*Originally published on 10/26/09
Earlier today, regular reader and commenter, Casey, emailed me a link to a story that broke, announcing that Stephen King will be one of the writers on a new Vertigo comic series called American Vampire. You can read all about it here, here, and here. Unlike the other King comics, this will be original material as opposed to being derived from one of his earlier works.
Much like the awesome DC series, Trinity, each issue of this comic will feature two stories. One will be written by short story writer, Scott Snyder and the other will be written by King himself.
The articles all summarize King's portion of the five issue arc in a similar fashion, saying that it will focus on a murdering, bank robbing cowboy named Skinner Sweet who turns into a new breed of vampire. Interestingly enough, Skinner doesn't fear the sun, and even gets his powers from it.
The first issue is set to release in March of 2010.
Something else of note is the nature in which King got signed on. It turns out the author sent Mr. King a letter asking for a simple blurb to use for publicity. King liked the idea and said he'd be willing to write a couple of issues, if Snyder was OK with it. Snyder, of course, agreed. Apparently, King was originally going to write two issues, but his story expanded to five.
If you're a fan of Stephen King and comics (as I am) than it's a great time as there is certainly no shortage of Stephen King comics being released in the near future. I, for one, am quite happy with this development.
Issue 1
I was finally able to make it out to a comic book store yesterday. My main priority was to pick up the King back issues that I missed over the past couple of months. Ironically, the comics I did pick up were the more recent ones and since they were out of the "next" issues, those will have to wait at least a week. I was able to nab a copy of the first issue of American Vampire, though.
It's a decent comic. As was said when it was first announced, each issue would consist of two stories, one by Stephen King and one by another writer. I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail on the other story, it's good, but not relevant to this column. We'll instead focus on the King half of the comic.
The story is narrated by good Will Bunting, a man who had an encounter so bizarre that he had to write it down. He talks of the capture of an outlaw named Skinner Sweet, who is being taken to be hanged for his crimes. Meanwhile, a group of shadowy figures plots to derail the train.
I went in thinking that Skinner was already a vampire (the fact that the shadowy figures say the crash will kill everyone but Sweet enforces the idea), but as it turns out, this part is more of an origin story. I probably would've been fine had he been a vampire the whole time, but seeing as he's supposed to represent a "new breed", it makes sense that they'd show why he differs from the rest of the pack.
The artwork is decent. Compared to the other King comics, it pales in comparison, but it is by no means bad.
Same goes for the writing. It was a little harder to get into, as this was the first comic where the reader is starting from scratch. Given that there isn't a whole lot of room to work with inside half of an issue, it felt a little general, but that may very well have been the point. I figure the next few issues will focus on Skinner to a greater extent and flesh out his character a little more.
Issue 2
Issue 3
Issue 4
Issue 5
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