American Vampire: Second Cycle #2 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Rafael Albuquerque (art), Dave McCaig (colors), Steve Wands (letters)

The Story: The Grey Trader is revealed.

Review (with SPOILERS): Bravo for pacing and layered storytelling!  Excellent comics like American Vampire really make me appreciate what is lacking in other, less imaginative stories.

Of course, I’m talking about the fact that we didn’t have to wait until issue #5-6 to have The Grey Trader revealed to us.  I’m would have been very easy to have an entire first cycle about the lead-up to the revelation of what TGT even looks like, much less who/what he is.  You know….the end of each issue would end with this very creepy looking man standing there in the distance with his top hat and cane?  Each final page he would be a little closer to the viewers perspective, so it seemed like he was coming closer and closer?  Until they showed his face at the end of issue #5?  I’m sure that Snyder and Albuquerque could have even made that a pretty hot story, and to be honest, that is the pacing I was expecting.

Then… bam! We get to see the true face of TGT in the middle of this issue.  I love that.  It wasn’t expected and I’m reading the issue and thinking, “OMG! I think they’re going to show what this dude looks like on the next page!”  Don’t you love those sorts of page-turns in comics?  We don’t get enough of them, in my opinion.

But, just to show what a sophisticated story AV is, the mystery doesn’t end with this reveal.  It’s really just beginning.  We still don’t really know what TGT is up to, what motivates him, what manner of creature he is, etc.?  Why does he attack other vampires?  Does TGT view all vampires the same way that the Carpathian vampires view the American Vampires (i.e. as a threat to be attacked)?  How does TGT connect with Dracula and the Lord of Nightmares storyline?  They call him “the Devil” at the end of the issue, but is TGT really the metaphorical embodiment of human evil (in the Biblical sense) or is TGT meant to be a some sort of inspiration for the Biblical “devil”?  I love a comic that begs such questions, especially when you trust the storytellers as much as I trust Snyder and Albuquerque.  They’ve got answers for all this stuff.  I guarantee you that there isn’t a question in this paragraph that hasn’t already been addressed in a story outline.  Readers just need to strap in and enjoy the rest of the story in confidence.

American Vampire: Second Cycle #1 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Rafael Albuquerque (art), Dave McCaig (colors) and Steve Wands (letters) 

The Story: After a hiatus, we get reacquainted with Pearl and Skinner.

Review: It’s lovely to have this comic back.  Even though creators Snyder and Albuquerque were always adamant that the hiatus was temporary, given Snyder’s new status of Master of the DC Universe and Albuquerque getting regular work on DC titles, there was always a fear that we might never see American Vampire again.  It’s such a relief to have it back because we don’t get comics as good as American Vampire that often.

This first issue back is part review of what came before and part set-up of what is to come.  The review is modest, but it’s just enough to give a new reader an introduction to who Pearl Jones and Skinner Sweet are.  It you want the whole story, you need to go read the back issues or collections, but if this is your first issue of AV, I’m sure you’ll be fine without the back material.  Scott Snyder is too inclusive of a writer to punish new customers with inside jokes that make new people feel unwelcome.

What we find in this issue is both Pearl and Skinner in a sort of Vampire Middle Age.  Pearl tried to basically live her early years as a vampire as if she was just a super-powered human.  She had human friends, a human husband and what-not, but they all got old and died while she is living forever.  So, now she is entering her hermit phase where she lives in an old farmhouse and appears to take in runaway vampire children.  It’s a neat concept and I like that Snyder is still playing with the idea that there are all these different races of vampires kinda like breeds of dog.  They look at her newest rescue project the way you’d look at a mutt at the dog park: “Hmmm…. He must have some chow because he has a partially black tongue and her snout is very terrier…”  We learn at the very end of the tale that one of these kids has had a run-in with The Gray Trader… Hmm…  I really like the idea of Pearl mothering to these kids who have been turned into a vampire.  I’d imagine that being a vampire is a difficult transition for a fully formed adult, but it would probably be really challenging for a child who hasn’t had time to develop the emotional strength to handle the transition.

Extinction Parade #1 – Review

By: Max Brooks (story/script), Raulo Caceres (pencils/inks), Digikore Studios (colors) & Kurt Hathaway (letters)

The Story: It’s a zombie apocalypse with a vampiric spin.

Review: The obvious reason to buy/read this comic is that it’s written by Max Brooks, the author of the popular novel, World War Z (which game its name to a movie coming out this weekend).  Brooks has rightly gotten a lot of accolades for WWZ, but the story we get here reminds me more of his associated works like The Zombie Survival Guide and Recorded Attacks.  Those latter two works were “kinda entertaining, but nothing great.”  I’d use similar words to describe this comic.

The story shows us a zombie apocalypse through the eyes of vampires.  I guess that is a somewhat different spin on the same old story, but it saps some of the horror because you aren’t concerned for the main character’s safety.  The zombies don’t even seem to notice that the vampires exist.  So, this initial issue has all the terror of a farmer watching locusts eat the crop.

