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American Vampire (Single Issues) #1
Vertigo Essentials: American Vampire #1
Pearl Jones is a struggling young actress in 1920s Los Angeles. But when her big break brings her face-to-face with an ancient evil, her Hollywood dream quickly turns into a brutal, shocking nightmare. Plus, in a back-up tale by horror master Stephen King, learn the origins of the first American Vampire!
64 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 2, 2014
11 people are currently reading
228 people want to read
About the author
Stephen King
2,400 books889k followersStephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.
Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.
He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.
Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.
In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.
Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.
He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.
Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.
In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
March 4, 2017
I didn't get it. I mean, it could get better with the next issues, but honestly, this didn't interest me enough to read more. I love Scott Snyder to death. This just isn't for me.
May 19, 2019
Bueno, se deja leer, espero que la cosa se ponga interesante después!!
May 21, 2019
No acostumbro a leer mucho cómic, así que, simplemente diré que los dibujos son alucinantes y que el amigo King queda en segundo lugar, al menos de momento.
Recomendable
Recomendable
May 22, 2019
Entretenido
January 5, 2019
Not much so far. I hope it gets better with issue#2.
May 20, 2019
Entretenido, ya veremos las siguientes entregas
May 21, 2019
Every story has a beginning...
December 3, 2015
3 stars for now, seems interesting, we'll see :D
November 29, 2025
Drac-yeehaw.
An obviously fun concept that does not yet do anything reinventive but is setting the stage with care and attention to genre. Vampires through the lens of American culture and history is a great concept for a graphic novel. King clearly built out Snyder’s initial conceit into something extremely cool in scope. The writing itself is colourful, thrilling, and so far at least very well paced for a graphic novel. Looking forward to reading more.
"...and Skinner Sweet's story wasn't over but just beginning."
3 Great Eras out of 5
🎞️🎞️🎞️⬛⬛
An obviously fun concept that does not yet do anything reinventive but is setting the stage with care and attention to genre. Vampires through the lens of American culture and history is a great concept for a graphic novel. King clearly built out Snyder’s initial conceit into something extremely cool in scope. The writing itself is colourful, thrilling, and so far at least very well paced for a graphic novel. Looking forward to reading more.
"...and Skinner Sweet's story wasn't over but just beginning."
3 Great Eras out of 5
🎞️🎞️🎞️⬛⬛
September 25, 2021
So I just came off the heels of reading Severed (which I enjoyed), only to be confused by this. It didn't really capture my interest and so I don't know if I will read another issue or not. I might read the second one, just to see if it answers any of my questions and clears things up a bit.
The Stephen King story at the end was pretty good.
The Stephen King story at the end was pretty good.
May 20, 2019
En la cafetería de Audrey.
Primavera en la isla perdida (2019)
¡Escapada!
Un poco irregular, pero como es el primero...
Primavera en la isla perdida (2019)
¡Escapada!
Un poco irregular, pero como es el primero...
November 16, 2022
În sfârșit am găsit ediția corectă la graphic novel.
November 18, 2024
re-reading and it’s still as interesting as the first time, sweet more than pearl, but still
January 16, 2026
The art style is taking some getting used to, and I'm waiting for things to pick up.
August 25, 2019
Note: I read the actual original newsstand printing of this comic (from May 2010), not the Kindle edition.
The first part, Scott Snyder's "Big Break," is a great kick-off installment of what I presume will be a multipart story arc: In 1920s Los Angeles, two naïve young background actresses dream of silver-screen success, unaware of the (literal) monsters lurking in Hollywoodland. (On the subject of Hollywood monsters, American Vampire turned out to be a fitting read for this particular week, what with the Harvey Weinstein scandal still breaking.) Great dialogue and credible atmosphere. Snyder does a commendable job of taking his time to set the stage before landing on a final-page cliffhanger that cracks the story wide open...
The second portion (the beginning of a continuing arc of its own), Stephen King's "Bad Blood," is a nasty, action-packed little "weird Western" set in Sidewinder, Colorado (home to Annie Wilkes in Misery , my review of which you can read here), circa 1880, full of sharp dialogue and typically great characterization from King. In what was surely inspired by the horror comics King loved as a kid, he introduces us here to a monstrous outlaw by the name of Skinner Sweet (and what a villain he is!), who's on his way, via train, to face justice for robbery and murder after being taken captive by the Pinkertons. Unlike Snyder's tale, "Bad Blood" doesn't end on a cliffhanger, exactly, but it definitely turns the narrative in a new direction. Incidentally, King tells the story from the perspective of a minor character -- an author, naturally -- relating the events from almost a half-century later, right around the same time as Snyder's yarn...
there's a deliberate connective tissue between these two seemingly disparate stories. What's brilliant about the premise of American Vampire is that Snyder and King have selected two time periods that loom so immensely large in American mythology -- the silent-film era of the Roaring Twenties and the Old West -- and have embellished them with vampire folklore to create an alternate history of both creatures of the night and America itself; as a lover of both horror and historical fiction, that's a really exciting prospect.
