Saturday, March 20, 2010

American Vampire #1 - new comic series with Stephen King


Vampires seem to have overtaken zombies as the most overexposed horror entity in pop culture lately. From True Blood to Twilight, however, they seem to have stopped being scary and are portrayed more as romantic leads. Because of this, it is quite refreshing to see them portrayed as monsters in DC/Vertigo’s newest ongoing series American Vampire. It’s just a shame that, in the two eighteen-page stories featured in this issue, we get maybe five total pages of actual vampire action.

Co-written for at least the first five issues by Scott Snyder and legendary horror novelist Stephen King, American Vampire centers around two main protagonists. The first story in the book, penned by Snyder, is devoted to Pearl Jones, an aspiring actress in 1920’s Hollywood who, while working as a stand-in for a well-known movie actress, is invited by the film’s leading man to attend a party being held at the director’s home. While getting ready to go to the party, a mysterious drifter who has been hanging out frequently outside her apartment tells her that it would not be in her best interest to go. She ignores his warning, of course, which she soon finds out is a big mistake. To risk spoiling the big reveal at the end of the story, which shouldn’t really come as a surprise to anyone, she should be sporting a new set of fangs by the beginning of the next issue.

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