Comicscape

DEAD SOULS #1 by Kurt Amacker(2008).
© Kurt Amacker

Comicscape: Delving into Dead Souls

By: Kurt Amacker
Date: Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Dear Maniacs, I have wanted to write comics for a very long time. And now, Dead Souls, my first miniseries is finally coming out. I can’t believe that I can finally say those words. A process I began over five years ago has finally come to fruition, with three glorious issues from Seraphemera Books.

Having long harbored a fascination with historical atrocity, I wanted to write a comic with two of my favorite subjects—Vlad Tepes—the “historical Dracula”—and Erzsebet Bathory—the blood countess of Hungary, who was imprisoned in 1611 for torturing hundreds of her female servants. When I conceived the story in college, I had been listening to a lot of Cradle of Filth. The band had made a name for itself singing about both personalities. I had begun reading about both Dracula and Bathory, and I decided to write a comic book about them. But, I wanted something a little more interesting than another vampire story. I began with an idea of Dracula living in modern New Orleans—immortal, but not a vampire. I posited a meeting between him and Bathory, and spun the story from there. Neither would know why they were alive, and they would have no easy answers. The end result is less of a horror story—and least not one with monsters and ghosts—than a noir urban fantasy with a heavy dose of philosophy. It has more in common with Highlander and Sin City than what one finds in most vampire fiction. But make no mistake—Dead Souls is dark. I began with a kernel of an idea about two historical killers meeting in New Orleans, and ended up with a globe-trotting work of conspiracy theory and historical fiction. Famous characters from history meet, global plots are unraveled, and immortal men and women try to find their place in a life with few answers. It’s cheery stuff to be sure, but you all know me fairly well by now.

If any of that sounds interesting to you, please consider pre-ordering a copy from my publisher, Seraphemera Books. The books will ship at the end of this month. This first issue runs 48 pages, with 44 of them being black and white story pages. It goes for $3.99, plus a dollar for shipping. It will also be available soon on Amazon.com and at some stores, depending on what kind of distribution we get. T-shirts and stickers will be available shortly. If you’d like to follow the book’s progress and keep up to date with it, feel free to add me at Myspace. Anyone that has enjoyed Comicscape for these past three-and-a-half years should check out a work that has been both my dream and my passion for even longer.

I began properly writing Dead Souls when I was laid up with a knee injury in the Marines, after I graduated. When I finally returned to New Orleans in 2004, I decided to just pay a professional comic artist who would sign a work-for-hire contract, after losing one illustrator on a half-ass handshake agreement. I spoke to Louis Manna based on the recommendation of a friend. Lou had done a couple of Phantom graphic novels for Moonstone, along with some freelance work for Marvel and DC over the years. He had a Bronze Age style that reminded me of the yellowing stacks of Marvel Team-Ups and Avengers my uncle had given me as a child. I came to an agreement with him to do pencils and inks, and had a contract drawn up by my attorney friend.

I got the art back for the first issue a few weeks later. After some minor revisions, I settled down with Photoshop to clean up the panel arrangements and make the book look a little more polished. But, I simply refused to learn how to letter in Illustrator. Chalk it up to fear and stupidity. I found a really awful way to do it in Photoshop Elements. And my god, did it look terrible. With a stack of copies printed at Kinko’s, I headed to San Diego Comic-Con in 2005 to hand it to as many publishers as I could. After some very gentle words about the book’s shortcomings from a few editors, I decided that I would have to self-publish. To this day, I’m glad no one picked that version of the book up. If you found one in the trash at Comic-Con, I will pay you $10 to give it back to me so that I can burn it. Besides the awful lettering job, the final script was really over-dramatic and my layout job needed work. Lou’s art looked pretty good, but the book didn’t deserve publication. Then, Lou decided he didn’t like his own art, so he redrew the entire first issue. With five more issues planned, I had only been writing the script for the rest intermittently. Regretfully, I never sat down and give it the undivided attention it deserved. I wrote a page here and a page there, but I never slogged through it like I should have. I have learned now that writing doesn’t happen on its own. Later, Lou ended up redrawing much of the fourth issue as well. Now, I had two versions of the first issue, a second and third that I liked, and two versions of the fourth. I set about combining the different art into a “best of” compilation, cutting and pasting onto a clean black page—removing some panels, enlarging others, and otherwise cleaning up all of the issues. I also learned how to letter properly in Adobe Illustrator. And, I found a publisher in Seraphemera Books—a small press run by a friend of a friend that specialized in darker, more literate comics and books. Marc and I talked about our similar vision for dark comics that moved beyond imitating Tim Burton, or Invader Zim, or Johnny the Homicidal Maniac for the seventeenth time. His flagship title, Polyglot & Spleen, was a whimsical Gothic romp through the imaginations, featuring characters loosely based on himself and his artist, Heather Stanley. It contrasted sharply with the bleak noir tone of Dead Souls, but it was far better than most of the childish “Goth comics” that cluttered the shelf at Hot Topic. We had different stories, but a similar idea—to write dark comics for adults that weren’t just warmed-over Adult Swim cartoons on paper.