I should also add that Rafael Albuquerque's artwork (he illustrates both parts) brings further continuity to the overall story, though he modifies his style to suit the tone of each particular episode, with the presentation and color palette of "Big Break" a bit richer and more romantic than that of "Bad Blood," which is rendered dusty and somewhat sepia-toned. His work is clean and easy-to-follow, and he captures the mood of each particular era to perfection. He also has a great touch for the macabre (what little of it there is in this first issue), which I look forward to seeing more of as the series develops.
I'm awarding this debut issue five stars because it's a really entertaining, promising start to what I hope will be a horror comic that fulfills the promise its delicious opening gambit.
The first part, Scott Snyder's "Big Break," is a great kick-off installment of what I presume will be a multipart story arc: In 1920s Los Angeles, two naïve young background actresses dream of silver-screen success, unaware of the (literal) monsters lurking in Hollywoodland. (On the subject of Hollywood monsters, American Vampire turned out to be a fitting read for this particular week, what with the Harvey Weinstein scandal still breaking.) Great dialogue and credible atmosphere. Snyder does a commendable job of taking his time to set the stage before landing on a final-page cliffhanger that cracks the story wide open...
The second portion (the beginning of a continuing arc of its own), Stephen King's "Bad Blood," is a nasty, action-packed little "weird Western" set in Sidewinder, Colorado (home to Annie Wilkes in Misery , my review of which you can read here), circa 1880, full of sharp dialogue and typically great characterization from King. In what was surely inspired by the horror comics King loved as a kid, he introduces us here to a monstrous outlaw by the name of Skinner Sweet (and what a villain he is!), who's on his way, via train, to face justice for robbery and murder after being taken captive by the Pinkertons. Unlike Snyder's tale, "Bad Blood" doesn't end on a cliffhanger, exactly, but it definitely turns the narrative in a new direction. Incidentally, King tells the story from the perspective of a minor character -- an author, naturally -- relating the events from almost a half-century later, right around the same time as Snyder's yarn...
there's a deliberate connective tissue between these two seemingly disparate stories. What's brilliant about the premise of American Vampire is that Snyder and King have selected two time periods that loom so immensely large in American mythology -- the silent-film era of the Roaring Twenties and the Old West -- and have embellished them with vampire folklore to create an alternate history of both creatures of the night and America itself; as a lover of both horror and historical fiction, that's a really exciting prospect.
I should also add that Rafael Albuquerque's artwork (he illustrates both parts) brings further continuity to the overall story, though he modifies his style to suit the tone of each particular episode, with the presentation and color palette of "Big Break" a bit richer and more romantic than that of "Bad Blood," which is rendered dusty and somewhat sepia-toned. His work is clean and easy-to-follow, and he captures the mood of each particular era to perfection. He also has a great touch for the macabre (what little of it there is in this first issue), which I look forward to seeing more of as the series develops.
I'm awarding this debut issue five stars because it's a really entertaining, promising start to what I hope will be a horror comic that fulfills the promise its delicious opening gambit.
May 8, 2014
Well, I'm hooked. Now to decide whether to spring for volume 1, or just buy issues 2-5... The story looks like it's going to be interesting, and the art's not bad. Good enough to make me want more. I do have to say, though, that the action in the half written by Stephen King felt really rushed, towards the end. Other than that, no complaints.
January 19, 2016
I saw this was free, decided to try it. The art was terrific; I really enjoyed just looking at the illustrations. The story itself was touch and go, but I think it had more to do with the need for setting things up, not because the story was dull. It does seem like it would be a very interesting series, and I'd like to see more of it.
October 18, 2014
What?
Maybe I'm out of the loop, but is this normal for modern comics? To me, there were no decipherable plotlines, no meaningful action or even mood either. Everything seemed random. Maybe I'm old school. There was nothing special about it, even with Stephen King as an author.
Maybe I'm out of the loop, but is this normal for modern comics? To me, there were no decipherable plotlines, no meaningful action or even mood either. Everything seemed random. Maybe I'm old school. There was nothing special about it, even with Stephen King as an author.
May 3, 2016
I think I rated this 2 1/2 stars. Not off to the best start
June 20, 2016
Not bad. Let's see what happens...
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews