| Title | : | American Vampire, Vol. 2 |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781401230xxx |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 160 |
| Publication | : | First published May 31, 2011 |
It’s Las Vegas circa 1935, and Skinner Sweet and our gal Pearl are about to learn the hard way that the bloodsuckers in Hollywood were nothing compared to what awaits them in Sin City.
In just a few short years, young police Chief Cash McCogan has watched his native city of Las Vegas go from cow-town to wild, glittering boomtown. And when the bodies of prominent businessmen start showing up drained of blood, Chief McCogan finds himself facing a threat much darker and deadlier than anything he could have imagined . . . and the only sure bet in town is that Skinner and Pearl are right in the thick of it.
Collecting: American Vampire 6-11
American Vampire, Vol. 2 Reviews
-
I don't know why I wasn't crazy about it the first time I read it, but I really enjoyed Snyder's story this time around. This volume deals with Henry and Pearl getting a visit from a vampire hunting group, which leads to several other new storylines that include old and new faces.
The plot moved along well and was interesting, and I liked the way the cast is expanding. I enjoyed the way everything sort of jumps around between past and present, and one set of characters to another. If it's not done right, that can be super annoying. But, in this case, it just kept things from getting stale. <--I thought.
I know I'm late to the party, but I guess better late than never. -
This is the ongoing tale of vampires in America. Volume 2 sticks moves on to the next step in the Wild West theme as modernization hits the West with the rise of Las Vegas and the building of the Boulder (Hoover) Dam. I am really enjoying the historical fiction feel of this vampire story. I think it is really great that I have found many vampire stories in this genre that I have enjoyed (Another example was
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter – I thought it would be cheesy, but actually pretty good).
I do think I enjoyed the story in Volume 1 a bit more than Volume 2. I don’t think there is any reason more than this volume felt transitional; not as much of a complete story in itself. There are many connections to volume 1 and lots of foreshadowing to future volumes. But, only a couple of climatic moments happen. Again, not bad and seems to be a not all that uncommon trend for graphic novels
I am kind of torn on the art. Some of it is very cool, some of it seems kind of off – as if the artist occasionally loses the ability to draw things in correct relational perspective to each other. One example that stood out every time it happened: When someone was yelling it was like their mouth suddenly became 95% of their head. That criticism aside, I enjoyed all the rest and the variety of vampire art – from subtle to fully vamped out – is pretty cool!
I think horror, historical fiction, and vampire fans will find a lot to like here. I have no issue (so far) recommending this series to fans of any of those genres.
-
Las Vegas police chief Cash McCogan has a murderer to find and all signs point to Jim Smoke, the man who likely was responsible for the death of McCogan's father. Meanwhile, some mystery men approach Pearl with a deal...
After the thrill ride that was the first American Vampire volume, I was jonesing for more. While this one wasn't quite what I expected, it more than delivered the goods. I like that Pearl wasn't swept under the rug after the first volume and that the series isn't all about Skinner Sweet.
Snyder's pacing is perfect for the story and it tempts me to give his Batman run a try. I love the art style in this. When I saw Rafal Aluquerque's name on the first volume, I was skeptical, but his art has improved in leaps and bounds since his run on Blue Beetle.
The main story, that of Cashel McCogan, felt like it was written for me. The hard-boiled Las Vegas police chief teams up with some federal agents and stumbled upon a plot involving secret financiers of the Boulder Dam and vampires galore. I like that Snyder continues to develop his vampire mythology with different varieties of vampire with different weaknesses.
While Pearl is in the background for a part of the book, she takes center stage at the end and delivers an orgy of violence ending for the volume. I wasn't completely sold on Pearl until then. Now, I'm dying to forgo housework in order to read American Vampire 3. -
Continuing my re-read of American Vampire. We've moved from 1925 to 1936. There's two main stories, one with Skinner Sweet, the other with Pearl Jones. Sweet is just a side character in his story operating in the background. It's about Las Vegas as it's building the Hoover Dam. Something is draining the blood at the heads of the companies building the dams. While not the main character, Sweet still gets an opportunity to show what a bastard he truly is. The second story is about Pearl and Henry squirreled away in a small northern California community until they come across some vampires. Pearl has hidden her vampiric nature away all these years until she really gets to cut loose. Both these stories are really satisfying, full of blood guts, and satisfaction. I like the time jumps with each volume. It looks like we are jumping to WWII next.
