American Vampire

For 1997 American film, see American Vampire (film).

American Vampire is an American comic book series created by writer Scott Snyder and drawn by artist Rafael Albuquerque. It was published by DC Comics under its Vertigo imprint. American Vampire continued under the newly created DC Black Label imprint after Vertigo was closed in January 2020. The series imagines vampires as a population made up of many different secret species, and charts moments of vampire evolution and inter-species conflict throughout history. The focus of the series is a new American bloodline of vampires, born in the American West in the late 19th century. The first of this new species is a notorious outlaw named Skinner Sweet, who wakes from death, after being infected, to find he has become a new kind of vampire, something stronger and faster than what came before, impervious to sunlight, with a new set of strengths and weaknesses. The series goes on to track his movements through various decades of American history—along with the movements of his first and only known progeny: Pearl Jones, a young woman working as a struggling actress in the 1920s silent film industry when she is attacked by a coven of European vampires hiding in Hollywood. Sweet saves her (uncharacteristically) by giving her his blood, thereby turning her into an American vampire like him, at which point she seeks revenge on the classic vampires who attacked her in life. The complicated and charged relationship Jones has with Sweet is another focus of the series. The first five issues featured two stories—one by Snyder and the other by Stephen King, both drawn by Rafael Albuquerque. With the sixth issue, Scott Snyder took over as sole writer. The original series ran from 2010–2013 and lasted 34 issues. A second series called American Vampire: Second Cycle ran from 2014–2015 and lasted 11 issues and the third and final series called American Vampire: 1976 ran from December 2020 – October 2021 and lasted 10 issues.

American Vampire
Cover of American Vampire #1
Publication information
Publisher	Vertigo (DC Comics)
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Ongoing series
Genre	Gothic Western, Weird West
Publication date	March 2010
No. of issues	34 (First Cycle) 11 (Second Cycle) 10 (1976) Also 13 issues in mini-series, one-shots, and anthologies
Main character(s)	Pearl Jones Skinner Sweet
Creative team
Created by	Scott Snyder Rafael Albuquerque
Written by	Scott Snyder Stephen King (#1–5)
Artist(s)	Rafael Albuquerque Mateus Santolouco
Colorist(s)	Dave McCaig
Collected editions
Hardcover	ISBN 978-1-4012-2830-9

American Vampire spun off two mini-series. The first, "Survival of the Fittest", illustrated by Sean Murphy focuses on the cases files of the V.M.S., the vampire hunting organization of the series. The second, "Lord of Nightmares", illustrated by Dustin Nguyen further focuses on the mythology presented by "Survival of the Fittest". A one shot co-written by Snyder and Albuquerque (who also illustrates the 64-page issue), entitled "Long Road to Hell" which features vampire hunter Travis Kidd, was released in June 2013. Two American Vampire anthologies have also been released, the first in 2013 and the second in 2016.

Plot

The series explores notions of vampire evolution and traces the bloodline of a new kind of vampire, an American species, with new powers and characteristics, through various decades of American history.

The first five issues feature two story arcs. The first takes place in 1925 from the point of view of an aspiring actress in L.A. who becomes the second American Vampire and works to get her revenge on those who turned her. The second is of a writer at a book conference due to the reediting of his book, Bad Blood. Here, the author claims that his work – which has been long considered a fictional western/terror story – is actually based on true events which he has either witnessed or has collected reliable information on.

Publication history

This series publication began on March 17, 2010, with the release of American Vampire #1. This is the first comic which features original Stephen King scripting who was contracted to the initial five issues.

