American Vampire #2 – Review

By: Scott Snyder & Stephen King (writers), Rafael Albuquerque (art), Dave McCaig (colors) & Steve Wands (letters)

The Story: Fresh vampires are being “born” in America and they’re “new and improved” compared to the classic models.

What’s Good: Rafael Albuquerque!  Goodness, goodness what nice art!  After I read this, I actually started poking around online to see if the original art pages were for sale.  It’s that good!  (Didn’t find them, btw…).  What’s all the more impressive is that this two-story issue has slightly different artistic styles for each tale, and Albuquerque nails them both.  And what until you get a load of his lady vampire!  Bravo!

So, once you finish looking at the pretty pictures, you can enjoy the really fun story.  Like issue #1, the issue is split into two stories.  The first story again focuses on a struggling actress named Pearl in 1925 Los Angeles, whereas the second focuses (again) on a cowboy/criminal named Skinner Sweet in the wild west of the 1880’s.  I really enjoyed both stories and it helped indicate the direction for this series (it wasn’t clear after issue #1).

The cool thing about these stories is that Skinner spans both and seems to be a pretty neat character.  In his own tale, he’s the new vampire, but in Pearl’s story, he’s the father/mentor.  I especially like that he and Pearl seem to have new fangled (pun intended) abilities compared to old-fashioned vampires.  You’ll love the words of wisdom that Skinner gives to Pearl!