VAMPIRE, PA #1 in April PREVIEWS

Vampire, PA #1 (of 3)
J.C. Vaughn, Brendon Fraim, Brian Fraim

Vampires in suburbia? Dean Marklin didn’t think so. In fact, he didn’t believe in vampires at all. Then he met one. Then he met lots more, and they all wanted to kill him! Now he’s a vampire hunter, and he’s pursued by a beautiful vampire while he tries to hold onto what’s left of normal life. How do you think that’s working out for him? From the writer of Zombie-Proof comes this trip to Western Pennsylvania’s oddly vampire-rich environment. Cover A by Mark Wheatley. Cover B by Jacob Jordan.

VAMPIRE, PA #1 will be listed in the April 2010 PREVIEWS from Diamond Comic Distributors under MOONSTONE BOOKS and is set to go on sale in June!

It's based on my short story "Vampire Hunter Dean," which appears in the prose anthology VAMPIRES: DRACULA AND THE UNDEAD LEGIONS, also from Moonstone, and which is on sale now.

BRENDON and BRIAN FRAIM are the artists on the series. In addition to working with me previously on Antiques: The Comic Strip, the have also done The Odd Squad, America, Jr., and other cool stuff.

The mini-series is being colored by multiple award-winning creator MARK WHEATLEY, the driving force behind such projects as Breathtaker, Blood of the Innocent, Mars, EZ Street, Lone Justice, Radical Dreamer, and more.

VAMPIRE, PA #1 Five-Page Preview

VAMPIRES: DRACULA AND THE UNDEAD LEGIONS

The blood runs red under the moon as Moonstone follows up its first monster anthology, Werewolves: Dead Moon Rising, with Vampires: Dracula and the Undead Legions. This second “Moonstone Monsters” anthology features Dracula stories (which open and close this collection) and eight other new vampire tales.

Contributing authors from screenwriters and novelists to comic book scribes, including L.A. Banks (2008 Essence Storyteller of the Year), P.N. Elrod (The Vampire Files), Elaine Bergstrom (Kolchak: The Night Stalker Chronicles), Martin Powell (Scarlet In Gaslight) and yours truly, with “Vampire Hunter Dean,” the short story from which my new comic book project grew.

VAMPIRE HUNTER DEAN - Four-Page Preview

Vampire Hunter Dean is illustrated by those whiz kids Brendon and Brian Fraim, and it's based on my short story that is schedule to appear in an anthology from Moonstone Books. In fact, the comic book story picks up where the short story left off, but both pieces work fine without the other.

As usual, the guys' work has been outstanding and seems to be getting better page by page. That was my experience with them on Antiques: The Comic Strip, so I probably should have expected as much.

This is a four-page sequence from early in the story. You can click the images to see them much larger.

VAMPIRE HUNTER DEAN...?

Vampire Hunter Dean first appeared... wait, can I say he first appeared if it's not published yet? Well, he first appeared to me in a short story I wrote for a forthcoming (I'm assured) vampires anthology from our friends at Moonstone Books. The story is entitled, and this is the really clever part, "Vampire Hunter Dean."

Ever since we finished Antiques: The Comic Strip, which I dearly miss, I've been looking for something on which to work with the uber-talented brother act of Brendon and Brian Fraim. I sent them the short story, they liked it, I wrote a script for a seven-page teaser that picks up right at the end of the short story, and -- as usual -- they nailed it. We sent it over to ace letterer Marshall Dillon, who got it right back to us.

It not only worked nicely as a comic, it worked great. I knew that we definitely had to do more. So I wrote some more and the guys got to work on it. Vampire Hunter Dean #1, a one-shot, is now in progress.

So, what's it about? Dean Marklin is a HVAC (that's heating, ventilation and air conditioning) repairman from suburban Pittsburgh (Dormont, to be exact) who goes to an industry convention in Miami and meets a super hot, model-esque woman who turns out to be much more than she seems. He leaves Miami knowing there are a lot more things in the world than he ever contemplated before.

And then he finds out there are vampires in his home town. Why are they there? What's their story? And what does Dean do about them? (The title may give it away, but hey, I'm writing hype on the fly here...)

The Fraim brothers are doing a fantastic job and each page I get in is better than the previous one. The seven-page teser should appear in the Zombie-Proof one-shot, Zombie-Proof: Zombie Zoo, followed by the one-shot.

The inked page above is from the teaser story. The page in pencil shows some of the action early in Vampire Hunter Dean #1.

Sometime later we'll talk about how Vampire Hunter Dean got his name.