Issues

First Cycle

Issue	Date	Arc	Story	Art	Color	Cover
#1	March 17, 2010	Big Break	Scott Snyder	Rafael Albuquerque	Dave McCaig	Rafael Albuquerque Jim Lee (variant)
		Bad Blood	Stephen King
#2	April 21, 2010	Morning Star	Scott Snyder			Rafael Albuquerque Bernie Wrightson & Dave McCaig (variant)
		Deep Water	Stephen King
#3	May 19, 2010	Rough Cut	Scott Snyder			Rafael Albuquerque Andy Kubert & Brad Anderson (variant)
		Blood Vengeance	Stephen King
#4	June 23, 2010	Double Exposure	Scott Snyder			Rafael Albuquerque J.H. Williams III (variant)
		One Drop of Blood	Stephen King
#5	July 28, 2010	Curtain Call	Scott Snyder			Rafael Albuquerque Paul Pope (variant)
		If Thy Right Hand Offend Thee, Cut It Off	Stephen King
#6	September 9, 2010	The Devil in the Sand	Scott Snyder	Rafael Albuquerque	Dave McCaig	Rafael Albuquerque Rafael Grampá (variant)
#7	October 6, 2010					Rafael Albuquerque
#8	November 10, 2010
#9	December 2, 2010			Rafael Albuquerque Mateus Santolouco
#10	December 22, 2010	The Way Out		Mateus Santolouco	Dave McCaig	Rafael Albuquerque
#11	January 26, 2011
#12	February 23, 2011	Strange Frontier		Danijel Zezelj	Dave McCaig	Rafael Albuquerque
#13	March 30, 2011	Ghost War		Rafael Albuquerque	Dave McCaig	Rafael Albuquerque Sean Gordon Murphy (variant)
#14	April 27, 2011					Rafael Albuquerque
#15	May 25, 2011
#16	June 29, 2011
#17	July 27, 2011
#18	August 24, 2011
#19	September 28, 2011	The Beast in the Cave		Jordi Bernet	Dave McCaig	Rafael Albuquerque
#20	November 2, 2011
#21	December 14, 2011
#22	December 28, 2011	Death Race		Rafael Albuquerque	Dave McCaig	Rafael Albuquerque
#23	January 25, 2012
#24	February 22, 2012
#25	March 28, 2012
#26	April 25, 2012	The Nocturnes		Roger Cruz	Dave McCaig	Rafael Albuquerque
#27	May 30, 2012			Riccardo Burchielli
#28	June 27, 2012	The Blacklist		Rafael Albuquerque	Dave McCaig	Rafael Albuquerque Greg Capullo & Fco Plascencia (variant)
#29	July 25, 2012					Rafael Albuquerque Dave Johnson (variant)
#30	August 29, 2012					Rafael Albuquerque Francesco Francavilla (variant)
#31	September 26, 2012					Rafael Albuquerque Jock (variant)
#32	October 31, 2012					Rafael Albuquerque Dustin Nguyen (variant)
#33	November 28, 2012					Rafael Albuquerque
#34	January 2, 2013	The Gray Trader		Rafael Albuquerque	Dave McCaig	Rafael Albuquerque

Second Cycle

Issue	Date	Arc	Story	Art	Color	Cover
#1	March 19, 2014	—	Scott Snyder	Rafael Albuquerque	Dave McCaig	Rafael Albuquerque Jae Lee (variant)
#2	April 16, 2014					Rafael Albuquerque
#3	May 21, 2014
#4	July 9, 2014
#5	October 1, 2014	The Miner's Journal	Matias Bergara			Rafael Albuquerque
#6	February 4, 2015	Dark Moon	Scott Snyder			Rafael Albuquerque
#7	April 15, 2015
#8	July 1, 2015
#9	August 5, 2015
#10	September 30, 2015
#11	November 25, 2015

1976

Issue	Date	Arc	Story	Art	Color	Cover
#1	October 6th, 2020	Don't look behind you!	Scott Snyder	Rafael Albuquerque	Dave McCaig	Rafael Albuquerque Dustin Nguyen (variant)
#2	November 10th, 2020	The Stuff of Legends				Rafael Albuquerque Francesco Francavilla (variant)
#3	December 8th, 2020	Beneath the Greenhouse...				Rafael Albuquerque Mirka Andolfo (variant)
#4	January 12th, 2021	Beneath the Greenhouse...				Rafael Albuquerque Mirka Andolfo (variant)
#5	February 9th, 2021	The Big Lie				Rafael Albuquerque Tula Lotay (variant)
#6	March 9th, 2021	Fire and Flame				Rafael Albuquerque Jorge Fornés (variant)
#7	April 13th, 2021	Interlude "Family Trees"		Tula Lotay (Root) Francesco Francavilla (Trunk) Ricardo López Ortiz (Limb)	Tula Lotay (Root) Francesco Francavilla(Trunk) Dave McCaig (Limb)	Rafael Albuquerque Dani (variant)
#8	May 11th,2021	Death Mask		Rafael Albuquerque	Dave McCaig	Rafael Albuquerque
#9	June 8th, 2021	Farewell				Rafael Albuquerque Jorge Fornés (variant)
#10	August 3rd, 2021					Rafael Albuquerque Mateus Santolouco (variant)

