Scott Snyder, Stephen King and Rafael Albuquerque’s American Vampire is a Comic You Should Be Reading

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Welcome to Comic You Should Be Reading, a weekly feature where I recommend a great comic – whether it’s a single issue, an ongoing series, or a special event – for both longtime readers and newcomers. This month, we’re getting into the Halloween spirit by showcasing some fantastic horror and spooky comics you’ll definitely want to check out.

Even though Halloween has passed, the spooky season often extends a bit longer, so let’s look at one last great horror story. This will be the perfect conclusion to our month of exploring chilling tales, including previously discussed works, and will cap things off nicely with the collaboration between Scott Snyder and Stephen King.

The story began as a two-part introduction to a pair of contrasting characters. Through them, the distinctive and supernatural world of Vertigo’s American Vampire was explored throughout different periods of history. The main series lasted 31 issues, with several follow-up series wrapping up the storyline. Despite this, fans have eagerly wanted more American Vampire for years, hoping to see these compelling and complex horror characters adapted for television or film.

Snyder and King Created A New Breed of Vampire

In 2010, Scott Snyder created his first original comic book series, American Vampire, which was published by DC’s Vertigo imprint. He collaborated with artist Rafael Albuquerque to craft the story, and Stephen King, known as the Master of Horror, later joined the project, giving the series a distinctive start. The initial launch featured two interconnected origin stories, each highlighted by one of the authors, effectively establishing the narrative and its central characters.

So, I first stumbled upon this character, Pearl Jones, in a comic. She’s a young actress trying to make it big in 1920s Hollywood, basically working as an extra. She gets noticed by some powerful people, but it leads to a seriously rough night where I got introduced to these really brutal vampires. That night totally changed her life. Before all that went down, she met this really charismatic drifter named Skinner Sweet – he seemed a little dangerous, and it turns out he’s actually a big deal too, because he’s the main character in another story that was published alongside hers in the same comic book!

The story is set in the late 1800s and centers on Skinner Sweet, a notorious bank robber and outlaw trying to evade capture. However, Skinner isn’t a typical Western villain – he has a peculiar fondness for sweets. His journey takes him all over America after a fateful meeting with a rich, European vampire, who is just one of many powerful, hidden vampires controlling events, both in the past and to come.

This meeting dramatically alters the landscape of this unusual supernatural world, built on the concept that vampires evolve based on who they turn into new vampires. Skinner Sweet unexpectedly becomes the first American vampire, starting a completely new line of evolution that clashes with the established, older European vampires.

Years after turning Pearl into a vampire, Skinner explains that new blood can create unexpected changes in a person, giving them unique abilities. This moment helped a character who could have easily been forgotten become a compelling anti-hero. Despite attempts to stop him, his complex schemes became the driving force of the story.

American Vampire Refreshed an Oversaturated Genre

As a huge horror fan, I’ve seen vampires pop up in movies forever – I mean, classics like Nosferatu and the original Dracula were some of the first scary movies I ever watched! They’ve always been a big part of spooky stories and legends, but their popularity definitely goes up and down. Lately, though, right around when American Vampire came out, it felt like everyone was making vampire stuff. It was cool at first, but things quickly got crowded with a lot of pretty weak takes on the myth.

Fans need only look back to 2008 to understand why the vampire genre changed so dramatically. The first Twilight movie reinvented vampires for a new audience, making them less frightening and more glamorous. This sparked a wave of similar, lower-quality vampire films that disappointed longtime fans, and ironically, this created the ideal conditions for American Vampire to stand out and gain popularity.

The vampires created by Snyder and King were even more frightening and violent than traditional European vampires, who already drew on established vampire myths. However, while those older vampires haunted the New World, Skinner Sweet and his American vampires took those same ideas and made them even better with fresh, exciting changes. Everything about these American vampires felt like a threat to the ancient European ones – a powerful shift they couldn’t stop. When at their strongest, they could transform into incredibly monstrous forms, thrilling and terrifying horror audiences.

The comic American Vampire offered a thrilling return to the roots of horror, making vampires genuinely frightening once more. It quickly built a unique and captivating mythology, filled with new secrets for readers to unravel. All of this was vividly and disturbingly illustrated by artist Rafael Albuquerque from Brazil.

Rafael Albuquerque Was a Bloody Good Choice

Be warned: American Vampire is a graphic and often unsettling comic. Artist Rafael Albuquerque is incredibly talented, capable of drawing in both a bright, cartoonish style and a dark, disturbing one. He first gained attention for his lighter work on the Blue Beetle series featuring Jaimie Reyes. But Albuquerque truly excelled when he could explore the darker themes in American Vampire, and his versatility was still clear even within the comic’s two intertwining storylines.

The story of Pearl Jones, set in the vibrant 1920s, was visually striking with bold colors and sharp details, mirroring the period’s style. However, when depicting Skinner Sweet’s past, Albuquerque opted for a rougher, faded look to better capture the atmosphere. This contrast in artistic styles continued throughout the series, with each era featuring a different approach that emphasized the story and characters’ development as the art evolved alongside them.

It wasn’t just the artwork that drew people into American Vampire. The comic is often incredibly violent and bloody, not shying away from the terrifying reality of vampire attacks. Skinner Sweet’s elaborate and gruesome revenge against those who wronged him is a major part of the story. Scenes featuring dismembered bodies and severed heads are used to deliver chilling messages, and for many horror fans, this intense level of gore is a major draw.

Several artists contributed to the main American Vampire series to keep the story moving forward in its first volume, each bringing their unique style. Scott Snyder also collaborated with different artists on various American Vampire stories, including Sean Murphy for Survival of the Fittest and Dustin Nguyen for Lord of Nightmares, before working with Rafael Albuquerque again on The Long Road to Hell. Additional creators joined in for the American Vampire Anthology. All of these stories were released during the comic’s initial run, offering readers a wide range of vampire horror within this shared universe.

Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque continued the story with two additional series. In 2014, American Vampire: Second Cycle moved the narrative into the 1960s, and in 2020, American Vampire: 1976 brought readers to a new era under DC’s Black Label imprint.

American Vampire Created an Exciting New Supernatural World

The comic American Vampire was particularly strong at building its world gradually. It started by focusing on a small group of characters, subtly hinting at a larger story to come. Later issues revealed the Vassals of the Morning Star, a secret organization dedicated to hunting supernatural beings since the 1930s, and how they connected to the main character’s plans. The story consistently brought back characters from the past – both allies and enemies – creating a web of revenge and survival that kept things exciting and rewarded readers for paying attention to earlier details.

What made American Vampire truly unique among vampire stories was its strong connection to America itself. It wasn’t just about vampires or even simple horror; it was a story deeply rooted in American history. The series felt like a tribute to the country’s past, examining different periods of its growth while following the lives of those affected by the character Skinner Sweet across generations.

You should read it.

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2025-11-01 23:13