American Vampire #19 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Jordi Bernet (artist), Dave McCaig (colorist), Pat Brosseau (letters), Joe Hughes (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: The secret history of Skinner Sweet and John Book.  Who knew?

What’s Good: This is how to do a fill-in artist!  Usually when you substitute someone for regular artist Rafael Albuquerque, it is going to be a step down in class.  But when you’ve got the pull to get a living legend like Jordi Bernet to do a few issues… That is just something special.  Not saying he’s better than Albuquerque, but you usually can’t get someone like this for a fill-in artist.  Anytime you see art by a guy like Bernet (or other living legends like Joe Kubert, Sergio Aragones, Michael Kaluta, etc.) the art has such a surety and confidence.  The art never looks like someone screwed around with it and changed it five times before coming to the finished product.  He just knows what lines he needs on the page to tell the story.

It’s also really cool how Bernet changes up his styles halfway through the issue and both of the styles fit the subject matter so well.  He starts with a very clean and economical style to illustrate two boys fooling around in the fields doing things like catching snakes and playing jokes on each other.  It perfectly illustrates Skinner and John Book as kids.  Then we catch up with the duo again while they’re fighting Apaches along the Mexican border and the style becomes a little darker and rougher.  Makes sense; fighting Apaches in the desert was nasty work.  And then the cherry on top is the final page that shows the topless Native American vampire.  Wow, what a page!  Sexy and scary.  I would LOVE to own a Bernet page.

WCBR’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Batman #1 – That was pretty easy.  Scott Snyder pens a script that is both a good starting point for someone who heard about this new 52 thing and fanboys who have read hundreds of Batman comics over the years.  That’s no mean feat and what helps him do it is that he’s a really gifted writer!  Comics isn’t just about having nifty ideas or clever dialog….sometimes it comes down to whether the writer can string sentences together well enough to power through a wordy portion like Bruce Wayne’s speech about rebuilding Gotham in this issue.  A lesser writer falls on their face during that sequence.  Of course, it helps that Snyder is paired with his most recent A-list artistic talent in Greg Capullo.  Capullo has been a favorite of mine for a long time and it’s great to see him getting some mainstream love.  He’s an incredible visual storyteller and his slightly cartoony and expressionistic style is so superior at capturing action and emotion.  This will be a must-read for a long time.  Runner-up: Hulk #41

Most Anticipated This Week: American Vampire #19 – Of course, I’m excited to see what’s next for Scott Snyder’s vampires, but I’m just about giddy to see some Jordi Bernet interior art!  If you aren’t familiar, do a Google image search and behold the beauty and then consider how gifted Snyder is at feeding his artists what they’re good at.  This is going to be a great issue.  Special Mention: Kamandi Omnibus – Jack Kirby goodness for WAY less than you could buy the first ~20 single issues.

Other Picks: All-Star Western #1, Elephantmen #35, Amazing Spider-Man #670, Brilliant #1, Kick Ass 2 #4, Secret Avengers #17, Rachel Rising #2, Fear Itself: Hulk vs. Dracula #2