American Vampire, Vol. 4 by Scott Snyder
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I don’t remember the previous volumes well enough so I have to ask is Volume 4 the first time the vampires in American Vampire have a little “color” to them? The book begins with an American Indian vampire and concludes with an African American vampire. There is also an insinuation that there are East Asian vampires in the final story in the book (though there were Japanese vampires in Volume 3). Sandwiched between the ethnic vampires is the story of Travis Kidd. It’s his story that is the most interesting of the three collected in this volume. Calvin the Taxonomist being the second and the opening story revealing the childhood friendship between Jim Booker and Skinner Sweet being the third.
The story of Travis Kidd is interesting because he establishes a third side in the struggle between vampires and human and Old World vampires and the American Vampire. His story also reveals a secret about Skinner Sweet. Travis is a “free agent” of sorts, unbound by the rules and allegiances formed by the Vassals. You sort of wonder if there are two vampire sides (Old World and American) is Scott Synder setting the story up to introduce a second vampire hunter side (the Vassals and as-of-yet-unidentified human vampire hunter organization)? Will the Vassals have to contend with containing a new human “problem” in addition to the vampire one.
American Vampire is one of my favorite recent discoveries but like Sweet Tooth (another recent favorite) I learned at the 2012 NY Comic Con that it is going on “hiatus” (i.e. “coming to an end”). I’m looking forward to Volume 5 but with the trepidation that there will be a potentially humungous gap between the last issue and the next new issue.
Vincent Young 
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