Well before Marc and I spoke, I realized that printing six 22 page issues was going to throw me even farther down the rabbit hole of financial ruin. Dead Souls had already become hugely expensive, and I had long ago abandoned the idea of turning a profit on it. That’s the hard truth about comics. But, the cost of printing a 44 page book wasn’t much more than printing a 22 page one. Hence, I planned to print Dead Souls as three double-size issues, with a slightly higher (but not doubled) cover price. But, this was spring of 2007 and I wasn’t even finished scripting. Lou waited and waited, until I finally came through. He roughed out the third and final part a couple of times before moving forward. I also spoke to Heather Stanley, the artist for Polyglot & Spleen,and asked her to create my covers and a t-shirt design. I kept lettering and touching up the interior art on the first issue, going over it with the eyes of a man consumed. If I’d spent this long on one miniseries, I was going to do it right. Dead Souls should’ve come out a few years ago, failed miserably, and taught me everything I needed to know for the second try. But, no one accepted it and I never started the self-publishing process. The prospect of actually running a business terrified me. It still does. I want to write comics, not worry about whether all of my permits are in order. Dead Souls has taken far too long, but it has given me a second change to start over with the raw art and try again. And, by the time I began lettering the first issue over again, I had written innumerable Comicscape columns, a play, and a couple of odd short pieces. I finally had the chops to turn out a comic book that I am very proud of. I was able to use the same story, but rewrite the script in the old Marvel style—story, then art, then dialogue straight to the page.

But, I needed something else. I had continued to listen to Cradle of Filth over the years. And, I had long admired their singer, Dani Filth, for his literate, nuanced lyrics, which drew inspiration from romantic poetry, European history, and Gothic literature. The comic might not even exist had it not been for my interest in the band. I wanted Dani to read it. And, I wanted to interview him about our shared historical interests as a supplementary feature. After innumerable phone calls to Amy Sciarretto at Roadrunner Records, I was able to get a PDF to Dani and arrange a phone interview. Dani and I had a delightful conversation about our mutual fascination with Vlad Tepes and Erzsebet Bathory. We talked about how one balances the line between interest and admiration when dealing with such unsavory characters. And to my unbounded delight, he loved the comic. He left me with a glowing cover quote and asked to read the future issues.

As of this week’s Comicscape, I’m lettering the second issue and waiting on the rest of the art for the third. Dead Souls is not completely finished, but it’s on schedule. I’m waiting for copies of the first issue to come back from the printer, after having scoured a proof and made a few more changes. This has been an exhaustive and expensive learning experience. But, it’s one I’ll never forget. And now, no matter what happens, I’ve written a comic. It’s not a web comic, it’s not a mini-comic made at Kinko’s, and most of all, it’s not an abandoned idea. When it’s finished, it will be three issues of a work in which I never lost hope. I hope you’ll consider reading it.

