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The genesis of Vampyrates
Vampyrates was born of pure indecision. Back in 1994, my wife and I brought Jeromy and his wife (then girlfriend, I believe) to a special Annual Passholder Halloween event at Disneyland. This was before Disney advertised the APs and offered lower-priced versions. There were relatively few Passholders back then, and the special event was very cool and rather private. But I digress.
You see, I couldn't decide whether to be a pirate or a vampire. So I put on my pirate clothes (pretty much stuff that's already hanging in my closet, no need for a costume) and put my vampire teeth in. Voila--vampyrate! Jeromy was so smitten with the idea that he wandered around in a daze the whole evening, writing a comic book in his head. When he got home he drew sketches. And then it sat, with ineffective prodding from several people, for nearly ten years. I don't exactly know what Lee and Dennis from Bloodfire did to coerce him into finishing it, but I'm glad they did.
What happened after, though, is that I gave Jeromy a nice long critique on the book and dialogue. I asked him if he wouldn't mind running the next issue by me. He surprised me by asking me to actually WRITE the book.
We got together at Avalon II while my brother-in-law was getting inked by Mike Stobbe. Jeromy showed me sketches of things he had in mind, and we started tossing ideas back and forth like crazy.
And then we did nothing with it except to go back and forth with a few details and ideas. I wasn't writing, Jeromy was so busy coloring that he did not have time to even think about drawing. And then Bloodfire called again, asking for more issues. They asked if we wanted to go monthly.
So we shifted the storytelling into a higher gear. Currently, Jeromy and I work on the overall storyline and plot together, and I script it out. Our plotting sessions are great. We both think in the same direction, but we're different enough that one of us is always able to take the other's ideas and give them a nice little twist, making the whole thing that much better.
Currently, we're working on the four issue Blood Isle arc. I have two issues fully scripted, and am almost 1/4 of the way into the third issue of the arc (issue 4 of the series). It's all part of a larger picture that will unfold, with bits, pieces, and hints, over several future issues and arcs.
Most importantly, I'm enjoying this process immensely. I hope you enjoy what it becomes.
--Kevin
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