Meanwhile, in Las Vegas...

I have reviews of two graphic novels in this week's Las Vegas Weekly, the Halloween issue. The books are Eric Hobbs and Noel Tuazon's The Broadcast, set during Orson Welles' Halloween War of the Worlds performance, and Scott Snyder, Stephen King and Rafael Albuquerque's American Vampire Vol. 1, which is, obviously, about vampires. You can read them here.

I liked 'em both, something which sorta surprised me regarding American Vampire, given how far I figured I was from the target audience (True fact: I have never, ever, ever read a book by Stephen King before, barring a failed attempt in junior high to try and read The Stand ; American Vampire was actually the longest piece of King's fiction-writing I've ever read). Of the three creators, Albuquerque was the only one whose work I was familiar with prior to reading. He does a pretty incredible job too; I don't know if he simply massively improved in the last few years or was super-inspired by the material and rose to meet it or what, but as much as I liked his previous work, his American Vampire art seemed a good ten degrees stronger.

As for The Broadcast, if you're intrigued by the premise, but not convinced by the cover art, do yourself a favor and check out this online preview, which gives a much better idea of what Tuazon's work looks like (So too does his entry on the Top Shelf website supporting his Top Shelf 2.0 contributions and, of course, his own blog. The cover of the The Broadcast is actually by the extremely talented—but quite different from Tuazon!—Francesco Francavilla.