"American Vampire" by Scott Snyder, Stephen King, Rafael Albuquereque

This particular book caught hold of my attention simply because it was different – not specifically different as far as content, which in that regards, it certainly is – but rather due to its sitting on its side instead of facing its spine label out, as is with all books setting along a shelf.  Spine label out.  Give the disinterested browser something to latch his eyes onto.

So I picked it up.

“American Vampire”.  That was different. 

Stephen King.  I knew that name.

Open the cover, I saw what I held in my hands was a graphic novel, i.e. ‘comic book’ back in my heday when ‘comics’ weren’t always ‘funny’.  Superman, Batman, Spiderman, the Fantastic Four – I knew them all in those days, so pictures with the story (graphic novels) were an old group of friends I still enjoy spending time alongside. 

Opening the cover further and flipping through the array of pages, it struck me – immediately – how intense the pictures were.  These were how I ‘pictured’ the concept of ‘vampire’ revolving around the superstitious imagery of people centuries ago: demons risen out of the depths of hell to ravage the human populace with a thirst that could never be quenched, a hunger that could never be sated.

Obviously, I should have set the book back on the shelf and walked away.  The concept would never fall into my realm of the enlightening read.  Death and destruction can never inspire breath life into and lift up.  Nevertheless, because of the inclusion of those three elements – an ‘American’ vampire, the name of Steven King, and the comic book format – I engaged its pages to learn what its story might hold.

The story comes at a reader from two vantage points: one written by Scott Snyder, the author of the series, and the other written by Mr. King.  Rafael Albuquereque is the originator of the illustrations.  All begin in 1925 Los Angeles.  A woman, Pearl, desires to break into the movies.  She manages the part of an extra in the new film of a prestigious actor, which brings her an invitation to a party at the actor's house.  The party is nothing but a ruse to deliver easy prey to a gathering of European vampires at the man's house.

Pearl is one of many they devour that night, the bodies being dumped into a ravine outside the city.  However, she is not dead.  Somehow she manages to crawl her way back to a road, where she is found and driven to the nearest hospital, but the prognosis is not good.

Enter the main character of the second story, Skinner Sweet, a unnamed vagabond living next door, a young man who is actually the first 'American' vampire.  He turns her into what he is; thereby, saving her life, and setting her on the road to vengeance.  An 'American' vampire is stronger, and faster, and able to thrive in the sun - a threat to the European vampires still bound by the old ways.

The allegorical parallels here are sterling.  Juxtoposing old Europe with new America offers plenty of food for thought and fodder the mind.  If this series continues with further tales, the graphic nature of a vampire's work might be permissible in light of a more thorough study of the two different cultures; but that's for another time...

The second story, the one to tell who Skinner Sweet is, leaps a reader backwards into the Old West.  An outlaw is being transported by train.  He escapes from the custody of the law; but he is killed by one of the men on the train who happens to be a vampire.  That vampires blood mixes with his own, initiating the transformation.  He dies, and he is buried, and he is unearthed from his coffin decades later - also seeking vengeance.

Exactly how this turns Sweet into a new breed of vampire, stronger and faster than the old world version, drawing strength from the sun, rather than being repelled into the shadows by it, this is not very well made clear.  And, perhaps, in a graphic novel format, such latitude to delve into such depth, is not all that available.  Most of the story relies upon the iconography of the pictures.  Pictures possess little ability to explore very deep into character development and motivation, which is the one problem I found with ‘American Vampire’ – especially with Stephen King’s involvement.  There seemed to be more story begging to be told than what was possible.

For fans of the graphic novel format, or vampires in general, this is a no brainer.  'American Vampire' should easily be a hit.  For those of us who seek more content out of our tales, more substance out of our character, and more purpose than mere titular thrills that excite the senses, there is more here to debate.  First of all, the main protagonist of this story, Skinner Sweet, is an outlaw.  He is a villain.  He is merciless killer who only seeks to satiate his own pleasures. 

And yet...

He did save Pearl's life when death consumed all but that one shred of lost hope all carry at the very end.  Some may say he did this to bolster his own ranks.  Now there were two of them.  Two American vampires.  Yet he never engages in her fight.  That battle is hers alone.

Pearl’s story is basic revenge.   She has been empowered by Sweet revenge herself on those who violated her, which she does; Sweet story, however, is not so black and white.  He is an outlaw, who kills people indiscriminately, and is pursued by a Pinkerton detective undaunted by Sweet’s new vicious power.

Can a story carry itself with two villains?  The European vampires are clearly evil.  Skinner Sweet is the typical Western outlaw, so he becomes the antagonist in his own story of the lawman who seeks to hunt him down, while Pearl takes on the vampires from the old country.  It is a perplexing myriad of story angles, converging from the oddest direction and views.  In a way, such is life.  At times, it's difficult to know who's the bad guy and who's the guy in the white hat - as movie lore introduced back in the golden age of its inception.

While the story itself was interesting, it was also intricately perplexing.  There is the drama of Sweet grasping with his new persona; and there is the violence he wrecks as a result of that.  There is the detective who pursues him out of a sense of duty without holding any chance at stopping Sweet’s ravaging, easily destroying all who stand in his way.  It’s hopeless.

Nevertheless, this book grabbed me.  It held a passion and intensity to it one often doesn’t find.  If Steven King could just take these same elements and develop them into a next novel, it would become yet another best seller.