Comic News And Reviews

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

The Story: Plots connect in a big way as Snyder starts to reveal more of his big concept vampire story.

What’s Good: Boom!  This was the issue that we were waiting for.  American Vampire has been consistently good, but it had been putting together a run of 8.5/10 quality issues that were almost boring to review.  How many times can you say, “The story was entertaining, the characterization is outstanding and the art is awesome”?  Reviewing monthly comics that are continually outstanding like Scalped or The Walking Dead can almost get dull because they are always good.  The biggest compliment that this reviewer can give American Vampire (the series) is that it has quickly entered that rarefied air where it hard to review.

But, every once in awhile, a really great series serves up a superlative issue and this is one of issues for American Vampire.

So, what makes this issue such hot stuff?  Let’s start with the way the Snyder is connecting the various plots elements that he has woven throughout this series and the Old West stories that Stephen King was telling in the first story arc.  One assumed that they would tie together nicely and we’ve had hints of that over the last few issues, but it is all pretty clear now and it is nice to see how the characters all fit.  Not only that, but the actual tying together was very elegantly done as Snyder smoothly took us back and forth between the stories.

What’s more, the bigger world is getting more and more interesting now that we have an ancient clan of vampire hunters and are learning that not only are there American vampires and Euro-vampires, but all sorts of other kinds of vampires and that they are at war with each other.  That means we have a whole mission of discovery to embark upon!  Very cool!

Rafael Albuquerque had to be fairly restrained in his art the last few issues.  Those issues were very good, but it was nice to see him let off the leash to draw some kick ass vampires in this issue.  On top of that, it is almost like drawing the vampires got Mr. Albuquerque excited because even the normal “talking heads” panels in this issue crackle just a little more than normal.  Nicely done.

What’s Not So Good: There really isn’t much to criticize.

Conclusion: Outstanding.  The story is interesting and well told and the art is spectacular.

Grade: A-

- Dean Stell

Filed under: Vertigo Tagged: | Vertigo, vampires, Dave McCaig, review, Steve Wands, Rafael Albuquerque, Dean Stell, American Vampire, Scott Snyder, American Vampire #8, Mark Doyle, American Vampire #8 review

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