Let’s start with the runners up:
Victorian Undead #1-5 published by Wildstorm Comics
Written by Ian Edginton
Art by Davide Fabbri
How can you resist a series with the subtitle of “Sherlock Holmes vs Zombies”? It’s hard to blend two ideas like this together into a cohesive narrative and story, but the creative team succeeds. Veteran 2000AD writer Ian Edginton puts Holmes and Watson to their ultimate test against the living dead who are sweeping through Victorian England. Fabbri’s clean art effectively captures the look and feel of Victorian England and adds his own unique style to the environment. You can pick up this miniseries in a Trade Paperback and its new current miniseries, Victorian Undead II, featuring Sherlock Holmes up against Dracula!
And speaking of Dracula...
Dracula - The Company of Monsters #1-5 published by Boom! Studios
Written by: Daryl Gregory/ Kurt Busiek
Art by: Scott Godlewski
As a fan of Kurt Busiek’s work on Marvels, Astro City, and the Avengers, his involvement with this Indy comic caught my interest. But, at the same time, I was reluctant to read another vampire story. Fortunately, the series goes back to the original concept of Vlad the Impaler and brings him into the modern world as a corporate asset. Of course, they can’t contain this legendary evil and Dracula breaks free and quickly amasses an undead army.
With the runners up appropriately honored, it’s time for the big announcement. The 2010 Black Glover Horrorhead Award for Comic/Graphic Novel goes to:
Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque’s American Vampire
American Vampire #1-5
Writers - Scott Snyder and Stephen King
Artist - Rafael Albuquerque
Okay, okay, I know I was saying that I was getting tired of vampires like everyone else, but this one is really different. Honest. Would you also believe that while Scott Snyder is sharing the billing with Stephen King, I’m enjoying his side of this tale more than King? American Vampire introduces a new breed of ..um... American vampires that are significantly different that their counterparts in Europe. A great new series and a fun reinterpretation of the vampire myth!
I’ll let the back cover blurb wrap up this post as it sums up the series quite well:
“This first hardcover volume of the critically acclaimed series collects issues #1-5 and follows two stories: one written by Snyder and one written by King, both with art by future superstar Rafael Albuquerque. Snyder's tale follows Pearl, a young woman living in 1920s Los Angeles, who is brutally turned into a vampire and sets out on a path of righteous revenge against the European monsters that tortured and abused her. And in King's story set in the days of America's Wild West, readers learn the origin of Skinner Sweet, the original American vampire – a stronger, faster creature than any vampire ever seen before.”
--Jason Shayer
