Know Your $#!@: American Vampire Part 1

Alright, so I'm going to be doing this unscheduled new column called Know Your $#!@. Know Your $#!@ will basically be getting readers up to speed on comics they're looking to get into, or haven't read in a while. So, let's get started with American Vampire (by Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque), which just released an excellent one-shot this week, and will be returning later this year. Now, let's get to it!

This is Pearl Jones.

She is a struggling young actress in Hollywood, who lives with her best friend/roommate/co-worker, Hattie Hargrove. She also works as a cigarette salesgirl in a club, where her boyfriend, Henry Preston, a guitarist, performs. Both of them are filming an Atlantis movie in Hollywood, but aren't being paid that much. One day, while filming with the movie's star Chase Hargrove, he invites her and Hattie to a party being held by B.D Bloch, leading her to believe she's finally going to be a big shot. On the way to the party, she and Hattie are stopped by their new neighbor, Skinner, who warns them about the party and tries to get them to stay home. However, thinking he's some sort of rapist (but for some reason, Hattie is turned on by that), Pearl shrugs off the warning. So, yada yada yada, Pearl meets Bloch and some producers in a private room, turns out they're vampires and they maul her. Later, she wakes up in the dessert, on the verge of death, almost completely drained of blood, and she's found by Hattie and Henry. She's put in the hospital, and "dies". However, she later finds herself alive and well, and even better than ever in the hospital morgue. She's greeted by Skinner who explains she's a vampire, but not the same breed as Bloch and the bloodsuckers who attacked her. She's faster, stronger and deadlier than they are, with a completely new set of weaknesses. Pearl leaves the morgue with a list of her powers from Skinner, though he keeps her weaknesses a secret (what a douche). Pearl makes use of her newfound powers by... Mutilating, torturing, dismembering, tormenting, and murdering Hargrove, for getting her to go to the party. She then  basically goes on a Hit-Girl style killing spree, murdering the actors, and filmmakers who were in on the attack. When she gets wind that Hattie was kidnapped, she goes to rescue her... Only to find out it's a trap. And Hattie betrays her, attacking her best friend. Pearl is overwhelmed, and escapes, with the help of Henry. A few hours later, she gains her strength back, and goes to the theater to confront Bloch, Hattie and the rest of her attackers. Henry shoots the place up, while Pearl turns Bloch into a Memorial Day barbecue, and taking a gold star, and shoving it down Hattie's throat (That's right, gold is their weakness). In the end, she and Henry decide to leave Hollywood. Before they leave, Pearl and Henry go on a date to the county fair, where Pearl meets Skinner one last time.