-
About a hundred people died while building Hoover Dam. After reading this, I have to assume that all of those deaths were due to vampire attacks.
Picking up several years after the last
volume, it’s 1935 and a formerly sleepy Nevada town called Las Vegas is booming because of the thousands of workers in the area constructing Hoover Dam. Police chief Cash Morgan doesn’t like what the gambling and prostitution are doing to his city, but there isn’t much he can do to stop it. When a businessman connected to the dam is sucked dry of all of his blood, Cash finds a link to a pimp called Jim Smoke that he blames for the murder of his father, but Smoke is actually the brutal vampire named Skinner Sweet.
Once again Snyder has delivered a fun and nasty twist on the vampire genre with American history as it’s backdrop. One of the ideas I really like in this series is that there are different species of vamps with varying strengths and weaknesses. Skinner Sweet was the first of a new breed who is at war with the older vampire factions as well as the humans hunting them, but Skinner is not some sparkly emo type or some brooding angst filled anti-hero. Skinner is a monster who is devious, brutal and utterly without remorse.
We learn the fates of others who had the bad luck to cross his path in the last volume as well as watching what happens to Cash and others when they get mixed up in vampire feuds. -
I suspected this before, but volume 2 in the American Vampire storyline confirms what has now become an inalienable truth: Scott Snyder is a bad ass. And so are his vampires.
In volume 1, we were introduced to Skinner Sweet, the first American Vampire whose accidental creation proved to be a blow against the old school European vampires; Sweet is faster, stronger, and unlike any breed of vampire that came before him. Clearly, there's some symbolism here about America rising out of the outmoded aristocratic societies from which its populace immigrated to become a superpower, but who cares because there are VAMPIRES who are KILLING people and ENJOYING it without turning into emo-esque tortured souls after the blood spatters have hit the wall.
Volume 2 continues the story of many of the characters introduced in the first volume, but the setting is approximately a decade later (this is one of my favorite aspects of this series, the way it's not afraid to jump forward in time and explore its characters as America continues to work its way through its adolescence as a nation). The first storyline follows Las Vegas police chief Cashel McCogan as he investigates a series of murders that occur during the building of the Hoover Dam. Cashel is shocked to find out that his city harbors more than the mortal vices of gambling, drinking, and prostitution when he discovers that Sin City has more monsters hiding in its shadows than in its bright lights. The second storyline focuses on Pearl, the vampire created by Skinner Sweet in volume 1, as she tries to create an idyllic life with her human husband, Henry, and avoid the past that she knows is tracking her down.
These stories continue to develop the characters of Sweet and Pearl, as well as Felicia and Abilena Book who have become vampire hunters intent on making Sweet pay for turning Jim Book. I continue to love the idea of various types of vampires (like the Gaelic Prime), each of which must be killed in a different fashion, and how the American breed proves particularly difficult to kill as no one--man or vampire--has discovered its unique weaknesses. There are also some nice plot twists (with a chilling end to the first storyline of Cashel McCogan) and questions that still have yet to be answered (such as what exactly is Felicia Book, the naturally born child of Abilena and the infected Jim Book). I suppose it's on to volume 3 to find out.
Cross posted at
This Insignificant Cinder -
It’s all Stephen King’s fault!
The first Scott Snyder comic I read was American Vampire Volume 1, co-written by King. King’s folksy, down-home style of writing was so irritating (and is why I no longer read his novels) that it completely tarnished my reading experience so I ended up hating the book.
So I was surprised with how much I liked Snyder’s writing when I picked up Batman: The Black Mirror, and I’ve been delighted ever since with his and Greg Capullo’s New 52 Batman run, Superman Unchained, and even his excellent standalone horror comic, Severed.