For those of you that live in or near New Orleans, on Saturday August 2^nd, I will be signing copies of Dead Souls #1 alongside my fellow local writer Whitney Lakin. Whitney’s new novel Mutiny in Heaven will be featured that night, and is already available on Amazon.com and elsewhere. There will also be copies of Christy Kane’s dark children’s book Tales of the Sisters Kane available. The event will be at Poet’s Gallery at 3113 Magazine Street from 6:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. Attendees are encouraged to dress decadently. Complimentary wine and cheese will be served, with music provided by New Orleans’s own Victorian jazz sirens, Morella and the Wheels of If. I hope to meet some of you there.

The Spinner Rack

By Ben Johnson and Kurt Amacker

Ben:I’m back from the wilds of Alaska. Still alive and all that. While stuck in a yurt that couldn’t decide if it wanted to be blown away by 80 knot winds or crushed under the weight from a freak snow storm I read the first two books in the First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie and they really kick ass. If you haven’t read these, you totally need to check them out.

And now for something completely different:

DARK HORSE COMICS

Conan The Cimmerian #1 $2.99

Ben:Actually the second issue due to the impossibility of having a zero issue. Zero isn’t even a number, it stands for lack of value, it’s a damn place holder to distinguish positive and negative values and I can’t have issue place holder any longer

Kurt: You and your stupid logic.

Ghost Talkers Daydream TP Vol 01 $10.95

Helm #1 (Of 4) $3.50

Ben:What kind of damn helm is it? A great helm? A rounded great helm? I need specifics.

Kurt: You’ve just shamed every other nerd in Alaska.

DC COMICS

Astro City The Dark Age HC Book 01 $29.99

Batgirl #1 (Of 6) $2.99

Batman And The Outsiders #9 $2.99

Batman Faces New Ed TP $12.99

Ben:He’s faced The Joker, Two Face, Bane, and Killer Croc, but nothing can prepare him for a talking horse.

Kurt: A hearse is a curse, of curse of curse/A hearse is hearse, of curse of curse/It’s name is Mr. Dead.

Birds Of Prey #120 $2.99

Cartoon Network Action Pack #27 $2.25

Casey Blue Beyond Tomorrow #3 (Of 6) $2.99

Checkmate #28 $2.99

Countdown To Final Crisis TP Vol 02 $19.99

DC Wildstorm Dreamwar #4 (Of 6) $2.99

Ben:If you put on a Hypercolor shirt and discuss this in an AOL chat room you can pretend it is the 90’s and people care about stupid crossovers like this.

Kurt: Way to make us all misty-eyed Ben!

Dorothea Vol 02 (MR) $12.99

Final Crisis Rogues Revenge #1 (Of 3) $3.99

Kurt: Because there weren’t enough tie-ins already.

Flash #242 $2.99

Hellblazer #246 (MR) $2.99

I Hate You More Than Anyone Vol 05 $9.99

Ben:What my kids will say just before they group urinate on my grave.

Kurt: Dude, I don’t know what they’re waiting for. I say that about you, like, every day.

Jokers Asylum Poison Ivy #1 $2.99

Kurt: Wow Ben, you actually missed a decent setup for a pee joke.

Scalped #19 (MR) $2.99

Ben:The dope sh*t, straight off the roach clip.

Showcase Presents Hawkman TP Vol 02 $16.99

Simon Dark #10 $2.99

Superman And The Legion Of Super-Heroes HC $24.99

Tangent Supermans Reign #5 (Of 12) $2.99

Ben:Whoever is reading this raise your hand. You idiot, I wasn’t serious. How could I possibly see if your hand is raised?

Tears Of A Lamb Vol 03 $9.99

Tiny Titans #6 $2.25

Kurt: I keep getting these great setups for pedophilia jokes long after Al Brown has left Comicscape. Damn it.

Trials Of Shazam TP Vol 02 $14.99

Trinity #7 $2.99

World Of Warcraft #9 $2.99

Kurt: I was really proud of myself when my friend said something about a girl wearing a Hoard t-shirt, and I had no idea what the hell she was talking about.

IMAGE COMICS

Bomb Queen V #3 (Of 6) (MR) $3.50

Ben:Did you know if ten people read the word yawn seven of them actually will yawn. Oh, and this book sucks.

Charlatan Ball #2 $2.50

Kurt: Sounds like the last kegger I went to. Because I go to a lot of keggers. Yeah.

