American Vampire by Scott Snyder

If you're of the school of thought that vampires should be neither sparkly nor mushy-hearted toward humans — that they should be depicted, instead, as stone-cold killers with moral compasses of dubious quality, then Scott Snyder's American Vampire graphic novel series may be right up your blood-stained alley.

Volume 1, which is in our fiction section, follows two separate storylines linked by one Skinner Sweet, a rabble rousing, blood drinking, candy chomping member of Vampire Version 2.0. Skinner belongs to a new breed of vampire forged in the crucible of American history. Unlike his European predecessors, he can walk in the sun without fear of self-combustion. Not surprisingly, old-school vampires are not pleased by this development.

It is this revelation that arises in the first of the two stories: A young woman named Pearl goes to Hollywood in the search of fame and fortune in 1925. Her innocence, however, attracts the wrong kind of attention from a pack of literal blood-suckers who leave her for dead. But Skinner Sweet has other ideas, rousing her from death so Pearl can have a second chance at life. Not to mention revenge.

"Just picture it in automotive terms. Bloch and his kind, they're like old, broken down European clunkers, okay? But you and me, Dolly? We're like shiny new 1926 Fords. Top of the line, just rolled out onto the showroom floor.

"See sometimes, when the blood hits sometime new, from somewhere new it makes something new. With a whole new bag of tricks, get it?"

The other story follows Skinner Sweet during his outlaw days in the Old West. Having robbed a prosperous businessman (who also happens to be an Old World vampire), Sweet finds himself captured. But you and I both know it's just a temporary detour for the wayward hellion.

Skinner Sweet makes for a fascinating character because he has no soft spots to him. He's all sly smiling ferocity who does what he wants, no matter the rules and what's right. He kills without seeming conscience. He holds a grudge like nobody's business. He's wily, unpredictable, and a whole lot of fun.

Pearl is no shrinking violet either, particularly once her fangs come in. Because she's newly turned, through her eyes we get to see her confusion and fear as she realizes what's become of her, and how easily her predatory instincts click in. Yet she retains her humanity through her relationship with Henry, a romantic interest from before her change who chooses to remain by her side afterward.

American Vampire earned the Will Eisner Comic Industry Award in 2011 for Best New Series, which should give you some idea of how well-regarded it is by the comic book world. Volume 1, which Snyder co-wrote with bestselling author Stephen King, is lavishly illustrated by Rafael Albuquerque.

If you've not yet tried graphic novels or are looking for a different kind of vampire, I recommend you give this book a try.

Grown Up Graphics: Graphic Novels, Adaptations and Comics Geared Towards Adult Audiences

Strangers In Paradise / by Terry Moore
Katchoo is a beautiful young woman living with her best friend Francine until she meets David, a man determined to win her heart. As the love triangle heats up, Katchoo discovers something about her past which could upset everything even more. Contemporary life models and emotional depth highlight this graphic novel series. (YP FIC MOORE)



The Quitter / by Harvey Pekar
Comic legend Pekar is best known for his notable work in the celebrated American Splendor, chronicling his life as a downtrodden file clerk in Cleveland. The Quitter is another autobiographical comic chronicling his youth and early adulthood as an outcast Jew in an increasingly African-american neighborhood and his attempts and ultimate failures at various endeavors including a stint in the Navy and higher education. (YP FIC PEKAR)



Blankets: An Illustrated Novel / by Craig Thompson
In rural Wisconsin, two brothers discover the challenges of growing up as they confront broken friendships, first loves, disappointments and the duality of coming of age under the eye of sternly pious parents. Mostly a self-styled memoir of Thompson’s own childhood, this extensive book is among the most introspective and self-dissecting works of graphic fiction. (YP FIC THOMPSON)



Logicomix: An Epic Search For Truth / by Apostolos K. Doxiades
This exceptional graphic novel concerns the philosophical life and legacy of Bertrand Russell. As he searches for absolute truth, Russell crosses paths with other legendary thinkers and tries to explain natural phenomenon through mathematics and logic. Not your average graphic novel, this is one of the few graphic works concerned with modern philosophy. (FIC DOXIADIS)



Tamara Drewe / by Posy Simmonds
In a graphic story which parallels Thomas Hardy’s classic Far From the Madding Crowd, Tamara Drewe is a new resident in the modern-day English Hamlet of Stonefield. Young, beautiful with a modest inheritance, Tamara is soon the talk of the town as several male suitors, one an author, another a rock star and a third a local farmer attempt to woo the spunky Tamara. (FIC SIMMONDS)



Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid On Earth / by Chris Ware
36-year-old everyman Jimmy Corrigan lives a hapless life in Chicago as a lonely, emotionally-isolated man disenchanted with life until he suddenly hears from his long-absent father. Interspersed throughout the book are flashbacks to a century earlier when Jimmy’s grandfather, James, who was abandoned by his own father at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, dealt with similar problems. Ware's drawings are a good combination of subtle and provocative. (FIC WARE)



Ooku: The Inner Chambers: Vol. 1 / by Fumi Yoshinaga
When a mysterious disease kills off 80 percent of the males in feudal Japan, women have taken control of society with the remaining men carefully preserved as sperm donors in the Ooku, secluded quarters in which a collection male concubines reside. Things suddenly change when handsome Samurai warrior Yunoshi enters the Ooku. This adult manga is very richly illustrated and thoroughly original. (FIC YOSHINAG)



Johnny Cash: I See A Darkness: A Graphic Novel / by Reinhard Kleist
From his impoverished beginning in rural Arkansas to his success as a country crooner and delving into his emotionally volatile life filled with bitter depression and demons of drugs and alcoholism, the life of Johnny Cash is revealed in deft, artistic biography. German graphic novelist Kleist vividly manifests the literal and visceral ‘man in black’ in this somber-toned visual renderings of one of music’s greatest legends. (782.421642 KLEIST)



Maus: A Survivor’s Tale / by Art Spiegleman
Author and illustrator Art Spieglemann conducts interviews with his father Vedak, a survivor of the Holocaust, in this riveting narrative of a relationship between father and son and the harrowing legacy of Jewish persecution in Hitler’s Europe. The Jews are depicted as mice and the author/illustrator's talent is self-evident in both storytelling and aesthetic resonance. (940.5318 SPIEGELM)

King Lear / a graphic novel by Gareth Hinds; based on the play by William Shakespeare

For anyone who's ever been scared off by Shakespeare's plays (and accompanying film adaptations) owing to the difficult language barrier, there are now a variety of simply related, and surprisingly adept graphic-format versions which have steadily emerged over the past few years. Gareth Hinds, author and artist behind the successful Beowulf long form comic book (YP FIC HINDS), has now applied his hand to one of the great bard's tragic masterpieces. Hinds' caretaking of King Lear is refreshingly lucid and manageable, effortlessly eliciting Shakespeare's searing tale of ambition and defiance tempered by the passing of generations and family loyalty.

Clever with both the pen and the brush, the author displays both an artist's skill and a knack for getting the most out of what the play tries to say, his watercolored texture subtly producing the pained expressions of Lear, his creeping madness, and the individuality of his three daughters all plagued by fortune. All the while an odiously developing maelstrom develops in the heavens above, culminating with a brilliantly evocative conclusion. Even in abridged form with accompanying footnotes, the language is still a bit of a barrier but the reader can better get a handle on the breadth of the content, the meat of the moral conundrum and the depth of emotion as its drawn across the page in brisk though never understated fashion. While Lear is his most recently published work, Hinds other graphic adaptations of classic literature available include The Odyssey and The Merchant of Venice. (822.33 SHAKESPE)