American Vampire: The Long Road to Hell #1 – Review

By: Scott Snyder & Rafael Albuquerque (story), Albuquerque (script & art), Dave McCaig (colors) and Jared K. Fletcher (letters)

The Story: American Vampire returns with an extra-length one-shot about a young couple who run into some vampires.

Review (with SPOILERS): This was a really good issue.  Given that AV has been away for a few months and isn’t quite ready to return as a regular, monthly comic series, it’s really smart to give readers this appetizer to remind us (a) what a special series this is and (b) of some of the general themes of the series.  This issue is also a great sampler if you haven’t been reading AV and want to give it a try.  No previous knowledge of the series is needed.  Read it, and – if you like it – I’m sure when the series restarts in a couple months, it will be pretty new-reader friendly.

The story itself is really sharp.  It follows a young couple in love, who are trying to raise enough money to get married.  Mostly they seem to raise money via minor pickpocketing and through this, they run into a next of nasty vampires.  Along the way, they run into a young, abused boy who has a knack for pointing out wicked people, so they are able to satisfy their blood lust Dexter-style.  But, eventually they realize what monsters they have become and come up with a clever – and heartbreaking – plan to end things.

Morbius The Living Vampire #2 – Review

By: Joe Keatinge (Writer), Richard Elson (Artist), Antonio Fabela (Colorist), Clayton Cowles (Letterer)

The Review: If it seems like a long time since the first issue of Morbius: The Living Vampire came out that’s because…well, it was. The most conspicuously late shipping book on Marvel’s slate at the moment is (of course) Uncanny Avengers, but Morbius has probably just nabbed second place – #2 has arrived just under two months since the title’s launch. And right now, that’s probably the most interesting thing about it…

Which is a shame.  Morbius, much like X-Men: Legacy, has positioned its minor league hero in a interesting place; a largely self-contained corner of the Marvel Universe where the character can develop at his own pace, carve a successful niche and, hopefully, garner a loyal critical and commercial following in the process. Instead it’s floundering, and floundering hard. With a fairly glum and uninteresting story, a cut-out cast of characters and a bland, detached art style it is, quite possibly, the worst book to yet come out of Marvel NOW.

American Vampire #34 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Rafael Albuquerque (art), Dave McCaig (colors), Jared K. Fletcher (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: After the personal loss of The Blacklist, how will American Vampire move forward into its hiatus?

Review (with SPOILERS): I’m so happy with how this issue turned out. Because the “main story” wrapped-up in issue #33, I worried (a little) that this issue could be a maudlin look back at what had transpired: Pearl sitting by Henry’s grave, Skinner getting into some kind of mischief, the Vassals trying to rebuild, etc.  I expected that because that’s typically what comics do in wrap-up issues: some character acts as a tour-guide as we visit the entire cast to see what they’re doing.  It can be well done, but I’m not a huge fan of reflective storytelling when the actual issues/stories we’re reflecting on are sitting right there on the bookshelf to be re-enjoyed again.  It just isn’t necessary and comes off more as the creators taking a victory lap (perhaps deserved, but a victory lap nonetheless).

American Vampire #33 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Rafael Albuquerque (art), Dave McCaig (colors), Jared K. Fletcher (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: A final showdown between Pearl, Hattie, Skinner, Cal and a bunch of normal vampires.

The Review (with SPOILERS): American Vampire can be a complex story and sometimes plays with deeper allegorical themes, but it was nice to see this issue be all about characters.  As we head into this planned hiatus for the series, it was interesting what messages Snyder and Albuquerque wanted to leave us with.  Here’s what it comes down to: Hattie is evil, Pearl/Cal are good and Skinner has his own agenda.  Remember that and you should be fine to pick this series back up when it returns.

That’s really smart storytelling.  I’ve mentioned a lot in these reviews my enjoyment for the way AV has served as an allegory for the growth of the United States, but sometimes that stuff can get heavy.  Likewise, the relationships between this web of characters is also pretty complex between Skinner, these Euro vampires, the Book family, Pearl/Hattie, etc.  It’s very smart to put those issues on the back shelf for now, remember who the vital characters are and let the complexity creep back in once this series gets ramped back up next year.

The major theme for this issue was loss and moving on.  I’ve always wondered WHY Pearl didn’t just turn Henry.  Snyder never really got into that question before this issue.  Traditional vampire-fiction has always prattled on about the “loss of humanity” or the “horrors of being a creature of the night” and that’s always rung so hollow to me: getting to be immortal with someone you love sounds like a pretty good deal.  So, I loved the way that Snyder finally addressed this in Henry’s good-bye letter.  His explanation that he always knew that Pearl had more life in her than could be used in one lifetime but that Henry was already a little tired when he met her was very fitting.  I get it, and, more importantly, I believe that this is something Henry would think given his characterization over the course of the series.

Henry’s passing is obviously going to be a major impact for Pearl and surely that’s what the comic will examine when it returns.  Pearl has always been a vampire in name only.  She basically functions as a human and only vamps out when she needs to kill someone.  For her, it’s always been life as usual (except for sucking blood out of her husband).  Her links with humanity are pretty much broken now and she has some obvious issues with Skinner.  What does she do now?  It’ll be interesting to find out….

