In an attempt to consume more of Scott Snyder‘s work, I reached out to my local library and picked up the first two trade of Snyder’s Vertigo title American Vampire. Holy crap is this book awesome. Vertigo. CHECK. Vampires. CHECK. Historical fiction. CHECK. (triple homerun) Our main character, the first American Vampire, is Skinner Sweet and prior to becoming a part of the undead, Skinner Sweet was a sadistic asshole and a murderous thief. He was last person you would have wanted to run into in 1880. Skinner, murdering bank robber, is wanted by a group of old country European vampires, whom he robbed several tens of thousands of dollars from. Seeking their revenge, they hire a detective from the Pinkerton Group to help capture him. While attempting escape from capture, Skinner Sweet is accidentally transformed into the first American Vampire.

Following up what I call one of the best three runs on Fantastic Four ever (Kirby/Lee, Byrne and Hickman for those keeping score at home), we have Matt Fraction penning both Fantastic Four and the FF titles. I have to admit I was expecting to be let down. It’s near impossible to follow up excellence with excellence. (Those types of things are left to the Niners and the Packers) But none the less, plenty of my fellow collectors stated I would not be let down and that I have to patient and let Fraction do his thing. So I did. Six issues and an Age Of Ultron later, we finally have some goodness to talk about.