After so many great books, I thought he’d earned the benefit of the doubt and decided to give American Vampire another shot - and, wow, what a difference no Stephen King makes (or “Uncle Stevie” as he creepily asks his “Dear Readers” to call him)!
It’s 1936 and a few years on from the wild, wild west of the last book. The Hoover dam is being constructed and the town that will soon become the sprawling mecca to vice, Las Vegas, is just beginning to grow. But the project’s financial backers are being picked off, their bodies left drained of blood – who could be the culprit in a book with the word “vampire” in the title?! Meanwhile Pearl Jones is living happily with her beau, Henry, but trouble is never too far behind…
Neither of the two stories are particularly bad but neither are especially brilliant – Snyder’s knack for originality seems to be strangely absent from his creator-owned series. Both the Las Vegas/Skinner Sweet (here calling himself Jim Smokes) and Pearl Jones stories are essentially vampires against vampire hunters, ie. the archetypical vampire story.
There’s a slight edge to the Skinner story as it’s told from the perspective of the sheriff whose life goes from being happy with a wife and a kid on the way and a good job, to… well, what happens when he crosses Skinner Sweet. I like that Skinner wasn’t the narrator and that his use was minimal, maintaining his mystique and impact when he does appear in the story. And Pearl’s story, while being straightforwardly dull horror, has at least the interesting character of Hattie who sets out after Pearl on a mission of vengeance.
Besides the unremarkable, and oftentimes predictable, plotting, Snyder’s dialogue is at its most stilted here. For example, when the sheriff calls up his wife at home and she reminds him that a) his father died recently, leaving him sheriff and b) that Jim Smokes killed his dad and that he can’t control his anger around Jim Smokes. Ouch, that’s a lotta exposition in one seemingly brief call between two people who both already know this stuff! There’s a lot of similarly trite dialogue peppered throughout which is surprising as Snyder’s usually more artful than this.
Reading the preview of Volume 3 at the back of this book, I’m beginning to see the idea behind the series which is following the misadventures of Skinner and Pearl through the ages – the first was the frontier days, the second is Depression-era America, and the third looks to be WW2 America, and so on, which does seem to be an intriguing concept. There are certainly a lot of roles Skinner could dress up as – vampire version of a CIA spook on the grassy knoll, Kurtz in Vietnam, Wall Street moneyman in the ‘80s and so on.
After reading the second volume I definitely don’t hate the series as much as I did after the first, and the second book was decent enough to make me want to keep reading the series, but I still feel that American Vampire ranks as the least impressive of Snyder’s output. -
The story continues...
The characters grow...
But nothing much happens, like book two of a trilogy. -
Snyder falls into repetition here, and it wears me down. This series still hovers in that twilight between good and bad, for me. It just doesn't move forward enough narratively, for me, just consolidates what we already knew about the characters.
I do have better hopes for the following volume, taking place during WWII.
Read with the ever delightful
Kadi vamPire! -
(Buddy read with
Ol' Al Vamp)
With all the twists and turns and bloody gore you’d expect from a vampire comic, this one shocks—in more ways than one.
The art was great apart from the guest artist who was randomly inserted into the comic for only a few pages for absolutely no reason. Other than that, the art style was consistent and the pacing was relatively quick and exciting.
The introduction of a few new characters served the storyline well and brought about new complications for future vols to attempt to resolve.
There was no doubting that Snyder wrote well enough to surprise me with certain unexpected reveals, however, in hindsight I’ve noticed that this vol was so repetitive, it was oddly similar to
American Vampire, Vol. 1 in many aspects. The repetitiveness was recognisable, but didn’t necessarily impede on my enjoyment of this vol. I imagine if it continues to keep being so repetitive in
American Vampire, Vol. 3 then this series will very quickly get boring! -
"Devil in the Sand" is set in, an emerging from the Great Depression, 1936 Las Vegas, sowing the seeds of its future decadence and drudgery. Felicia is all grown up and alongside her mother and other allies, is essentially a vampire-hunter, and although Skinner's there, it's not him they are after! The Las Vegas backstory proves to the most interesting part of this volume. The 2-part "The Way Out" catches-up with Pearl and Henry in 1936 California. 6 out of 12
-
I enjoyed this just as much as the first. Pearl is more likeable than Sweet, but thankfully they are both interesting! Both their separate storylines end with cliffhangers of sorts, so on to the third volume!