As for Skinner, his motives just aren’t clear at all, but that’s how he’s always been.  He’s a very interesting character.  Fiction is FULL of “scoundrels with a heart of gold” (think Han Solo), but Skinner is not that.  He really is a scoundrel and if he does good deeds, it’s because it temporarily suited his needs.  On the other hand, he isn’t an evil mastermind either.  He doesn’t have it in him to “think big” and he isn’t evil; he’s just a guy who used to rob banks and now he’s a vampire.  What does a guy like do now that he’s ~100 years old?

The New Deadwardians #8 – Review

By: Dan Abnett (writer), I.N.J. Culbard (artist), Patricia Mulvihill (colors), Travis Lanham (letters), Mark Doyle (associate editor) & Will Dennis (editor)

The Story: Inspector Suttle needs to complete his murder investigation in the middle of a zombie invasion of ~1910 London.

A few things: 1). Ending to the mystery (minor SPOILERS) – The final resolution of the murder in TND was satisfying and unexpected.  Even if some readers were able to guess the identity of the murderer, they probably didn’t guess the motive.  Learning that the killings were revenge upon the men who caused the zombie apocalypse was pretty nifty, but seeing that the whole thing happened because Queen Victoria missed Prince Albert was a whole other layer.  Again, it just serves to give this story such an English feel!  Americans get small doses of English culture by watching the English Premier League or Doctor Who, but we certainly don’t know much about Queen Victoria.  That can be viewed as a good thing if you’re the kind of person who enjoys Googling and learning; or it can be a negative if you find that too much of a hassle.  This was a nice ending for history buffs.

American Vampire #32 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Rafael Albuquerque (art), Dave McCaig (colors), Jared K. Fletcher (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: Hattie is back and takes the fight to Pearl and the VMS.

A few things (with SPOILERS): 1). That dirty bastard! – Of course, nobody is really surprised that Skinner has betrayed the VMS and Pearl.  He’s just a dirty, rotten bastard.  He was a lousy human and he isn’t any better as a vampire.  So, the betrayal itself is obvious.  In fact, it’s so obvious that you wonder why anyone would have trusted Skinner in the first place.  I mean, Pearl has been trusting him on dangerous missions when only ~10 years earlier she had stabbed him with a gold knife and left him for dead on a Pacific island.  I don’t know about you, but I tend to keep one eye on all the people that survive when I stab them and leave them for dead.

The reason this plot twist works and has such resonance is that Snyder and Albuquerque have built up Skinner so well.  It isn’t so much that they convinced us in this story arc that “Skinner is good” or that they made us believe that the VMS’s remote control gizmo could really control him.  It’s that over ~30 issues they made Skinner into a character that we wanted to believe in.  He is/was so cool and charismatic and competent that we readers just wanted him to eventually be a good guy.  We wanted him to be like Han Solo and that’s why it’s easy to understand why the VMS and Pearl trusted him.  Very nice character work!

American Vampire: Lord of Nightmares #4 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Dustin Nguyen (art), John Kalisz (colors), Steve Wands (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: A couple of VMS agents & oddball vamps on the run from the minions of Dracula.

A few things (with minor SPOILERS): 1). Snyder making sure you weren’t confused. – It’s been clear for awhile that as the AV stories passed World War II, that one of the central themes was the weakening of western European institutions like the Vassals of the Morning Star.  In the real world, WWII was really the last time traditional European powers like Great Britain, France, Italy and Germany were thought of as “superpowers”.  The next 50 years were marked by the United States and Soviet Union being locked in the Cold War as the two major powers in the world.  American Vampire is mirroring that as we’re seeing the waning influence of the VMS after being on the forefront of the human/vampire battle for a millennia.  Now, an interesting question is whether the VMS will fracture (like Eastern/Western Europe), whether the VMS will become like Great Britain and be a willing ally of whatever the US is up to or will the VMS be more like France and see their role as more of an antagonist for the banner wavers in the US.  Hmmm…..

But this has all been bubbling under the surface of AV for 6 months.  If you’ve been reading my reviews, you know about this, but Snyder is taking zero chances as he moves forward.  The subtlety is gone: Dracula is loose in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and he can use his powers to infect the minds of people and vampires around the globe.  That’s Snyder whacking you over the head with a shovel and saying, “Dracula is communism, you dummy!!”  If you parallel this with what’s going on in the main AV series where the plot mirrors the Red Scare of the 1950s, this use of Dracula makes a lot of sense.

My expectation is that this must be a very important plot point to cause Snyder to be so non-subtle.

2). Very nicely written. – As with everything Snyder writes, this is nicely written.  Flipping through this comic before writing the review, there are a lot of pages that are covered in word balloons.  With a standard comic writer you brace yourself when you see these pages, but Snyder just kinda motors through the heavy parts.  Obviously being a good writer is an advantage for Snyder, but it really serves him when he wants to go into some heavy exposition.  Snyder can do it and the comic still works.  Many writers cannot, so the story has to add issues or the story must sacrifice depth.  Let’s just hope that DC is paying Snyder enough money because he could do a LOT of things for a living besides writing comic books.

