Somewhere in the 2000’s, this world became obsessed with the creature horror genre. Vampires, werewolves, zombies, if it was a hideous creature, you, the author, could do anything you wanted with it. What’s noteworthy about this particular 2000’s deadline is that after the Twilight series was published, there was an entire sprawl of authors who decided that putting terrifying creatures in romantic situations was an automatic goldmine. Scott Snyder and Stephen King could have taken that route with “American Vampire”. But guess what? They didn’t! In the “American Vampire” graphic novel, the two authors’ main character, Skinner Sweet, despite his last name is the antithesis of everything sparkly and fruity about the creature horror genre. Skinner Sweet is a savage. A monster. A wild west barbarian. He thinks that murder is more fun than a barrel of monkeys. He’d probably murder those too if he thought it would give him the adrenaline rush from hell. And I know what everybody reading a piece of vampire fiction is thinking. They’re thinking that if the sun comes out, the vampire in question is going to burst into flames and become nothing more than a desert of ashes. Right? Wrong, pacho! Being out in burning hot sunlight only makes Skinner Sweet stronger. Strong enough to make his favorite hobby of relentless murder a practical form of genocide. But don’t go thinking that Skinner is all about blood and guts. He actually helps a woman fight off a bunch of backstabbing coworkers. Granted, she too becomes a bloodthirsty neck nibbler, but you know what they say: a little bit goes a long way. After reading this literal “Bloodbath & Beyond” tale from front to back, I started to have slightly more respect for Stephen King as a novelist. His concepts are violently fucked up and look very cathartic on the pages of a graphic novel. I still have a hard time dragging my tired eyes along the quicksand path of his traditional novel pages. But if he decides to put out more comic books with the assistance of Scott Snyder, you’re damn right I’m going to snatch them off the shelves of my local Barnes & Noble.
***LYRICS OF THE DAY***
“I’ll slap you so fucking hard it’ll feel like you kissed a freight train!”
-Five Finger Death Punch singing “War Is the Answer”-
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