Elephantmen War Toys TP Vol 01 No Surrender $9.99

Ben:The best book about animals that walk and talk like people to be published by Image this year – Ben Johnson, Mania.com

Frank Frazettas Swamp Demon (One Shot) $3.99

Godland #24 $2.99

Kurt: Wheaton, Illinois?

Mice Templar #5 $2.99

Perhapanauts #3 $3.50

Screamland #5 (Of 5) $2.99

Kurt: The bedroom of…never mind, I’m going to shut up now.

Unearthed Cemetery Blues TP Vol 01 $16.99

Kurt: I’m going to get this. It’s got the last Cemetery Blues miniseries, and the way-out-of-print one that came out before that.

Ben:Totally rocks. Good story, funny, I love it more than my wife.

MARVEL COMICS

Amazing Spider-Man #566 $2.99

Ben:Staples work in conjunction to “bind” the pages together along a crease, creating this “book”. – Ben Johnson, Mania.com

Kurt: I’m sure that we can both agree that this book is of solid construction, if nothing else.

Captain America #40 $2.99

Kurt: Well, thus far in this week’s column, neither of us has offered to give ourselves to Ed Brubaker for unlimited prison love. I volunteer Ben.

Captain Britain And MI 13 #2 2nd Ptg Kirk Var $2.99

Foolkiller White Angels #1 (Of 5) (MR) $3.99

Ben:The moral of the story: It’s OK to be a serial killer as long as you kill the right people.

Kurt: Um, it isn’t? Ah, hell. I’ll be back in a few days.

Ghost Rider #25 $2.99

Ben:One of my new favorite books since I found out Jason Aaron took over. If only he didn’t have to deal with all the stupid crap that came previous to his work on this book.

Kurt: Yeah, this is actually pretty good.

Howard The Duck Omnibus $99.99

Kurt: This is the kind of thing I want, but I don’t want to buy it right now because I already have the Essential Howard the Duck. But, this is going to go out of print immediately. Damn it, Marvel.

Howard The Duck Omnibus Dm Ed $99.99

Hulk WWH TP Warbound $12.99

Incredible Hercules #119 SI $2.99

Iron Man Director Of Shield #31 $2.99

Kick Ass #3 2nd Ptg JRJR Var (MR) (Pp #822) $2.99

Ben: The Boys, Kick Ass and The Punisher make up my “holy crap I love this but I have to find a place to hide them from the kids pile”. They get stashed right next to my cocaine.

Marvel 1985 #3 (Of 6) $3.99

Ben:Good times.

Kurt: The first issue was pretty damn amazing.

Marvel Adventures Avengers #26 $2.99

Marvel Adventures Two-In-One #13 $4.99

Ben:I saw a movie about this on the internet.

Kurt: You too? There seem to be a lot of those lately.

Marvel Illustrated Iliad #8 (Of 8) $2.99

Mighty Avengers #16 SI $2.99

Moon Knight #20 $3.99

Moon Knight #20 Deodato Sketch Var (Pp #820) $3.99

Omega Unknown #10 (Of 10) $2.99

Punisher #59 (MR) $2.99

Kurt: One more issue in Garth Ennis’s run, and then you have to read my column entitled The End of the Greatest Single Run in Comics Ever. No, just kidding. It’ll really be called The Best Thing in the History of Things.

Punisher War Journal TP Vol 03 Hunter Hunted $14.99

Skaar Son Of Hulk #1 2nd Ptg Garney Var (Pp #822) $2.99

Skaar Son Of Hulk #1 2nd Ptg Movie Var $2.99

Sky Doll #3 (Of 3) (MR) $5.99

Spider-Man Prem HC Vol 02 Brand New Day $24.99

Ultimate Fantastic Four #56 $2.99

Ben: Best Sci-Fi book on the stands.

Ultimate X-Men TP Vol 18 Apocalypse $13.99

Universal War One #1 (Of 3) (MR) $5.99

Universal War One #1 (Of 3) Us Var (MR) $5.99

War Is Hell First Flight Phantom Eagle Max #5 (Of 5) (MR) $3.99

Ben:The first MAX book in a long time that I just couldn’t get through.