3). Excellent art. – Surprise, surprise….a Dustin Nguyen comic is beautiful.  We could stop there and I’ve certainly gushed enough over Nguyen in my reviews of the first comics in this series.  Instead, let’s focus on some under-appreciated things about the art in this issue/series.  We all know that Nguyen is a beast when it comes to drawing emotive faces.  I think he draws a better smile than anyone else in the business.  But, check out that bridge that he draws partway through the issue!  The amazing thing here is how well he captures the scale of the bridge.  It’s easy for massive structures to look small and cartoony on a printed page, but Nguyen makes us believe that this is a massive structure the spans a huge gorge.  It’s really impressive.  The other thing to note in this issue is John Kalisz’s colors.  A lot of these Nguyen pages probably look pretty simple if you viewed the original art.  Much of the mood on the page is coming from Kalisz’s colors and he always seems in tune with the direction that Nguyen plots.

4). Accessible. – Another amazing thing about this issue is how accessible it is.  I mean, this is issue 4/6 of a tie-in miniseries to a story-driven series that is up to issue #30.  If any issue had an excuse to be an impenetrable, “transitional issue” it would be this one.  But, I think a new reader could pick this up and understand basically what is going on.  Sure, they’d have a few questions, but that’s to be expected.  The point is, every issue of AV is inviting to newcomers.

Conclusion: Another great issue.  The AV franchise is not showing any weakness as it chugs towards it’s 3rd anniversary.

Grade: A-

– Dean Stell

The New Deadwardians #6 – Review

By: Dan Abnett (writer), I.N.J. Culbard (artist), Patricia Mulvihill (colors), Travis Lanham (letters), Mark Doyle (associate editor) & Will Dennis (editor)

The Story: Inspector Suttle begins to pieces together the clues to the murder of a vampiric nobleman in post-zombie London.

A few things: 1). Focused more on the murder – The previous issues have used the murder investigation plotline as a way to explore portions of post-zombie England.  This issue doesn’t explore much new ground and zeros in on the murder itself with Suttle developing some key theories about what I have happened.  The only problem with this approach is that the murder mystery is the less entertaining that the exploration of the world around it.  This world is fascinating and hopefully Vertigo will allow us to see more stories within it, but this murder mystery probably isn’t the most interesting tale the world has to offer us.

American Vampire #30 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Rafael Albuquerque (artist), Dave McCaig (colors), Jared K. Fletcher (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: Pearl and Skinner continue tracking down vampires in Hollywood while Henry lies old and close to death.

The Review (with SPOILERS): 

1. Pretty big event on final pages! – Is this the first sex we’ve seen in the pages of AV?  Maybe we’ve seen Pearl and Henry together, but this is definitely the first hot and naughty sex.  Remember when AV started, people just rolled their eyes and said they were sick of vampires?  But, this lack of sex is just one of the many ways that AV is so different than other vampires stories.  The creators have never fallen back on love triangles when they’ve gotten bored telling real stories.  And because we haven’t had much sex in the series, it hits that much harder when Pearl and Skinner get it on at the end of this issue.  Not only is it just kinda fun to watch a vamped out sex scene in AV, but it really puts an exclamation point on the problems in Pearl and Henry’s relationships: She can love him all she wants, but the fact is that he’s going to die and leave her alone, and maybe she doesn’t want to be alone.

2. Vulnerabilities make the AVs more interesting. – It was very refreshing seeing Pearl bite off more than she could chew in this issue when she jumps onto the boat and gets attacked by the normal vampires.  So far in the series, the AVs have been kinda portrayed as virtual superheroes without many vulnerabilities.  They’re stronger, faster and can go out in the sun.  Every time they fight regular vampires, they make instant work of them, but seeing Pearl behaving recklessly and almost dying was a nice reminder that the AVs aren’t invincible, and it also made the sex scene with Skinner a little more believable.

3. Still don’t understand the Henry problem. – The Henry situation has always bothered me and I’ve never understood why Pearl wouldn’t just make him a AV.  There’s always this sense that vampirism is a horrible curse once you get past the superpowers and the fact that everyone suddenly finds you super-sexy.  You know….all that “creature of the night” and “loss of humanity” claptrap that you hear about in Twilight or True Blood.  But, here’s the thing….Pearl’s life doesn’t seem so bad and neither does Skinner’s.  Sure, they have people who try to kill them sometimes, but Henry already has endured that risk by association.  Just make the guy a AV already.

The New Deadwardians #5 – Review

By: Dan Abnett (writer), I.N.J. Culbard (art), Patricia Mulvihill (colors), Travis Lanham (letters), Mark Doyle (associate editor) & Will Dennis (editor)

The Story: Inspector Suttle heads north into zombie-land on his murder investigation.

The Review:

1. No zombieland? – Last issue closed with Suttle and his driver leaving London in a specially armored car with tiny gun-slits for windows.  This was important as they were leaving the cozy confines of Zone A of London where there are no zombies (or the “Restless” as they are called here).  One of the distinguishing features of TND has been that the zombies aren’t being rubbed in our faces, but I was kinda looking forward to seeing what the zombie wasteland outside London looks like.  This story takes place 50 years after the zombie war and I kinda wanted to know what the countryside looks like.  Are the roads maintained?  Is it an ocean of zombies or just a few?  So…..I was more than a little disappointed that we didn’t get to see the zombies as this issue kicks off with Suttle having arrived at his destination.  And this country manor also looks very safe.  Is there a wall?  Are there really not that many zombies around?  Can’t help it….I’m curious….

