Four years since its last issue hit the stands, the acclaimed horror comic book series American Vampire is back with the new volume American Vampire 1976. Reuniting the original creative team of Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque, Dave McCaig, and Steve Wands, the series has moved from its original home at Vertigo Comics to DC's mature reader-oriented publishing imprint DC Black Label. With the new volume hitting the ground running right from its opening issue, here are all the big things you need to know before diving back into the vampiric vision of America.
Debuting in 2010, American Vampire follows Skinner Sweet, a legendary outlaw from the Wild West who was ambushed and infected by European vampires in the late 19th century. Escaping from his watery grave decades later, Skinner set out to target those that had caused his vampiric transformation, starting with childhood friend turned lawman Jim Book. While Book had relentlessly pursued Skinner, the gunslinger fatally poisoned Book's fiance as their friendship devolved into a mutually-held hatred. Infecting Book, the middle-aged lawman would father a child with his goddaughter Abilena before she seemingly puts him out of his misery as he makes his own undead transformation.
In 1920s Los Angeles, aspiring actor Pearl Jones meets a World War I veteran and musician Henry Preston. As the two strike up a tentative romance, Pearl notices a drifter hanging by her pool revealed to be Skinner Sweet. Despite Skinner's warnings, Pearl attends an exclusive party at a powerful Hollywood producer's home only to find that the hosts are European vampires who prey upon her and leave her for dead in the desert. Discovered by Skinner, Pearl becomes one of the undead when the outlaw uses a drop of his blood to infect her. Pearl kills those responsible before eventually marrying Henry as she acclimates to her new vampiric nature.
It's eventually revealed that American vampires and European vampires share different weaknesses, with the European undead vulnerable to the traditional sunlight and wooden stakes, while Skinner and Pearl are vulnerable to gold and the night of the new moon. Over the years, Skinner and Pearl are drawn into a shadow war between European vampires and a clandestine organization known as the Vassals of the Morning Star (VMS), learning the secrets of international vampire culture. While there are different strains of vampires worldwide, the evilest of them all is the Carpathians, completely devoid of any sense of humanity.
As the story moves towards 1976, Jim Book and Abilena's daughter Felicia Book is revealed as a dhampir, a half-vampire. Felicia's son Gus is a prominent target of the Carpathians and the sinister Gray Trader who has set out to unify the ancient vampire clans. As the VMS dismantle the vampires' machinations, including manipulating World War II and the Space Race from behind-the-scenes, other ancillary characters are introduced, perhaps most notably the vampire hunter Travis Kidd who falsely believes Skinner murdered his parents decades ago. As Pearl's husband Henry finally succumbs to old age saving his wife from the villainous Hattie, Skinner finds himself transformed back into a human as a consequence of foiling the latest vampire plot. And as the characters find themselves at a crossroads, one of the biggest shockers is revealed of all: Jim Book survived his initial attempt at death, now a ravenous vampire.
All of these disparate threads, from the importance of Gus to the activities of the Gray Trader, are set to explosively collide in American Vampire 1976. And with Skinner now a powerless mortal while Jim Book has been revealed as a full-fledged creature of the night, the original American Vampire has found himself in a role reversal as the VMS' battle against the Carpathians escalates just in time for the United States' bicentennial celebration, teasing plenty of blood and fury to unfold between the old world and the new.