some of the characterization and relationships were not done well. Abi and Jim's relationship was incredibly problematic particularly given that Jim's her godfather! . Skinner Sweet had some interesting storylines, but at the same time, he was also a bigot. Some of the antagonists were one-dimensional though I do like that they were largely taken down, especially the most repugnant ones .

The art was good though. The colors were done well and fit the dark tone of the story. The character designs were solid. Plus, the action was great. I felt that all of the fighting scenes were drawn well.

Altogether, while I did enjoy the overall plot(s) and some of the characters, I disliked how parts of the story were confusing and the characterization could've been better.

[Mariano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Con la fama que tiene la serie, la verdad que esperaba un poco más. O bastante más. Es una historia del montón de vampiros. Sí, tiene el setting de la América del siglo 20, pero después del primer arco medio que no sabe para dónde ir. Son vampiros y son malos. Esperaba algo un poco más profundo que eso.

[Jacob · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me. Very gruesome but at the halfway point there's not a single character I found intriguing or worth following deeper into the story. Basically everyone is evil and most are violent demons. Didn't see much nuance.

[Dani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite enjoyed this.

[Marcos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible illustrations and nice storyline too.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed it.
The artwork was great and the story lines were interesting, although sometimes the going back and forth in time was difficult to follow.

[Ross Cudmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like cowboys, prohibition-era LA and vampires then you'll have a fun time with American Vampire.

I enjoyed the mythology of the world and had fun with the characters and twists of the story.