American Vampire #29 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Rafael Albuquerque (art), Dave McCaig (colors), Jared K. Fletcher (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: Pearl and Skinner sniffing out vampires in 50’s Hollywood.

A few things (with very minor SPOILERS): 1). The art is great. – It’s easy to carry on about how well Rafael Albuquerque draws his action vampire scenes.  His vampires are so nasty looking and energetic that they really spoil us.  A True Blood vampire – with their wussy fangs snapping into place – just isn’t very scary anymore.  But Albuquerque also is able to ace all the quiet panels where he needs to command the scene through clever use of perspective, framing, level of zooming in, detailed backgrounds, proper looking machines, etc..  Love the difference between his vampires at rest and regular people….the vampires just have this smoldering tension about them whereas the people look kinda dopey.  Dave McCaig is all over the colors in this issue too.  Usually if you actually notice a colorist, it’s because they are doing something great or something terrible and McCaig was definitely adding to the visuals in this issue.

The New Deadwardians #4 – Review

By: Dan Abnett (writer), INJ Culbard (artist), Patricia Mulvihill (colors), Travis Lanham (letters), Mark Doyle (associate editor) & Will Dennis (editor)

The Story: Inspector Suttle continues his search for a killer in zombie-besieged 1910’s London.

A few things: 1). Inspector Suttle is a great character. – The highlight of this series is the main character.  Each issue we learn little new things about him that make him more interesting.  He’s so dedicated to his duty, but not in the way that we usually see with dedicated characters.  When I think of a “dedicated” character, someone like Officer McNulty from The Wire often comes to mind: dedicated, obsessive, GREAT at his job….but also tragically flawed by self-destructive behaviors.  There’s none of that with Suttle.  The guy is so dedicated to his duty that he willingly became a vampire in the first place (to fight off the zombies)….and that was only after he survived several tours of duty as a normal man.  Now, he seems to be the last working murder inspector in all of London.  But there’s no screaming at colleagues, no bitching about bureaucracy, no lying to his spouse, no excessive drinking.  Nope….Suttle just goes about his work in a highly professional manner.  It’s refreshing to see a hero/protagonist where the creators aren’t trying to give him an obvious flaw.  I mean, he IS a vampire.  So, I guess he has a “flaw”, but he seems like a wonderful person to be around, nice, courteous, hard-working, etc.

American Vampire #28 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Rafael Albuquerque (artist), Dave McCaig (colors), Jared K. Fletcher (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: It’s 1950’s Hollywood and the pinko movie crowd isn’t just hiding communists, they’re hiding vampires too!

A Few Things (with SPOILERS):

1. Comfortable cast of characters. – This story was like a comfortable pair of blue jeans.  Even though all the arcs of AV tie together, this was the first time in awhile where we haven’t had to remember some slight connection among supporting characters to make the story click.  Everything in this issue flows directly from the first story arc as the story centers around Pearl and Henry and vampires in Hollywood.  It’s nice to be able to sink effortlessly into the story without trying to remember relationships between John Book’s family.  The other arcs aren’t bad, but this issue really drove home who the main characters of the series are (in my mind at least).

2. A little wordy in a place or two (gasp). – This is a nit-pick, but over the years I’m poured so much honey on the scripting of Scott Snyder, that I DO have to point it out when he has a clumsy paragraph….just for the sake of preserving objectivity.  The opening monologue in this issue does run on for a few sentences too long and the sentence constructions get a little clunky in places.  Honestly…..you’d just shrug it off with most comic writers, but with Snyder it’s like seeing an elite athlete make a bit of a mess out of something; it’s Michael Jordan missing a dunk.  Is it a fatal flaw for the issue?  Hell no!  To continue the sports analogy, Snyder recovers to have his customary 32 points, 7 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals and 1 blocked shot…..  But, it is evidence that Snyder is human and not some weird alien from the Planet of Writing.

3. The diverse skills of Rafael Albuquerque. – I really enjoy how Albuquerque seems equally comfortable with all aspects of sequential art.  It has to be liberating for a writer to collaborate with an artist who doesn’t have any glaring weak spots.  Albuquerque draws wonderful vampires.  They just ooze evil intentions when he shows their jaws protruding and their fingers getting elongated.  He does great sequential action.  He’s comfortable with all manner of perspectives and poses on characters.  And he also seems to really enjoy drawing things like the metal skeleton behind the Hollywood sign and cars and houses and desks.  I simply love his artwork.  There seems to be nothing in AV that was drawn that way because Albuquerque envisioned something else, but knew he couldn’t draw that.

American Vampire: Lord of Nightmares #1 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Dustin Nguyen (artist), John Kalisz (colors), Steve Wands (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: What are the Vassals of the Morning Star keeping under London Bridge?