Others

Title	Issue	Date	Story		Art	Color	Cover
American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest	#1	June 8, 2011	Scott Snyder		Sean Murphy	Dave Stewart	Sean Murphy & Dave Stewart Cliff Wu Chiang (variant)
	#2	July 13, 2011					Sean Murphy & Dave Stewart
	#3	August 10, 2011
	#4	September 14, 2011
	#5	October 12, 2011
American Vampire: Lord of Nightmares	#1	June 13, 2012	Scott Snyder		Dustin Nguyen	John Kalisz	Dustin Nguyen
	#2	July 11, 2012
	#3	August 8, 2012
	#4	September 12, 2012
	#5	October 17, 2012
American Vampire:The Long Road to Hell	#1	June 12, 2013	Scott Snyder Rafael Albuquerque		Rafael Albuquerque	Dave McCaig	Rafael Albuquerque Tony Moore (variant)
American Vampire Anthology	#1	August 28, 2013	The Man Comes Around, Part 1	Scott Snyder	Rafael Albuquerque	Dave McCaig	Rafael Albuquerque
			Lost Colony	Jason Aaron	Declan Shalvey	Jordie Bellaire
			Bleeding Kansas	Rafael Albuquerque	Ivo Milazzo
			Canadian Vampire	Jeff Lemire	Ray Fawkes
			Greed	Becky Cloonan		Jordie Bellaire
			The Producers	Francesco Francavilla
			Essence of Life	Gail Simone	Tula Lotay
			Last Night	Fábio Moon Gabriel Bá		Dave McCaig
			Portland, 1940	Greg Rucka	J.P. Leon
			The Man Comes Around, Part 2	Scott Snyder	Rafael Albuquerque
	#2	September 7, 2016	Opening Shot	Scott Snyder	Rafael Albuquerque	Dave McCaig	Rafael Albuquerque
			Teahouse	Joelle Jones	Cristopher Mitten	Quinton Winter
			Bride	Marguerite Bennet	Mirka Andolfo	Arif Prianto
			The Bleeding Nun	Clay McLeon Chapman	Richard Isanove
			The Cut	Steve Orlando	Artyom Trakhanov	Veronica Gandini
			Traveling Companion	Elliot Kalan	Andrea Mutti	Giulia Brusco
			When The Cold Wind Blows	Shawn Aldridge	Szymon Kudranski
			England's Dreaming	Kieron Gillen	Leila del Duca	Trish Mulvihill
			Devil's Own Luck	Rafael Albuquerque	Renato Guedes
			Brother's Keeper	Scott Snyder	Afua Richardson	Antonio Fabela

Collected editions

Volume	Collects	Pages	Format	Published	ISBN
1	American Vampire #1–5	200	HC	29 September 2010	978-1401228309
			TPB	5 October 2011	978-1401229740
2	American Vampire #6–11	160	HC	25 May 2011	978-1401230692
			TPB	2 May 2012	978-1401230708
3	American Vampire #12–18 American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest #1–5	288	HC	1 February 2012	978-1781160251
			TPB	26 September 2012	978-1401233341
4	American Vampire #19–27	208	HC	26 September 2012	978-1401237189
			TPB	4 September 2013	978-1401237196
5	American Vampire: Lord of Nightmares #1–5 American Vampire #28–34	280	HC	27 March 2013	978-1401237707
			TPB	26 March 2014	978-1401237714
6	American Vampire: Long Road to Hell #1 American Vampire Anthology #1	144	HC	26 March 2014	978-1401247089
			TPB	26 November 2014	978-1401249298
7	American Vampire – Second Cycle #1–5	144	HC	14 January 2015	978-1401248826
			TPB	11 November 2015	978-1401254322
8	American Vampire – Second Cycle #6–11	144	HC	17 February 2016	978-1401254339
			TPB	20 July 2016	978-1401262587
9	American Vampire: 1976 #1–10	256	HC	2 November 2021	978-1779512673
			TPB	25 October 2022	978-1779517241

