Gus McCogan

Origin

Gus McCogan is the son of Cash and Lilly McCogan who due to tragic circumstances was born a vampire thanks to the notorious Skinner Sweet.

Creation

Gus McCogan was created by American Vampire co-creators, Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque.

Major Story Arcs

Devil in the Sand

In 1936, while Gus' mother Lilly is late in her pregnancy with him, his father Cash McCogan, a ranking police officer in a developing Las Vegas, gets involved with a plot involving Skinner Sweet and his adoptive father who turns out to be an ancient vampire. Once Sweet kills Cash's father, he gets injured by Felicia Book, and retreats. Cash finds Skinner holding his wife Lilly hostage, with a syringe of his blood near the unborn Gus. Despite his best efforts, Cash is unable to stop Skinner from injecting Gus with is blood in utero. When Gus is finally born, he comes out a vampire, killing his mother upon delivery. Cash takes his vampiric son, and leaves his old life behind, wandering the country with Gus in a sack on his back.

Survival of the Fittest

Sometime later, during World War II, Cash has joined the Vassals of the Morning Star, a secretive group of vampire hunters, leaving Gus in a cage held within the basement of their secret base in New York City. Cash and Felicia Book go on a dangerous mission in Nazi occupied Romania in an attempt to find a supposed cure for vampirism created by a Dr. Erik Pavel. With the cure in their possession and their cover blown, Cash and Felicia make a darring escape, that ends up with Cash sacrificing his life in order for Felicia to deliver the cure to Gus. Back in the states, Felicia goes into seclusion, secretly taking Gus from the Vassals. She administers the cure to the boy, with positive results and continues to take care of his, in honor of his father.