American Vampire, vol. 1, by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque and Stephen King 8.0

It took me a couple of chapters to warm up to this book. I found the first chapter especially grueling, and not even King’s origin story of Skinner Sweet drew me in (Snyder and King share each chapter, giving us two stories to follow).

But I gave it another chance and it paid off like mad. Despite some facile situations and smidge of cheesiness, I quite enjoyed the rest of the book and am looking forward to the next volume.

My main beef is in Albuquerque’s art. Don’t get me wrong: the art is nice-looking, The issue is in the paneling: at first glance, it looks fine, but I’ve found that his action sequences are hard to figure out – it doesn’t flow very well.

Aside from this, everything is fine, and both stories appeal to me now. It’s not a watered-down ‘Twilight’-style vampire story, so the faint of heart should steer clear – but it’s also not excessive.

It’s a vampire story, after all. They’re monsters; it’s going to get bloody, messy. But in a good way.