Writer�s Commentary � Chris Sebela Talks KISS / Vampirella #1
Posted by / www.bleedingcool.com
Dynamite has sent over a new writer�s commentary featuring Chris Sebela talking about KISS/Vampirella #1 with a cover by Juan Doe and interiors by Annapaola Martello.
When my editor at Dynamite sent me an email to ask what my thoughts were about a KISS/Vampirella book, I have to admit I drew a blank at first. They�re both things that I�m familiar with but both of them have decades of continuity that I haven�t memorized, so for those first few moments I was lost in a sea of possibility.
But after we talked for a bit, he suggested we could set it in the 1970s and suddenly everything made complete sense. I went off, did some research and by that night had the rough beats of this story all sketched out. Taking everything back to when both KISS and Vampirella were unknown quantities to some degree, that made pretty much everything possible.
Which leads us here, issue 1 of KISS/Vampirella � A story I took to calling �Devil Music.� Let�s see what we see.
Page 1
� I don�t usually do cold opens, but this felt like a good way to start the story, a big off-kilter moment to get everyone nice and disoriented. Plus this is the first time I got to write song lyrics for a comic. Apologies to John Denver, but it seemed like the best template for soft rock stylings I could come up with. Making the lyrics fit our doomed couple driving off the cliff, that�s the fun stuff you get to do sometimes.
Side note, if you�ve ever driven the coast highway between LA and SF, this scenario should look familiar. It�s what I pictured happening every time my car rounded a curve.
Page 2
� And here�s Vampi. I figured everyone knows who KISS is, so the heavy lifting was going to be making Vampi track for anyone who had no idea who she is. Plus everyone loves a fight, so having her kick the crap out of some creep in a back alley felt like a nice note about who she is and why she�s here. I figured we�d throw in a KISS poster in case anyone was worried they weren�t going to be in this.
Sunset Boulevard is the setting, btw, because if you�re gonna do a rock �n� roll story set in L.A., go right to the heart of things. For research, I just watched DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION PART 2: THE METAL YEARS. I mean, I was going to watch it anyway, but it�s a good glimpse into how much of a scene that scene really was.
Page 3
� More than anything I wanted Vampi to seem normal. She�s not wearing her usual costume, she�s not using any powers per se, minus some added strength and speed. Other than sporting the name Vampirella, she�s totally normal at first glance. Then we offset it by having our damsel no longer in distress freak out because she recognizes Vampi. Not for being a badass alien monsterkiller but for being in Witchkraft.
What�s Witchkraft? Calm down, we�re getting to that.
