Thus ends chapter 1!  Only 229 chapters to go!

Those among you who are familiar with the Varney story may be familiar with the woodcut that I patterned this strip after:

The pose is very similar, and (though it’s difficult to see behind the text) the portrait is shown on the wall.  Since I was paying homage to the Varney story, I thought it would be a nice idea to pay tribute to some of the art as well….we’ll see how well that works out.

I’ve been doing some education on 18th century life, mainly through entertainment.  I’m currently reading David Liss’ book “A Conspiracy of Paper”, which is a great yarn about an ex-pugalist in London making his living recovering stolen items for gentlemen of the day.  Needless to say, he gets in over his head…

I’ve also rented “Brotherhood of the Wolf“, which is very thoroughly fiction, still provides some interesting ideas as to the look of clothing of the day.  I’ve seen the movie, but that was before I needed as much reference and inspiration about 18th century clothing as possible!  One of the parts I enjoy about telling a story is learning as much as I can about the period and location it which it happens.

On to chapter 2!  I hope you’re enjoying the journey so far…I know I am!

I’m always curious as to what Rymer may have meant when he said that Varney moved “with a strange, gliding movement”.  Instead of a catlike grace, I rather believe that there was a bit of a ghostly attribute here….a blending of myths that is common at this time.  Perhaps the vampires of that time were more like hungry ghosts, or that the stories of hungry ghosts and vampires overlapped somewhat.  I can almost see Varney gliding across the room with his toes dragging the floor.  Later on, we’ll see some attributes that are reminiscent of the “Spring-heeled Jack” stories popular in the 1800’s.  There was even such a story in the Louisville, Kentucky area…so it hits a bit near home for me.

I think one of the things I enjoy about exploring this story is that things about the way Varney moves, and acts…the vampire myths that modern movies have told us to expect, aren’t present here.  Or rather, they are curiously mixed with ghost stories and werewolf stories.  It makes Varney more of a mish-mash of a monster…a true grandfather of both legends.

Pretty darned cool.

I’ll most likely have some exciting news for the fans concerning Feast of Blood in the new year…so stay tuned!

Oh, this panel was devilishly hard to do…I think because I really wanted to rush to the impending attack.  Alas, such was not to be…though I wasted an entire evening trying to force it!  Apparently, Rymer’s story will only be told a certain way…artist desires be damned!

A special thanks again to Curt Herr…who put out the (already ragged) annotated copy of Varney the Vampire that I’m using to guide my way.  It’s been invaluable!

I find myself torn between reading a few chapters ahead, or keeping myself restrained and moving at the reader’s pace.  I’d be curious to hear my reader’s input on the matter!

Until next time..Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone!

-Dave

The face of the vampire.

I like the way this page turned out, though I stressed considerably about Varney’s look.  Part of me wanted something more monstrous looking.  I settled on the same “shark” idea that I mentioned a couple of strips ago, and I think it comes off well.  Varney is very angular and single-minded looking, very much like a primal preditor, while Flora is very round and soft looking.

I was also pleased that Varney’s clothes look pretty rough.  I’m not sure what the story is with Sir Francis Varney before this scene (and I’m not sure we’ll ever find out), but I have the idea that he had an episode where he was killed and buried, only recently finding his way out of the muddy grave.  I doubt that, in his present state, he’s even capable of speech, though we’ll probably hear from him at a later date when he’s had his…er…repast.)

There’s very little text left out of this strip…it made sense to keep most of it intact.

Oh, for those of you who are confused about the orientation of everyone in this scene, Varney is standing facing the painting on the far wall.  To his left is Flora in her bed….so our view of Varney is pretty much Flora’s view, too.

Next: “When Vampires Attack!”

Tisk, Tisk…don’t vampires ever knock?

Something that makes Varney a bit different from certain popular vampires of today (especially at this moment in the story) is that Varney is a monster. True that he’s a monster that can occasionally wear a polished demeanor, but he is a walking corpse.  There’s much blending at this point of the vampire and werewolf myths (in fact, it was thought that if a person died a werewolf, they automatically became vampires when they died), so Varney has some monstrous traits that we should be seeing.

What’s been left out of the graphic adaptation so far?  Well, Flora’s been crying for help “as if in a dream”, and struggling to flee – to little effect.  I was reluctant to leave out those parts, but we’ll be seeing plenty of it in the next panel or so, so it’s no big worry.  I wish I could produce these faster….I want to read further in the book!)  I do cheat and look ahead just a bit, but not much.  I want to be surprised, too!