-
Skinner Sweet has moved to a booming Las Vegas to make his fortune, and we get introduced to a new character, the police chief of Las Vegas, Cash McCogan. Sweet fits in perfectly in Sin City, and the contrast of character between the do-good police chief and the outlaw vampire providers a great story. We also get a new villain and learn more about the various types of vampires, of which there are many species (who knew?).
The second volume of American Vampire picks up about 10 years after the events in volume one. Overall, this one has a much slower pace than volume one, and there's a lot of dialogue explaining some background before the action really starts about 60% into the story. Boy, does it really take off from there, though!
The other part of the story finds Pearl Jones and her husband trying to lead a normal life together, at least as normal as it can be. This part of the story feels more like a set up for future volumes, and it was not as interesting as the Las Vegas section. It did what was intended, though, and provided some backstory as well.
The two plots mix together nicely, playing off each other in a few areas and advancing the overall plot. Fans of the first volume might be a little upset that Skinner is not a point of view character in this volume, but he is worked into the story in a fashion that we have come to expect from the outlaw. Skinner is still Skinner, and I was glad that the author did not try to change him.
This volume advances the world of American Vampire, introducing us to things previously hinted at, and also does a good job setting us up for the next addition.
This is what Vampires are suppose to be! You won't find sparkling heartthrobs in these pages, so if you think vampire should be sweet, you will be gravely disappointed. These vampires are killers, and they remind us that real vampires don't sparkle!
American Vampire is a fun, fast read, and the art work is great. If you haven't given this awesome series a try, it's highly recommended! -
This was another great one!
This takes place in 1970s Vegas aka Sin city and with such strange murders its upto Cash McCgowan aka the police officer in charge there to team up with two FBI agents (whose identity we learn later) to hunt down the person whose been responsible for deaths of high profile targets. And how Skinner sweet gets involved is quite fun and also they find a way to include Pearl and it harkens back to Vol 1 and its awesome. Plus the big twist of who it is and when things get too close to home for Cash, it becomes an emotional and changing thing for him. Loved that story and its a fun sweet mystery set in that timeline.
And finally a story with Hattie and how she gets free and is looking for Pearl and whatever the latter is doing and her life with Henry and I liked that story more and just loved the scenes there and the sort of mini threats they face and going about their life and Pearl thinking if she should do it that makes for great drama and I really like the art there much more. Though I wish they would focus on this story more. -
Woo-hoo! Figured I should go ahead and review volume 2!
What’s it about?
In this second volume of American Vampire, there’s a murder case happening that may involve something related to... VAMPIRES (dun dun dun!)
Why it gets 5 stars:
The story is very interesting.
The art is fantastic!
The characters are interesting (characters we saw in volume 1 as well as some new characters).
There’s a big mystery thing going in this volume and it’s done well!
The horror is well done.
There’s some action that is very good.
A bit of humor is added which is good.
The main reason I wanted to review this is to say that I’m very happy to see a diabetic character and this time diabetics (such as myself, I have type one) are treated with some f***ing respect for a change! Usually diabetic characters are written by writers who don’t know s*** about the subject (Scott Snyder and Rick Remender are the only 2 I can recall that did) so they get all kinds of s*** wrong, have stereotypes that suck more a** than a vacuum at a donkey farm and have to be rescued and can’t do anything for themselves , I’M NOT A STEREOTYPICAL PRINCESS IN A CASTLE AND IF I WAS I’D SLAY THE F***ING MONSTER MYSELF AND TELL THOSE WHO DON’T LIKE IT THE SAME THING JESSE CUSTER TOLD A CERTAIN SHERIFF IN A PARTICULAR WELL KNOWN SCENE IN PREACHER BOOK ONE! Anyways, so yeah, thanks Snyder for not being a d**khead about the subject and the diabetic character wasn’t treated like a more helpless version of Princess Peach. Too bad he was only in this volume.
