It’s 1:30 in the morning here in Portland. Witch Doctor: First Incision has been online for 24 hours. In that time we’ve had 360 people read our comic (pretty good for a site that averaged 10-15 people a day!), we’ve gotten written about on a local media blog and SFFWorld, plugged by comics creator Eric Palicki, and posted on the Scans Daily Livejournal community.
And then there’s the pin-ups.
PIN-UPS?
Yes, pin-ups! From Jimmie Robinson, creator of the excellent Shadowline/Image series Bomb Queen. Jimmie sent us a GORGEOUS sketch of Penny he did tonight!
I’ve gotta say, I’m floored. But you know what else is amazing? The coloring job Mark Sweeney, colorist of Warren Ellis’ Black Summer and the forthcoming Image anthology Comic Book Tattoo, did of the black and white version of First Incision‘s cover! (But the most amazing thing of all is that Mark sent me this a couple weeks ago, and I’m only now getting around to posting it! I’m so sorry Mark! You should’ve seen the look on Lukas’ face today when I mentioned that I still hadn’t shared it. I meant to post it last week as a T-minus-one-week teaser, and lost track of time!)
24 hours in, and pin-ups already. From creators I respect and admire. Amazing.
April 26th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Brandon (I assume),
Found your tale via Eric Palicki, who gives good link. I liked it. Being old and cynical, I generally am not crazy about horror tales, but this one is good. I especially liked that it was Done-In-One, presenting an entire story, and that it moved right along. No decompressed story here! I also liked that you made the vampire a separate entity. It’s a different take, but one that works. I also-also liked that the effect of the cross was delineated as the way the creature felt about it, thus the cross had no effect when the creature was awake. It was as if the creature’s own mortal dreads were causing him to fear the cross. Congrats, and keep up the good work, both the writing and the art.
Reminds me of Michael T. Gilbert’s Doc Stearn…Mr. Monster, only without the guns.
April 28th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
This is, indeed Brandon.
Thank you Alan! I’m glad you enjoyed it. Specifically, I’m glad you enjoyed several of my favorite things about it — that it’s a stand-alone, that our vampires have a separate parasite inside that animates them, and that the cross has more to do with the creature’s mind than it does an inherent power (one thing common in supernatural creatures in numerous cultures is that they’re often very Obsessive Compulsive — both Europe and Japan had folklore where vampires felt compelled to count things like rice, even to the point of staying out in the sun too long).
I hadn’t heard of Michael T. Gilbert’s comic, but I’m definitely going to have to check it out, along with all the other comics people have compared us to so far. (And I can promise that there will be guns sooner or later.)