Writer Tim Seeley (“Grayson,” “Revival,” “Brilliant Trash”) is launching another new series at AfterShock Comics, entitled “DARK RED.” Along with artist Corin Howell (“Ghostbusters: Answer the Call”) and letterer Marshall Dillon (“Brilliant Trash”), Seeley will tell the story of a disaffected, “true” rural American… who happens to be a vampire.
“The story features a rural vampire named Chip, who works full time at an all-night convenience store,” Seeley said in the press release. “He has to make sure his shift is over before the sun comes up. It’s a pretty miserable existence, because he doesn’t have access to any of the flourishes and community urban vampires do. And that pisses him off.”
As the story opens, a stranger visits Chip’s small town and starts piling up bodies, forcing Chip to “confront everything he thinks he knows about himself, vampires, his home, and America itself.” That leads to conflict between both Chip and the mysterious stranger and Chip and his fellow townspeople, conflict that Seeley knows a thing or two about.
“We’re used to seeing vampires as this very glamorous, urban phenomenon,” said Seeley, “and I wondered what it would be like to be the bloodsucker who got left out in the country. I grew up in a rural area, near a medium-sized town. But I’ve lived in major urban areas now for 20 years, after I had to leave my hometown in search of opportunity. I’ve watched the politics and lifestyles of rural people and urban people become vastly different from each other, and I’ve seen the mutual resentment they share for each other first hand. So, this book seeks to look into that, using a vampire as a metaphor.”
You’ll find “Dark Red”‘s first issue covers by Aaron Campbell and Larry Stroman, black-and-white preview pages from Howell, and full solicitation text below. “Dark Red” #1 releases March 20, 2019.
Dark Red #1 / $3.99 / 32 pages / Full Color / ON SALE 03.20.19
Writer: Tim Seeley
Artist: Corin Howell
Letterer: Marshall Dillon
Cover: Aaron Campbell
Incentive 1:10 Cover: Larry StromanCharles “Chip” Ipswich isn’t one of those coastal elites with a liberal arts degree and a job at a social media start-up who knows where all the best brunch places are…
No, Chip is one of the “forgotten men.” He lives in a rural area in the middle of the country where Jesus still has a place at the dinner table and where factories ship jobs to Calcutta.
Chip is also a vampire.
Stuck working the last shift at a gas station, Chip is lonely and bored…and then his dull, bleak life is turned upside down when SHE comes to town.
Tim Seeley (BRLLIANT TRASH) and Corin Howell bring you a contemporary and horrifying tale of vampirism in the heart of America — one that’ll make you jump right out of your boots.