Overall:
A good story where diabetics get some respect as the American Vampire series continues to be fantastic!
5/5 -
The setting for Volume 2 moves to Las Vegas where Police Chief Cash McCogan is tasked with the unenviable job of investigating Jim Smoke, the man believed to be behind the murder of his father.
I'm legitimately shocked with how much I'm truly enjoying these books. As I said in my review for volume one, my taste for vampires had more than diminished leaving me less than enthusiastic in starting this series.
The change in setting prompted a change in story style as well. Snyder took the environment of the wild west and twisted it into a "who-dun-it" detective inspired thriller. I'm a huge fan of that genre so I felt I connected with this volume more than the first. That doesn't exactly make it better; the quality of story telling is pretty much on par with the debut book, it's just more within my comfort zone.
Aside from Skinner Sweet, who is likely intended to be the main focus of this series, Pearl is easily my favorite character. Her story is the most interesting as unlike Skinner, she's trying to keep her vampire tendencies at bay as she tries to maintain a normal life with her boyfriend. While she mostly succeeds, she knows that she can still pull out that vicious side of herself and when she does, it's gruesome to say the least.
Even if you're not the biggest vampire fan, I can still recommend this series with total confidence. The writing is just so fantastic! I lost track of time last night reading this, staying up later than I would like but I couldn't put the book down, I was sucked in (pun completely intended, by the way). -
This second installment of the
American Vampire series is pretty juicy, the pages gushing blood and all sorts of other categories of nastiness.
Skinner Sweet is truly a vile invention, a convincing monster, a chilling vampire. Edward Cullen – you sir are a douche bag in a tree. Deal with it.
I love the historical feel of this series. This time we get an up-close look at 1930s Las Vegas -- the beginnings of its rise (or descent) to become Sin City. We also get a peek at the building of the Hoover Dam. And then there's Pearl Jones (you may remember this twenty-something Hollywood starlet-wannabe from Book 1). She is all kinds of awesome with something worse than death on her heels. And for fear of getting all spoilery, that's all I'll say about that.
I missed Stephen King's contributions this time around; I can only hope he will resume his collaboration with Snyder sooner rather than later. Please please. For now, this is a kick-ass series that shows A LOT of potential and I'm hungry for more! -
Now it is true that pop culture is probably oversaturated with vampires (not as much as zombies though, which is a genre that always baffled me for its massive commercial appeal). Going by Stephen King's own introduction alone back in the first volume, you might think he and Scott Snyder reinvented the vampire story--they didn't. But two volumes in for this series, and I can say that this was still a top-grade story, both a fine example of what the vampire genre can offer with its conventions, and how the medium of comics actually helped its development and evolution.
It had been a terrific ride, and I will read the other volumes right after I finished reading and reviewing my other scheduled GNs of this year.
The second volume of American Vampire had definitely sold me to the series for good (and it didn't even need Stephen King this time around). The writing just spoke for itself because Scott Snyder (Batman writer) is definitely at the top of his game and I say this with utmost confidence due to his four-parter story arc included in this volume called The Devil in the Sand. I was enthralled by this arc; I never even put the volume down at all which was why I was only able to finish this within two hours or less. It was that riveting.
The Devil in the Sand was a compelling drama that played out to its readers' expectations about certain telling points in its narrative, but was also still able to satisfy them with a rewarding conclusion. Skinner Sweet doesn't have a big role at all and it was more centered on the struggles of a secondary character that could or would never appear in the next volumes. That being said, his role here was memorable enough especially his internal conflict about his family and obligation as an officer of the law. I'm not going into details about it because I would encourage you to pick this series and read The Devil in the Sand yourselves and hopefully experience what I felt. I think it's a solid supernatural drama all in all.