A few things (with SPOILERS): 1). Delectable art! – It’s been awhile since I’ve gotten to enjoy a Dustin Nguyen single issue.  Not sure what he’s been up to (Batwing?), but it’s generally been things I wasn’t remotely interested in reading and this miniseries shows that you don’t have to follow your favorite artists around to new books because  they’ll eventually draw something you do like.  Nguyen is a different look for the world of AV which has been defined by Rafa Albuquerque and–to a lesser extent–Sean Murphy. Nguyen’s characters are much softer feeling than either of those guys and and he draws what is probably the best smile in comics today.  But, one thing that Nguyen has in common with Albuquerque and Murphy is this thing where his objects, machines, landscapes, etc. are starkly realistic – when Nguyen draws chairs, he is drawing a particular kind of chair that is firmly fixed in his mind and not just some random chair – but his characters are much more cartoony.  There is a definite talent to fitting cartoony characters into a realistic landscape and not having it look like Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

American Vampire #27 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Riccardo Burchielli (art), Dave McCaig (colors), Jared K. Fletcher (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: Redneck werewolves?

Review: The big take away from this issue was the presence of the “werewolves”.  Last issue kinda hinted at fact that theses guys were “canine”, but didn’t come right out and say “werewolf”.  However, Snyder is quick to instruct us that these are werewolves with a twist: all of these various strains of vampires, and now werewolves and zombies are just different types of what he’s calling “abominations.”  That’s a good take on things, because these folks really wouldn’t know how these critters differed anyway.  This is the 1950s after all and the technology didn’t exist.  In the 1950s, genetics hadn’t really advanced past Gregor Mendel and his wrinkly/smooth peas and the crude concept of “dominant” and “recessive” genes that they still teach in school to ensure that Americans have stupid ideas about genetics.

Having the potential for all of these monsters in a single world opens up a lot of possibilities.  Imagine what kinds of funky things will happen when Snyder and Company get to the Vietnam War era!  Or think of what the Soviets and East German scientists are up to behind the Iron Curtain!  What if he explored the United State’s activities in Central and South America or our meddling with Iran?  Basically, Snyder can continue this series for as long as he wants because he’s made it 100% open ended.

When I first sat down to write this review, my instinct was that this issue was much more direct.  And it is.  But it isn’t direct in the way I was originally thinking.  My first instinct was that Snyder was just doing a horror story in this issue with most of the American History allegory falling to the wayside.  I mean, we have a basic werewolf infestation and they need killing, so the good guys make some silver bullets and shoot the bastards.  My error was in not immediately seeing the historical relevance of a group of white guys in 1950s Alabama who would kidnap black guys and kill them out in the countryside.  Basically, the werewolf pack is the Ku Klux Klan and I was missing it because Snyder is usually a little subtler.  Duh…

The New Deadwardians #2 – Review

By: Dan Abnett (writer), I.N.J. Culbard (artist), Patricia Mulvihill (colors), Travis Lanham (letters), Mark Doyle (associate editor) & Will Dennis (editor)

The Story: The murder-mystery set in a zombie-infested Edwardian era London continues.

Recap/Review (with minor SPOILERS): This was a challenging review to compose.  I kept starting by saying that, “The New Deadwardians is different than typical zombie-fiction because of ABC…”, only to pause and realize that all zombie fiction included ABC.  Then I’d begin again by saying it was different “because of XYZ…” only to realize that XYZ is also present in just about all zombie fiction.  It was frustrating because The New Deadwardians is obviously fresh and different even if I couldn’t verbalize the proper adjectives.  So, I did some household chores, walked on the treadmill, fed the dogs….and it finally hit me…..

The New Deadwardians is different because it is clean.  This world has all the standard tropes of zombie fiction: ghouls hissing from behind bars, scarcity of resources and the danger of your fellow survivors.  That’s all present in TND just as it is present in The Walking Dead.  But, the difference is that these people look clean and civilized: They look like they’ve taken a bath recently; the well-to-do still have butlers and cooks; the upper class still dresses properly.

American Vampire #25 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Rafael Albuquerque (art), Dave McCaig (colors), Jared Fletcher (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: This 50’s era arc wraps up with a big battle between Skinner & Travis.

A Few Things: 

Everything ties up nicely. – The last time it seemed like Scott Snyder was taking us in a brand new direction was the Las Vegas arc (roughly #6-#10).  At the time, it seemed only loosely connected to the first arc of AV and I wondered if AV was going to be a series of loosely connected arcs.  This arc again seemed quite different as we had a new protagonist and only the loosest of ties to the previous material, until this issue where (again) Snyder has tied all the action up nicely.  It’s just so damn clever.  By writing this way, Snyder is keeping each arc very accessible to the new reader but THEN making it pay off for the long-timers.  What can I say? Month after month Snyder shows how he’s more talented and more devoted than the typical comic writer.  No wonder all the cool artists want to work with him!  [As an aside, let me say how annoying the naysayers are who say, “Yeah?  Well, Snyder’s comics are great, but he DOES work with nothing but the best artists!”  That makes it sound as if Snyder has either (a) hit the lottery of artist assignment over and over again or (b) that artists have no choice in who they choose to work with.  It’s a virtuous cycle: Snyder and great artists want to work together because they want a partner of comparable skill and level of devotion.  I guarantee you that if I started to write a comic, I would have exactly ZERO A-list artists wanting to work on the project because I’m not that good of a writer.]

