AMERICAN VAMPIRE VOLUME 1 Scott Snyder,
Rafael Albuquerque and Stephen King
TO THE KINGDOM #1 Joe Hill and
Gabriel Rodriguez
LOCKE & KEY: KEYS
A VERY ZOMBIE SUMMER
Fred Perry, David Hutchison, Brian Denham, Chris Allen and Joe Flores
KING! #1
Thomas Hall and Daniel Bradford
IDES OF BLOOD #1 Stuart C. Paul
and Christian Duce
DRACULA: THE COMPANY OF MONSTERS #1
Kurt Busiek, Daryl Gregory and Scott Godlewski
tale. While that may have been true a decade ago, many fresh revisions to the vampire mythos have recently propelled the creatures of the night far beyond Bram Stoker’s original vision. Scott Snyder’s American Vampire is the latest
A
entry to add new spokes to the vampire wheel. Like my friend, Snyder was a fan of the genre but wanted to see something different done with the bloodsuckers. “What makes vampires scary for me is that
they’re the people you know and love turned into murderous, undead versions of themselves,” the 34-year-old writer explains. “I wanted to make a vampire that was indigenous to the United States and the kinds of landscapes that I feel are iconic to this country, like the American West. It was a general longing to go back to vampires that are scary because they’re familiar, as op- posed to vampires that are scary because they’re exotic and romantic.” With his desire to move away from the roman-
tic aesthetic, Snyder decided to set his series knee-deep in Ameri- cana. In the first story cycle (now collected in one lavish hardcover volume) we meet Pearl, an aspiring actress liv- ing in 1925 Los Angeles who inadvertently dis- covers that Hollywood is actually run by a secret cadre of wealthy vam- pires. Sucked dry and left for dead, she is found by the mysterious Skinner Sweet, who uses his blood to turn her. In a compelling twist, Skinner and Pearl belong to a new breed, one that is faster, stronger and can walk freely in the sunlight. The two breeds of vampires naturally clash:
one is old, set in its ways by rules and tradition, the other is young, unconventional and full of re- bellion. It’s the perfect metaphor for a country
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friend of mine once admitted that he
didn’t care for modern vampire stories be- cause he believed that most of them were simply reworkings of the classic Dracula
that, at the time, was still trying to find its identity and move out from the shad- ows cast by its European forefathers. It’s not all social commentary, however. As Pearl seeks revenge, blood spills co- piously while the savagery of both sides provides plenty of visceral thrills. American Vampire garnered a lot of
attention when it premiered back in April, not only because of the intriguing concept but also because Snyder’s co- writer was Stephen King. Back in 2006, Snyder published an acclaimed collec- tion of short stories, Voodoo Heart. King subsequently picked two of the tales for the 2007 Best American Short Stories anthology shortlist. The two authors stayed in touch and when Snyder sold the idea of American Vampire to Vertigo, he approached King for an endorse- ment. “I gave him the first script and he
wrote back saying that he really liked the outline and the characters and that he liked Skinner enough that he’d actu- ally be willing to write an issue some- time,” Snyder recalls. King was scheduled to pen one
American Vampire brings fresh blood to the bloodsucker mythos.
issue, a quick origin piece on Skinner, but the author just kept on writing and soon his story was spread over five. Although many of King’s works have been adapted to comics, the author himself had never written anything original for the medium before. “He did wonderful work,” Snyder says. “He
was extremely receptive to edit, and he stayed true to the characters in terms of the bible that we had regarding what was going to happen to them. And yet, at the same time, he really
took them places that we wouldn’t have.” Taking place some 45 years before Pearl’s
tale, King’s story introduces Skinner – a nasty, murderous Western outlaw – and recounts his accidental transformation into a new world vam- pire, the genesis of the vampire feud and the be- ginnings of several future plot threads. With the sixth issue, Snyder takes over as sole writer on the series and he’s looking for-
ward to exploring further pivotal points in Amer- ican history. For example, the next narrative takes place in Las Vegas during the 1930s and picks up with the same characters, while also introducing new ones, both human and vam- pire. And although the story will deal with his- torical events such as the rise of Vegas and the importance of the Hoover Dam, Snyder is quick to point out that readers needn’t worry about the book turning into a history lesson. “We do a lot of research, but at the same time we want it to be exciting and fun, and not the History Chan- nel.”
American Vampire Volume 1 is on sale October 5 and reprints issues #1-5 in a deluxe hardcover edition, featuring a new introduction by Stephen King, bonus character sketches, variant covers and more.
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