The vampire mythos for this series is also beginning to expand, introducing readers some more to the strife between ancient bloodlines of vampires and the extinction of others after a new breed came to power. Skinner Sweet (and the woman he sired, Pearl) were supposed to be the new evolutionary step, sort of a mutation in the gene, and that's why everyone is after them, particularly on Sweet since he's not the nicest of vamps, really. He's used to being hunted and causing chaos and fun on his own, but the fall-out of this is that someone like Pearl is also burdened by a threat to her existence now that she was sired to Sweet. Pearl is content with her domestic life with a boyfriend who accepts her affliction, but sooner or later she might have to start running no matter how much she wants to settle down.
The thing I like about the character interplay between Sweet and Pearl is that they don't have interactions at all (or at least so far in the first two volumes). They're both just doing their thing, and have separate lives and stories but conflicts tied to their vampirism often get them in each other's radar even if they don't wish it so. Pearl does respect Sweet on the account that he gave her life by turning her, but the relationship is basically distant. I'm sure this could change and evolve later on but for now Snyder is building up the suspense and conflict very nicely indeed. It's great to have two protagonists who never have to be in the same scenes together but can still hold out on their own as pivotal characters.
The final story that ended this volume was pretty much perfection. I can't even spoil because it would just ruin the surprise that awaits you if you do decide to check out this series one of these days. Overall, American Vampire is a graphic novel you don't want to miss out on. It's vibrant and brutal; a lovely period drama that spans over American history as it follows the misadventures of a cowboy vampire who is up to no good, and a fierce young woman who wants the same thing as the rest of us but tragically may never get anymore.
RECOMMENDED: 9/10
READ MY REVIEWS AT:
-
American Vampire continues to be entertaining. I'm glad I gave this series another try.
So this volume is two stories. The first one really focuses on building the world of American Vampire. We get a little town sheriff trying to solve a murder but soon as FBI agents come into play his world explodes with all new threats, VAMPIRES. Who's the main enemy of the town? Well none other than Skinner himself. A glimpse of what Pearl has been up to as well in this storyline of justice and death. The two part at the end focuses on Pearl and her love life, which is both sad and heartfelt. Where's we also get a look at her old best friend, the one who betrayed her. Remember that bitch? Well she is BACK!
Good: Overall, the flow of narrative is surprisingly really good. This isn't to say Scott Snyder hasn't done this before, a lot of his earlier work has great pacing and flow, but it's nice to see here especially. The brutality of this title keeps up with nails through skulls, head slices off, people ripped apart. It's brutal in the best ways. I like Pearl a lot as a character, she continues to grow into someone very interesting. Skinner, a piece of shit as always, is also intriguing.
Bad: I'll admit, while the art is good a lot of the time, the sketchy feel can get annoying. It's especially hard to tell what's happening when too much dark colors are used.
Overall a 4 out of 5. This series is remaining high in quality and I hope it stays that way! -
American Vampire continues to be entertaining. I'm glad I gave this series another try.
So this volume is two stories. The first one really focuses on building the world of American Vampire. We get a little town sheriff trying to solve a murder but soon as FBI agents come into play his world explodes with all new threats, VAMPIRES. Who's the main enemy of the town? Well none other than Skinner himself. A glimpse of what Pearl has been up to as well in this storyline of justice and death. The two part at the end focuses on Pearl and her love life, which is both sad and heartfelt. Where's we also get a look at her old best friend, the one who betrayed her. Remember that bitch? Well she is BACK!
Good: Overall, the flow of narrative is surprisingly really good. This isn't to say Scott Snyder hasn't done this before, a lot of his earlier work has great pacing and flow, but it's nice to see here especially. The brutality of this title keeps up with nails through skulls, head slices off, people ripped apart. It's brutal in the best ways. I like Pearl a lot as a character, she continues to grow into someone very interesting. Skinner, a piece of shit as always, is also intriguing.
Bad: I'll admit, while the art is good a lot of the time, the sketchy feel can get annoying. It's especially hard to tell what's happening when too much dark colors are used.