I hope you like how this panel turned out….in the next, we get to see a bit of Varney’s creepy face!)

-Dave

Aha!  Our first, shadowy glimpse of the vampire!  Things get more harrowing for poor Flora from now on (Flora is the heroine, in this instance, but I guess that statement could apply to myself as well!)

A lot happens in this strip, and I was uncertain if Anthony Schiavino could actually find room for all of the text I’d edited down from the story, but he came through as usual, and it looks great!

I almost have the feeling that Flora is like a fish in a fishbowl…with a hungry cat scratching at the glass.  The tricorn hat that our shadowy vampire figure is wearing gives him an almost shark-like appearance which is very fitting indeed.

We had the issue on this strip of correcting a punctuation issue, or to keep to the original text, and I chose to keep the original.  I already feel like I’ve taken a hacksaw to the original text as it is….I hate to alter it further.  We’ll see if this presents an issue as we go along.

I’m in the midst of moving where I live at present, which always is awkward, but it hasn’t impacted time to do art terribly…there’s only the inconvenience of not having my PC or the internet at my new home yet.  Next week should be more normal.

Thanks for the kind comments I’ve received both here and on Twitter concerning the art…this project has given me the chance to experiment and play more with images and technique than I normally do with my Ghost Zero stories.  Hopefully, it will not only make this a lovely project, but will help me improve artistically.

So, onward we go…and we’re not even though chapter 1 yet!  Is that the cold gust of wind through an open window I feel?  Perhaps it is…..

-Dave

Welcome to back!

Well, we’re setting the scene of the crime, as it were.  I was happy with how this strip turned out…how there’s less of a division between “panels” than I usually do, and how the text seems to make that “literary bridge” quite nicely.

This panel introduces our heroine, “Flora”…I admit that one of the reasons I decided to embark on this endeavor was because my last name is “Flora”!  Sigh… Sad reason, isn’t it?)

At this rate, I imagine that depicting the 1st chapter will take about 5 strips total, though I vow not to be stingy….this is a great chapter and needs to be done right!

Stay tuned, folks…our hungry corpse shows up in the next strip!

-Dave

“How graves give up their dead,

And how the night air hideous grows

With shrieks!”

Thus begins one of the most notorious “penny dreadfuls” in history.

I’d known about James Rymer’s “Varney the Vampire or the Feast of Blood” since I was a boy.  The woodcut image on the cover of the first installation is enough to capture the imagination of any child, I would suppose:

And I loved vampires.  I loved them almost as much as I loved ghost stories, which means a lot.  When Halloween came around, the only question in my mind was which to dress up as.

Later in life, I found the definitive book on vampires, Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” and was entranced at reading what I thought was the seminal version of the vampire story.  I loved it…corpses and graveyards, good and evil, monsters in the night searching for prey.

Vampires changed, though.  At least, their trappings did.  Suddenly, vampires were beautiful night-club visitors, or rock-stars, more acquainted with hair gel than coffins..less corpse-like and more like the bad-boy next door.  Immortal, troubled teens did not interest me, so I turned my back on vampires.

Recently, with the craze of the “Twilight” movies, I saw the name ‘Varney’ mentioned again, and I wondered if the campus library would have a copy of the serial published in 1845…40 years before Stoker would pen “Dracula”…and they did.  Carefully, I pulled the 1977 book off the shelf, read the first chapter…

And was hooked.  The images burst into my head as I read through the events of the horrible storm, the dark figure at the window….the vampire.

Not a teen boy, not a suave nobleman, this vampire was a hungry corpse..terrible and terrifying.  This was MY kind of vampire!

I put the book down and thought.

I knew that this serial (for it was published weekly, one chapter at a time), had the reputation of being a rambling and occasionally contradictory story that stretched out over an epic 230+ chapters.

But, there was magic here.  It would be a great story to be adapted to a webcomic format and put out weekly, as it was nearly 150 years ago.

I found and bought Mr. Curt Herr’s wonderfully annotated critical edition of the book. And hopefully, with his guidance, I can lead the candle-lit way though a story full of bood, gore, cemeteries and vampires.

I have to thank Mr. Anthony Schiavino for his incredible talent at lettering and design for helping me with this endeavor, and for his friendship and support.

So, here we are at the start of a journey that will, at best, take years of my life to tell.

Together, let’s dig down through the dirt of 150 years and uncover THE vampire that inspired them all.

-Dave