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Comic Book: American Vampire

American Vampire is a comic book from Vertigo Comics.

The comic is written in arcs, each set in a different time period and locale. The first arc follows Pearl Jones, a girl struggling to make it big in Hollywood in the 1920s. The second arc follows Cashell McCorgan, a police officer during The Great Depression. The third arc follows Henry Preston joining a team of Vassals of the Morning Star agents to investigate rumors of vampires in the Japanese islands, against the backdrop of World War II. The fourth arc follows Travis Kidd, a young rockabilly vampire hunter in the 1950s as he crosses paths with the Vassals. The fifth arc beginning in April will follow one of the survivors of the Taipan mission who has now become a vampire. The sixth arc (beginning in June) will reunite Pearl Jones and Skinner Sweet in 1950s Hollywood, during the Red Scare.

Thus far, there are also two mini-series, the first following Cashell and Felicia Book in Europe during WW 2, and another upcoming one that follows Felicia some time after.

The book is written by Scott Snyder and illustrated by Raphael Albuquerque. Stephen King wrote "Skinner Sweet", a back-up feature for the first arc detailing the origins of the original American vampire.

The series started in May, 2010. Winner of the 2011 Eisner Award for Best new series.

The series contains examples of:

Action Girl: Pearl is no pushover. After being attacked by the Hollywood Coven and being turned by Skinner, she does not hesitate to bring on the pain to those who have wronged her. Abilena also fits this trope.
- By Survival of the Fittest, Felicia has become this as well.
Always a Bigger Fish: Rears its head at the ending of Survival of the Fittest, when The Ancients that Pavel had been nurturing back to health wake up and save Felicia and Cash before tearing into the Nazi Vampires and utterly slaughtering them.
Ax Crazy: Skinner Sweet. Hattie's getting there fast.
Back from the Dead: Skinner in #23
Battle Cry: "Semper Fi, Motherfuckers!"
Beware the Nice Ones: Pearl is a nice girl, until you push her. The Hollywood Coven found this out the hard way.
Butt Monkey: The Romanian Vampires have this as their hat, though they do deserve it. Not only are they the easiest of all vampires to kill (with a weakness to sunlight and wood), but they keep siring random people and creating stronger bloodlines then them. It's definitely ironic that they think of themselves as the superior species.
The Chosen One: One of the The Ancients in Survival of the Fittest says this to Felicia in its language before she escapes.
Daywalking Vampire: The premise.
- American Vampires can, as can Gaelic-Primes and Native American Vampires. Strangely, their progenitors, the ancient ones, can't, and burn (albeit very slowly)
Decapitation Presentation: Skinner does this *shudder*.
- He does this to Felix Camillo's papi in issue #3.
Dhampyr: Felicia.
Distressed Damsel: Pearl starts off as one. It didn't work out so well. So she went Action Girl and got revenge.
Eldritch Abomination: Potentially what the progenitors of the vampire race are.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: The Nazis have vampires among their ranks.
Evil Family Good Offspring: In this situation it is reversed. It is revealed in later issues of American Vampire that Skinner Sweet and James Book are brothers, Skinner having been adopted into the family, thus turning the trope around. Or does it...? As there may be a hint that Pink himself may not be as good as he thought he was, if this troper understands the wording well.)
Faux Affably Evil: Skinner Sweet again.
Friendly Enemy: Pearl's relationship with the Vassals of the Morning Star is shown to evolve into this by The Forties. While the Vassals still tend to see her as an abomination, they're mostly content with the fact that her husband works for them and that Pearl is at least not going around and killing people except those who deserve it. It also helps that they share a common enemy in Skinner.
Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Pearl is by far the nicest, most sympathetic and arguably most human vampire in the series. All she really wants is to live her life in peace and be with Henry...although God help you if you piss them off. Gus Mccogan is also revealed to be one, only resorting to killing the Consortium for what he sees as the greater good of Las Vegas.
Game Face: The new breed pass for human easily, but when fighting or feeding or angry, they shift to clawed and fanged monsters.
Glasgow Grin: Hattie now has one of these. She covers it with makeup.
Happily Married: Pearl and Henry.
Heroic Sacrifice: The series has a few:
- Erik Pavel and Cash Mccogan in Survival of the Fittest
- In Ghost War, The Vicar is infected and grabs a string of grenades and rushes into a crowd of Japanese vampires, killing them all and saving Calvin and Henry.
Hemo Erotic: Henry and Pearl love to have bite-y, feeder sex with each other.
Hollywood: Pearl starts out as an actress trying to work her way up in the movie biz... until she gets invited to the wrong party...
Hollywood History: The earliest parts of the story go back to The Wild West, skips a few decades, then starts again in the Roaring Twenties. So far, every main story arc has taken place around ten years after the last, with the story progressing through The Great Depression and World War II. Judging by some solicitations, the trend will continue at least through The Fifties.
Killed Off for Real: Skinner Sweet as of the end of the Ghost War arc. This is revealed to be false during the Travis Kidd story arc.
- Henry on the other hand...
Kryptonite Factor: Moonless nights and ~~quite possibly~~ recently confirmed, gold.
Lizard Folk: the Japanese Vampires in the Ghost War Arc are eyeless lizard-men with huge fangs.
May-December Romance: Partially invoked, but mostly subverted with Book and his goddaughter Abilena. Abilena wanted to invoke this trope, but Book is creeped out by the idea. He even tells her he thinks of her as his own daughter. Still, when he wants her to kill him, she agrees to do it if he will impregnate her first.
Meaningful Echo: Will Bunting does this with Abilena. ""Can I tag along?" "Just keep up." Earlier in the story, he asks James Book this on a few occasions.