Overall a 4 out of 5. This series is remaining high in quality and I hope it stays that way! -
If American Vampire's
first volume served as merely a solid introduction to the world and its main characters, American Vampire's second volume proves that this world and its characters are worth following. We arrive in Las Vegas in '30s, an era when the construction of the Hoover Dam has brought a wide array of people into town. Someone (or something!) is killing the construction magnates behind the dam and local sheriff Cashel is on the case!
Of course vampires are involved and of course Cashel discovers he's in over his head. Skinner Sweet doesn't play a huge role, nor does Pearl, but they roam through the storyline nonetheless. American Vampire's second volume is notably dark and mean, particularly the ending. The follow-up short featuring Hattie is slightly less memorable, if only because Pearl and Henry's encounter with some country music vampires makes it seem like vamps are everywhere. Still, this volume serves as proof that Scott Snyder's brand of vampire stories, decade by decade, will be worth following. -
good storytelling from Snyder but it is just not that interesting. I want to like this western vampire story more but small issues keep bugging me. The timeline gets a little wonky for me, i don't know i might be lazy but there is a few generations and vol 2 picks up a few decades later. Pearl has moved to the mountains with henry and Skinner sweet is running the town (at least i think he is). Apparently there are feuding clans of vampires all pulling for control or something, Im not really sure anymore, there is very little to go on. Hattie is still alive and pissed at Pearl so she has some revenge in store. I feel like the stories are stretched thin and bounce around a bit too much for me. The art is just OK I personally can't stand the exaggerated vampire faces... looks dumb to me. Ill check out vol.3 i suppose
-
This series keeps getting better and better. That cliffhanger at the end! Dang!
-
This is an improvement on the first volume, in that the emphasis is less on Skinner Sweet and more on the world-building of the series. Interesting foundations are being built here, along with a larger cast of characters for us to interact with. We are also introduced to new types of vampires, to vampire killers (in the form of the Vassals of the Morning Star - great name for a secret society dedicated to vampire hunting), and to a developing American society distancing itself from its European heritage in favour of building its own.
Most of the book is set in Las Vegas in the 1930s. The Hoover Dam is being built nearby, bringing all kinds of lawlessness into the former cowtown. When the financiers of the dam start winding up dead and drained of blood, local police chief Cash McCogan finds himself caught up in a deadly war.
This story is interspersed with the continuing story of Pearl and her husband Henry (who rescued her a decade ago and who now feeds her to keep her from attacking other people). They find that they may run but they can't hide forever, and a former friend now turned enemy is also on their trail.
Sweet does have one final play, just to remind us that he is a monster - he
I still don't particularly like the artwork, but the pacing seems better in this book and the story does seem to be going to some interesting places, so I will stick with it. -
https://poseidons99.wordpress.com/201... -
İlk ciltten sonra günümüze yaklaşan bir kurgu ve dişlerini ete batırmaktan vazgeçmeyen Amerikan Vampirleri'miz. Devamını muhakkak takipte olacağım :)
-
Brief Introduction:
After reading the first volume of Scott Snyder’s classic graphic novel, “American Vampire,” I just had to check out the second volume to see more adventures from Pearl and Skinner! So, I finally read “American Vampire: Volume Two” by Scott Snyder (Stephen King is not writing this volume this time) and I was even more amazed at how well this story is getting developed and now I cannot wait to see what will happen to these characters next!
What is the story?
In this volume, there are two stories being told regarding Pearl and Skinner. In the first story, police chief Cash McCogan starts investigating the murders of the four consortiums who are trying to make money off of building the Hoover Dam and Cash starts to suspect that Skinner might have something to do with the murders. In the second story, Pearl is married to her sweetheart Henry Preston and while she is worried about being a vampire and how it might affect her relationship with Henry, she will soon discover that her former nemesis is still alive devising a way to get her vengeance on Pearl!