Omnibus editions

Volume	Collects	Pages	Published	ISBN
1	American Vampire #1–27 American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest #1–5 American Vampire: Lord of Nightmares #1–5	984	31 October 2018	978-1401284831
2	American Vampire #28–34 American Vampire: The Long Road to Hell #1 American Vampire: Anthology #1–2 American Vampire: Second Cycle #1–11 American Vampire: 1976 #1–10	928	11 October 2022	978-1779516886

DC Compact Comics

Volume	Collects	Pages	Published	ISBN
1	American Vampire #1–11	320	1 October 2024	978-1779527349

Characters

• Skinner Sweet – an outlaw who lived in the Wild West. He was turned into a vampire when the blood from Percy, a vampire banker, fell into his eye during a fight while he was escaping from being hanged. After being trapped into a coffin sunken sixty-six feet under water, he escaped and hunted the vampires who tried to kill him. In 1936, Sweet has relocated to Las Vegas, where he opened a brothel, using the name Jim Smoke. Later Skinner finds himself swept up into WWII as he hunts down a threat to his possible (?) with Pearl.
• Pearl Jones – an aspiring actress in the 1920s who was ambushed by a group of vampires led by a vampire director named B.D. Bloch during one of his parties. She was left for dead at a pit in the desert, but was saved by Sweet when he dropped his blood on her eye, turning her into a vampire. She has relocated to Arrowhead, California, using the surname of her husband, Henry Preston, while she is hiding from the other vampires.
• Hattie Hargrove – Hattie is Pearl's ambitious and slightly put upon roommate in Hollywood, sharing an apartment with the main character before Pearl is murdered by vampires and transformed by Skinner Sweet.
• Henry Preston – Pearl Jones' husband, a World War 1 veteran who works as a jazz musician who decided to help Pearl to enact her revenge against the vampires who almost killed her. Prior to arriving in Hollywood and working as a resident guitarist at a speak easy where Pearl worked, Henry was a journeymen Guitar player. He isn't intimidated by Pearl's vampirism, but sometimes he feels some sadness by the fact that while he's getting older, Pearl isn't. Henry later dies stopping Hattie.
• Mr. B.D. Bloch – a European vampire masquerading as a Hollywood Mogul.
• James "Jim" Book – a detective who worked for Pinkerton Agency, he hunted and arrested Skinner Sweet, who turned him into a vampire in retaliation. Before being consumed by his vampiric instincts, he extracts a promise from Abilena, she is to kill him in exchange for fathering her child that same night.
• Abilena Camillo/Book – daughter of Felix Camillo, her mother died at birth. She is James Book's god-daughter, though she professes an unrequited love for him once she grows up. After his death, she takes his surname and together with her daughter Felicia Book hunts Skinner Sweet for an organization called The Vassals of the Morning Star.
• Felix Camillo – father of Abilena Camillo/Book Deputy to James Book, and Grandfather of Felicia.
• Will Bunting – the writer of "Bad Blood" and witness to the birth of Skinner Sweet as the first documented American Vampire.
• Percy – leader of a cabal of vampires taking advantage of western expansion, and the maker of Skinner Sweet.
• Finch – human servant of Percy and the Vampire cabal and employer of James Book.
• Mimiteh – a young Shoshone woman who was the first actual American vampire though her exploits were lost to history.
• Felicia Book – fathered by James Book and his god-daughter Abilena on the night he dies. She is a member of The Vassals of the Morning Star, an organization which hunts vampires. She seems to have unique abilities due to her father's vampirism, though the extent of her abilities is yet to be seen.
• Jack Straw – another member of the Vassals of the Morning Star, Straw was partnered with Felicia Book while investigating vampire activity in Las Vegas.
• Cashel "Cash" McCogan – as Chief of the Las Vegas Police Department, Cash became involved with Jack Straw and Felicia Book while investigating the grisly murders of several persons responsible for the construction of the Hoover Dam (then called the Boulder Dam).
• Calvin Poole – a soldier in World War 2 who served with Henry Preston during the "Ghost War" story arc. He was accidentally turned into a vampire after a bottle of Pearl's Blood broke and infected him.

Further reading

• American Vampire at the Grand Comics Database

External links

• American Vampire at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)