Oral Fixation Fixation: Skinner Sweet loves peppermint sticks— even as a vampire.
"Do you motherfuckers have any candy?"
Our Vampires Are Different: The new breed has powers that the older vampires lack. (So far, they have elongated finger-claws, rattlesnake fangs, and are powered by sunlight, only becoming vulnerable during the nights of the new moon.) There are also several other types of Vampires. Heck, they have an entire taxonomy for them:
- The types of vampires seen so far have been the European vampires (traditional vampires also known as Carpathian vampires, who believe themselves to be the dominant species), American vampires (jaws like rattle snakes and powered by the sun), Gaelic-Prime vampires, a shape-shifting type that is actually quite nice. Its other form is a pretty vicious looking creature with giant bat-like wings ( Cashell's adoptive father was one before being killed by Sweet ), the Japanese vampire (introduced in the Ghost War story arc), a creepy looking thing with giant fucking teeth and no eyes, and the newest species to be introduced, Homo Abominum Canis Asiatic-2, which, like the Gaelic Prime species, were thought to be extinct but there are apparently enough left alive to pose a threat due to how a person can be easily infected if their wounds are exposed to the Abominum Canis' saliva (it is implied that the species tries to prevent this from happening however). Yes... their vampires are definitely different.
- The 'Survival of the Fittest' arc also revealed a few minor bloodlines, apparently ancestors of the Carpathian breed, who are vulnerable to different bands of the ultraviolet spectrum. It also revealed ancient vampires, enormous, golem-like creatures who's skin is so tough that it only tarnishes slightly when exposed to direct sunlight. They are extremely easy to kill (while they are asleep, but if they wake up, God Help Us All).
- We've now seen a kind of American Vampire that predates Skinner Sweet, Mimiteh, the native american vampire. It's a huge, terrifying lizard monster with orange skin, and a total immunity to sunlight.
- Essentially, the Vassals admit that there really is no such thing as a 'vampire'. There's just a lot of freakish, blood-drinking monsters in the world that happen to have enough similarities to be grouped together.
Pay Evil unto Evil: Pearl's out for vengeance on the Hollywood vampire coven, and Skinner's old enemies want to put an end to his depredations. Not to mention what Hattie does to her captor...
Roaring Rampageof Revenge: Skinner and Pearl both go on these, against their enemies. Hattie's also started one, against Pearl.
Roaring Twenties: Pearl's story starts there.
Shout Out: The Asian vampires. They bear some resemblance to the Xenomorphs from the Alien movies.
Slap-Slap-Kiss: Pearl and Skinner.
Slasher Smile: American Vampires do these real well.
Sliding Scale Of Vampire Friendliness: European vamps are at the unfriendly end to the point they're described as (re)born without the human parts that would give them compassion, so they literally can't be good. Ironically, Sweet's line of American vampires are potentially incredibly friendly, having little to no Horror Hunger, no personality shifts, an easily sated blood thirst (Pearl survives for decades from mild feedings on her husband John). It's ironic because Skinner Sweet is perhaps the most misanthropic and sociopathic character in the series.
Someone to Remember Him By: When Book wants Abilena to put him out of his misery, she agrees on the terms that he will impregnate her first so she will have this at least.
The Mirror Shows Your True Self: Played straight with the Euro vamps while the American species have distorted reflections.
The Wild West: Skinner's story starts there.
The Great Depression: Cashell's story starts here.
The Virus: Unlike most depictions, humans can only be turned into vampires by being infected with the blood of a vampire, not just by being bitten.
- Played straight with the Japanese vampires, who are completely feral. A single drop of their blood coming into contact with your skin will turn you almost instantly.
Undead Child: Cash's son was born a vampire because of Sweet's actions and Cash's wife's death. Cash's attempting to find a cure for him is what his motivation in Survival of the Fittest is.
Those Wacky Nazis: In Survival of the Fittest, it's shown that yes, there are or were Nazi Vampires. They apparently signed up believing that the same Aryan/Master Race rhetoric applies to their kind as well as to humanity.
Took a Level in Badass: Pearl, of course... and Hattie.
Twilight Of The Old West: The first volume shows this in action, which continues to a degree in the second (set in The Thirties) as more of the Old West aesthetics transition into something more recognizably modern.
Unstoppable Rage: Pearl. After the Hollywood Coven does bad things to her, her rage is only stopped when they're corpses.
Vampires Are Rich: The Hollywood Coven is. The American vampires? Not so much.
Vampire Hunter: The Vassals of the Morningstar are a secret society of Vampire Hunters dating back hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
- Unlike most vampire hunter organizations, however, the Vassals are remarkably metropolitan about who they employ, to the point of working with Pearl, Felicia and Skinner.
Villain Protagonist: While Pearl, Cashell and Henry all have their stories, let's face it. Skinner's the true main character, whose actions drive nearly everything else in the plot directly or indirectly, and we wouldn't have it any other way.
Violently Protective Girlfriend: While Henry's usually able to handle himself, if he's in over his head, particularly against vampires, Pearl's right there and ready to rumble.
World War II: The third arc of American Vampire takes place in the Pacific theater (Skinner Sweet, Pearl and Henry continue their story here) while the mini-series Survival of the Fittest takes place in Europe (Cashell and Felicia continue their story here).
Worthy Opponent: Skinner sees Jim Book as this, going so far as to murder an actor that was portraying Book saying that he's not fit to wear the name.
- Makes sense, since Skinner is Jim's adopted brother.
- It seems that Travis Kidd may now be taking that spot, as he seems to impress Skinner a great deal in their fight.