Two or three cool twists at the end. –  SPOILERS…  Three… Two… One… Okay, how cool was it that Skinner is working with the Vassals?  Talk about strange bedfellows!  But then, history is FULL of stories of kinda-enemies coming together to deal with a greater threat.  It happened in WWII when the USA, Great Britain teamed up with the Soviet Union to fight the Axis.  Heck, it happened in The Hunger Games.  Nevertheless, I never saw this twist coming.  I wonder what Pearl’s role in this was (if anything) since the Vassals know about her?  Or is it just leftover from the Vassals/Skinner team up in WWII?  Of less import was the double cross on Travis by the young girl.  I guess it really doesn’t matter to the AV story longer term, but it was still really unexpected and the way Travis sniffed it out shows that he isn’t distracted by a pretty girl.  And the final twist was in the Epilogue….  Let’s just say that I doubt this long-term, well-developed character will go out in an Epilogue.  Will he become a vampire and if so, will he be an old-school vampire or an American Vampire?  It’d be kinda cool from a dramatic standpoint if he were old-school, right?

I, Vampire #6 – Review

By: Joshua Hale Fialkov (writer), Andrea Sorrentino (artist), Marcelo Maiolo (colorist)

The Story: It’s the ultimate showdown between two immortal, monster lovers.  Heads will roll.

The Review: When DC first announced its new 52, I leaped on the Judgment Train just like everyone else, although I tried, in the spirit of cautious optimism, to keep my opinions to myself.  One of the series I instantly dismissed just from the cover and concept was I, Vampire.  With the Twilight craze reaching concerning proportions, looking at that picture of a thin-hipped, shirtless Andrew Bennet, complete with idol, streaked haircut, made me ever so slightly nauseated.

So Fialkov deserves a lot of credit for overturning that prejudice and making this title one of the stronger middleweights of the current DC canon.  Probably the best thing he ever did for this series was take the usual angsty vampire romance and remove the soap opera elements from it, infusing it with a seemingly irresolvable conflict between restraint and freedom, safety and dignity, love and justice.

Of course, the figureheads of these conflicts, Andrew and Mary, are the most intriguing characters of the series.  The fact that they candidly proclaim their attraction to each other at the same time that they actively seek each other’s deaths could very well have become a silly device in the hands of a lesser writer, but Fialkov mines the humor, the tragedy, and the depth of this tumultuous relationship with great finesse.  That said, it seems both vamp veterans have set aside whatever softer feelings they had for each other in this issue,

I, Vampire #4 – Review

by Joshua Hale Fialkov (writing), Andrea Sorrentino (art), Marcelo Maiolo (colors), and Pat Brosseau (letters)

The Story: Andrew meets with a relatively new vampire still learning about undead life, but is this vampire redeemable?

The Review: It’s quickly become clear that I, Vampire’s greatest asset thus far has been it’s atmosphere.  Without being gritty, this is really the book that lives up to the “dark” in “DC Dark.”  That’s not to say that it’s overwrought or overly violent or twisted, only that there’s a constant edge of downcast, doomed horror to the book that gives it a particular bite.  That’s here again this month; this is issue is a real downer in the best way possible.  I, Vampire continues to be a moody comic, which makes it a comic that creates a world to get lost in.  It also leads to a book that is different from any other DC offering.  Of course, Sorrentino is a big part of that.  His art is absolutely gorgeous and is as much mood as it is storytelling.  It’s distinctive and it’s gorgeous and Sorrentino has made himself an irreplaceable part of the book.

The plot this month involving Andrew’s meeting a newer vampire really lends itself well to this.  It allows Fialkov to show the difficulty of following the straight and narrow for a vampire, while also still making it clear that being evil, for a vampire, is a choice, even if there is pressure to go one way.

The end result is a plot that shows just how easy it is to give in to the beast within.  This also emphasizes just how unique Andrew Bennett really is and, in so doing, it makes the character appear all the more isolated, highlighting Fialkov’s vision of Andrew as a kind of vampiric iconoclast.

In the midst of all of this is John Constantine.  I was a bit uncomfortable with the idea of a guest appearance from the DCU in I, Vampire, but Constantine fits right in.  If there’s one downside to his appearance, it’s that I wish his entrance into the comic was set-up a bit in a previous issue, as opposed to him just randomly showing up this month.  That said, he’s a fine addition, is his usual non-chalant, badass self, and his having such a different personality to Andrew makes for a solid dynamic.

American Vampire #22 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Rafael Albuquerque (artist), Dave McCaig (colors), Jared Fletcher (letters), Joe Hughes (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: We jump forward to the 1950’s for another vampire story from Snyder & Albuquerque

Five Things: [SPOILER WARNING]

1. Great to be back into the “ongoing” story” – I saw a few reviewers (not me) who expressed some displeasure with the last story arc featuring Jordi Bernet on art.  That story was a look at Skinner Sweet and John Book in the late 1860’s and it felt a little like a flashback because [SPOILERS] Skinner had died in the preceding arc and also just because it was in the past.  That’s probably not the proper way to look at this story given that the really isn’t a current timeframe to make that story “the past” and that there’s a decent chance that Snyder and Albuquerque are telling one BIG story in semi-non-linear fashion.  Still, this story felt like it had forward momentum and a sense of newness about it.

