DONE TO DEATH Andrew Foley and Fiona Staples
CRAWL TO ME #1 Alan Robert
ZOMBIES VS. CHEERLEADERS #1 Steven L Frank and Benjamin Glendenning
HACK/SLASH MEETS
FLASHPOINT: FRANKENSTEIN AND THE CREATURES OF THE UNKNOWN #2 OF 3
Jeff Lemire, Ibraim Roberson and Alex Massacci
WITCHDOCTOR #1 OF 4 Brandon Seifert and Lukas Ketner
GHOST RIDER #1 Rob Williams and Matthew Clark
A
spiring author – and would-be vampire – Se- bastian Malpur is brutally murdered one evening in his apartment, wooden stake ap- propriately driven through his heart. His mur-
derer is one Shannon Wade, an editor at a large publishing house who has seen one too many vam- pire manuscripts. Disgusted with genre clichés and trite writing, Wade has decided to take matters into her own hands and deal with unsolicited submis- sions in her own unique fashion, as poor Malpur finds out the hard way. And so begins Done to Death by Andrew Foley and Fiona Staples, a wicked satire that takes a bite out of modern vampire lore and its obsessive followers. The title’s sordid tale actually began back in 2006
when the book hit shelves as a five-issue miniseries by UK-based indie publisher Markosia. “We released the book and almost no one no-
ticed,” admits writer Foley, who also cites various problems with the original publisher that resulted in poor marketing and distribution. “When Fiona and I arranged for all rights to return to us, I was determined not to follow my basic instinct, which is to take whatever deal I can to get something on the shelves, no matter what it is, no matter what company it’s with. I was determined that when – not if – the book was finally published, it would come out from a company that understood us, the property and the market. And that’s the company we got with IDW.” And so, almost six years later, Done to Death is
finally getting the respect it deserves, with a col- lected edition being re- leased this September, featuring a brand new foreword by Steve Niles. And while things have changed slightly for the creators – Foley went on to co-write the original Cow- boys & Aliens graphic novel and artist Staples was nominated for an Eis- ner Award in 2010 (for North 40) and won a Shus- ter in 2011 (for her work as a cover artist) – the book might have even more of a satiric edge in 2011 than it did in 2006. Since then,
RM50
Twilight, True Blood and The Vampire Di- aries have catapulted the idea of the ro- mantic vampire to the forefront, the very notion that inspired Done to Death in the first place. “There’s the general disappointment I
almost invariably feel when encountering a new vampire story, specifically stories that hold them up as objects of desire rather than terror,” explains Foley. “I don’t mind vampires that are sexy, really. But my nose gets seriously out of joint when writers and filmmakers use sex to gloss over the most important aspect of the vampire, which is that these things exist to eat people.” Shannon’s murder of a bloodsucker
wannabe in the opening pages does not mean that there isn’t a genuine vampire in the book. That honour falls to Andy, an overweight, stuttering teenage boy who believed that all his problems would be cured by a little vampire blood. Unfortu- nately, he just turns out to be a fat, un- popular vampire instead. Hoping to tell the world his woeful story, he turns to Shelley DeMornay, an Anne Rice-like au- thor complete with devoted followers. The tale comes full circle when it’s re- vealed that Shannon was once Shelley’s editor (and probable ghost writer) and the two now harbour rather ill feelings to- wards each other. Luckily, Foley’s creative collabora-
Done To Death: Takes the piss out of vamp romantics.
tion turned out better than Shannon and Shelley’s experience. “Once I knew Fiona was going to come on- board as the artist, it became clear that the script needed to change,” he says. “I cut dialogue and exposi- tion all over the place; when you’ve got an artist with Fiona’s command of facial and body expression, the reader doesn’t need dialogue cues to indicate what’s going on in the characters’ heads. I really can’t overemphasize her contribution, both in terms of the artwork and also in getting the book published, espe- cially this collected edition. Having
an Eisner nominee who was also working on a Steve Niles book for the company (Mystery Society) at the time certainly didn’t hurt the cause.” Foley hopes that the book’s revival will give hope
to those vampire-lovers who don’t share the enthu- siasm of Twihards and True fans. “Just when I thought I’d finally exorcised my Anne Rice demons once and for all, this stuff comes along and now you’ve got kids and my wife just hoovering this crap up. My wife, man! The people responsible must be made to pay. So, while I’ve been living with this seething hatred for a certain kind of vampire char- acter in my gut for a decade or more, I’ve got to think the increased prevalence of that sort of char- acter now has also increased the number of people who feel the same way I do. Hopefully a lot of them will find Done to Death and it will help them to know they’re not alone.”
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