American Vampire is a series that I’m shocked I haven’t gotten into. I can almost narrow it down to the time that when it started, I wasn’t into anything involving vampires. With me getting into I’ Vampire, Shinku, and so forth, this is the right time to revisit this series. Since I read that American Vampire #22 is a new story arc, the time for me to revisit American Vampire is now. The other factor is Scott Snyder writes two of my favorite series, Swamp Thing and Batman for DC Comics. Mix that in with Rafael Albuquerque being one of my favorite artists since I discovered him on Blue Beetle when John Rogers was writing the comic. Needless to say, I’m hopeful this time American Vampire will stick with me.
The story takes place in the year 1954 in Glendale, California. The introduction to our protagonist Travis Kidd playing a game of Chicken is an exciting one to say the least. Scott Snyder plays with your conceptions of the character from the beginning. Just from the intro you might think he’s a thrill seeking vampire, though you learn who he truly is when he’s with his “girlfriend” and sees her parents for the first time. That’s when you learn his true nature, that he’s a Vampire Hunter. The scene that follows this is an action spectacular with Rafael Albuquerque bringing you a near breath taking action scene. Snyder’s scripting and Rafael Albuquerque’s art is top notch. You learn through this that this 50′s Greaser has more to him than you’d ever expect.
The best part about the fight is it also tells you a lot about his character, giving you more of an idea of the story to come. The cover made you wonder just what direction the story was going to go in until that scene. Then you meet Agent Hobbes, sadly I’m not as familiar with him. I know he’s a character integral to American Vampire though. The meeting is wonderful, Albuquerque gives him this nice confident smile as he lays down a file before him. This file has information essential to Kidd so what does he do? Starts a bar fight and we’re set at the point we were at the beginning of the issue, a game of Chicken with stakes higher than even Travis expected.
From the start of this issue of American Vampire, I couldn’t help but get into in Scott Snyder’s new story. Travis Kidd is a great new character and I couldn’t help but root for him. It’s not often I get this into a character but this one struck a chord with me. If the character is this good the story just drags you in easily. Rafael’s artwork is just a thrill to see. His art has never been better and his capturing of the game of chicken and his action scenes, he’s just at a whole new level. If anyone out there is looking for a nice jumping on point, this is the perfect one. If this arc matches the intensity of the start of it, I say American Vampire is on it’s way back to my pull list.