2. Nice bit of misdirection as to the identity of the vampire(s). – I love how this story opens with it being very unclear who the vampires are.  You start out thinking for SURE that it is the teenage guy driving the muscle car.  He even has a “Skinner Sweet look” about him.  So, you worry about what’s going to happen to this cute girl that he’s dating.  Thus, I loved the plot twist when it became clear that the parents of the girl were the vampires and the kid was a vampire hunter who was just using the girl to get to the parents (who were using the girl to bring them the boy, LOL).  There was just something about the way Albuquerque drew the parents coming out of the house, they kinda stick to the shadows and then McCaig gives the father a dot of a red eye in one panel.  It doesn’t conform that they’re vampires, but it’s enough to start your brain churning before the reveal a few pages later.  And there are lots of subtle clues in the dialog too (“they’ll chew you out.”).  It’s the kind of well-executed reveal that I wish more comics devoted themselves to because it shows that not only do the creators have a cool idea, they also understand the mechanics of a sequential storytelling well enough to pull off the reveal.

3. Neat new characters. – This new teenage, James Dean-esque guy named Travis Kidd sure is nifty.  Love his attitude.  Love that he’s a self-trained vampire hunter.  How’d he learn to do that?  How long has he been on the radar of the Vassals of the Morning Star, yet staying outside of their system?  Questions abound and they’re all juicy.  And the new girl is fun too.  In a way, they remind me of Pearl and Henry from the first few story arcs.  Not sure why that is given that neither of them is a vampire, but they have this same vibe of two people who are both “involved” in the vampire world, but a little outside of the “mainstream” vamp vs. Vassals conflict.

American Vampire #21 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Jordi Bernet (artist), Dave McCaig (colors), Jared K. Fletcher (letters), Joe Hughes (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: A finale to the post-Civil War, “Indian War” story featuring a young Skinner Sweet and John Book.

Five Things: 

1. I think I need to buy some Torpedo collected editions. – As I was reading this and approaching the ending, I started to really miss Bernet before he was gone.  Know what I mean?  Kinda like the last 15 minutes of a beloved movie trilogy?  Bernet is such a modern master and it’s nice to see him doing a full-length story arc of something that I actually want to read.  His storytelling and use of perspective are incredibly strong.  Look at all those panels of Book climbing up the cliff: Somehow Bernet makes it obvious that he is crawling up and not just scrambling horizontally along the ground.  That may seem like a small thing, but we’ve all seen artists screw up that type of thing.  And, I’m amazed that he excels at simultaneously drawing rough, craggy, unshaven and dirty men AND that incredibly curvy and sexy vampiress.  Wow!  That’s talent + experience!

2. Nice to get a little more flavor of the Sweet/Book relationship. – I don’t know if Snyder intends to come back to this “origin” setting, but you would kinda think he would, right?  It’s a ripe setting and I’d love to see more of this stuff.  What made this arc so special wasn’t really the vampires, it was the relationship between Sweet and Book and the story of how two childhood friends/brothers went down separate paths and became very different adults.  It’s tragic story in the end.

3. Interesting choices with the Native American vampires. – I originally thought that the vampiress’ cave might be connected to the cave Skinner was lurking in during the first arc of AV, but a quick skim of issues #1-5 seem to indicate that it isn’t.  Oh well….  But beyond that, I loved how these crazy-ass Native American vampires never appeared to the soldiers.  That way they can remain creatures of myth.  It was also great that it was left ambiguous whether Skinner saw the vampires or not.

I, Vampire #3 – Review

By: Joshua Hale Fialkov (writer), Andrea Sorrentino (artist), Marcelo Maiolo (colorist)

The Story: Thank heaven for little girls—who shoot arrows into your arms.

The Review: The last three years or so have been something of a revival for vampires in the media, everything from the grossly romanticized (Twilight) to the artistic (American Vampire) to those in between (Vampire Diaries).  In many of these works, writers have taken to humanizing these creatures of the night, emphasizing their capacity for self-restraint and love so you almost forget the risk of their constant bloodlust.

This series takes the opposite route.  The opening pages demonstrate what happens when the vampires decide to let their vices go unchecked: nationwide fear as four cities swiftly fall victim to Mary’s revolution.  In each of these cities, you see the bloody ruins of what the vampires leave behind in the wake of their attacks, a grim portent of the dystopia that awaits the world should they succeed in the long run.

For that reason, you become highly invested in Andrew, “the only man who can save [the world],” according to best friend and fellow vampire hunter John Troughton.  Previous issues pretty well established our hero’s merciless dedication to policing his own kind.  That he has a completely loyal ally who grew up learning to hate vampires gives credit to Andrew’s virtue, and it gives you a sense of relief that he won’t have to fight this battle alone.