What I loved about this comic:
Scott Snyder’s writing: What I loved so much about the first volume of “American Vampire” was that Scott Snyder introduced a really creative idea about a vampire being created in America instead of Europe, which really put a huge twist on the mythology of vampires. In this volume, Scott Snyder has once again woven two brilliant stories about two characters that are vampires and actually goes deep into the characters’ inner feelings about the situations they are thrown in. I loved the way that Scott Snyder portrayed Skinner Sweet as being a truly threatening villain as he is not shown as your typical tough guy villain, but is shown to be really calculating and tricking anyone to get what he wants, which is what I love to see in any villain. Scott Snyder’s portrayal of Pearl Preston is wonderfully done as he really shows how Pearl struggles with being a vampire and how it might affect her relationship with Henry, which I really enjoyed seeing the love she shows for Henry and how concern she was for him as she worries about hurting Henry because she is a vampire now.
I also loved the stark difference between Pearl and Skinner’s personalities as Skinner uses his vampire powers to get what he wants while Pearl uses her vampire powers to protect people she cares about and I am thinking that this might be a great set up if Pearl and Skinner decided to fight each other someday.
Rafael Albuquerque’s and Mateus Santolouco’s artwork: I really enjoyed both Rafael Albuquerque’s and Mateus Santolouco’s artwork as they both brings so much creativity to the stories. Rafael Albuquerque’s artwork is as usual dark and gritty as the characters are drawn in a scratchy way that really brings out the gritty situations they are thrown in and I also loved the angry and serious expressions on the character’s faces as they are drawn effectively. Mateus Santolouco’s artwork has a much different feel from Rafael Albuquerque’s artwork as the artwork is much smoother and lighter in color tones whenever they are used in the flashback sequences of the characters talking about their past lives.
What made me feel uncomfortable about this book:
Just like the first volume, this volume has plenty of gory violence (characters being ripped apart and blood gushing out) that might make some readers feel uncomfortable about reading about such violence. Also, there is some strong language in this volume such as the use of the “f” word that might offend some readers.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, “American Vampire: Volume Two” is a fantastic follow up to the first volume and actually has more development on the characters and more unexpected twists for the characters that definitely has me wanting to see more from this series!
Review is also on:
Rabbit Ears Book Blog -
Volume two of American Vampire moves the action from 1920s Hollywood to 1930s Vegas. There's a murder mystery, and more vampires, and more differentiation of vampire breeds. It's a great idea, that vampires are different based on where they were made. Skinner is still around, in the thick of things. Pearl is there, seemingly on the sidelines. It was her story that I really connected with. I liked her from the first volume, and it was nice to see her again. I also liked seeing characters from Skinner's past show up. The art is growing on me.
-
Las Vegas and vampires. Not much of a stretch.
-
Spoiler free review of volumes 1-6, for spoilers visit:
https://amanjareads.com/2020/12/16/am...
American Vampire is a graphic novel series that claims to bring horror back to the vampire genre. In my opinion, it failed. It's not scary and worst of all it's not that interesting.
I'm not a huge vampire fan to begin with. I think the whole genre is completely exhausted. There are a few notable exceptions like my favorite classic Buffy, and modern takes like the incredibly disturbing movie The Transfiguration. But traditional vampires are boring anymore. There's nothing left to discuss.
Seriously, how many ways can you spice up this old trope?! Let's move on!
American Vampire works off the premise that there are several species of vamps and the American ones are the newest and most dangerous. They threaten the way of life for the old school vamps who prey on young women and can't come out in the daylight. American vampires are bigger, faster, stronger, smarter, and blend into society better.
The whole series reads more like an anthology than one coherent story. It hops around through key points in American history but forgot to make me care about any of it. I didn't care about the main characters at all. They were underwritten and lacked a focused conflict.
The art is good and has some really fun monster designes but that's not enough to make it a desireable read. Overall, it commits the greatest sin of being boring. It's a very meh book.
Meh books are the worst to write reviews for. If I love something I can praise it for pages. If I hate something I enjoy laying out my argument for why it's bad. But for a graphic novel like American Vampire all there really is to say is meh.
If you really love vampires. Like love anything and everything vampy, this might be more fun for you. But for most of us I think it has done little to reinvent the genre or stand out amongst the dozens and dozens of simiar stories already out there.
