Why Are So Many Indie Comics Based on Public Domain Characters?
Plus: CARMILLA UNBOUND: 1984 sneak peek
Earlier this year, Conan writer Jim Zub posted this on Twitter:
Shortly after that, I saw this post from Russell Nohelty on Substack:
What do these two posts have in common?
The old conventional wisdom was this:
You do an indie book or two that gets you an invite to pitch DC and Marvel. Then do a few of their books to grow your audience, and then after a few years, you come back to the indies with a much bigger readership in tow.
But as I heard it put recently, you have a way better chance of breaking into the NBA than Marvel or DC.
Look, here’s reality: DC is never gonna invite me to write BATMAN. They’ve got a million other people they can go to for that.
(And for the record: I sure as hell ain’t playing pro basketball.)
So a few years ago, I started thinking of public domain characters as more or less the same as writing a licensed character or Big Two book.
I’ll never “own” the characters, and it’s not likely there will be a big-screen adaptation of my take. But there are other advantages.
They have built in audiences, as Russell points out. People who can’t get enough of this stuff and are willing to try it, even if they’ve never heard of me.
BLAZING BLADE OF FRANKENSTEIN came out of this brainstorm. Followed by DREAMQUEST and CARMILLA UNBOUND.
I’m having a blast playing in these sandboxes, but that doesn’t mean I’ve given up writing anything original.
(In fact, I just wrote the first issue of a wholly original series I’m developing with Fabio Ramacci and Ilaria Chiocca, ably abetted by editor extraordinaire Frank Pittarese. More on that later, Frequent Frier…)
There will be an announcement about BBoF soon (REAL SOON) but first up is a brand new issue of CARMILLA UNBOUND I co-wrote with devilish Dave Schrader:
The original vampire comes again, and this time Carmilla is smack dab in the middle of 80's vice in the pink and blue neon lights of The Magic City.
Carmilla Unbound: 1984 - Miami Bites is a 28-page one shot written by Nightmare Theater creators Clay Adams (Blazing Blade of Frankenstein, Red X-Mas, Deadskins, Prodigal Son) and D.E. Schrader (Baby Badass, Rafael Garcia: Henchman, Cannibals on Mars), and featuring the sumptuous art of Erik Tamayo (Zenescope's Robyn Hood Mystere, IDW's Star Trek) and electric colors by Alex Zief (Cult of Dracula, Hatchet, Monster Matador). We also have a killer lineup of great cover artists, featuring two from award-winning vector artist Orlando "Mexifunk" Arocena, Dravacus, Flops, Don Nguyen and more!
Based on the erotic novella by Sheridan Le Fanu that inspired Bram Stoker's vampire tale 26 years later, CARMILLA UNBOUND: 1984 - Miami Bites is for those who think Dracula was a little dry and needed a bloody transfusion of graphic, sapphic sex and virtuous violence.
Our six page preview is a little too spicy for your inbox, but the daring can download it here:
We’ll be launching real soon, so follow and back for some bloody fun in the sun.
Click the image above or…
CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW CARMILLA UNBOUND: 1984 ON KICKSTARTER
AMP COMICS Launch Party
This past weekend, I had some fun in the sun of my own. While my family was snowbound, I loaded up my truck and moved to Beverly (Hills, that is).
What I learned on my travels is that these coastal elites are just like you and me in real America: they love great comics!
Almost as much as they love brunch.
Later, I headed to Westwood for the AMP COMICS launch party, where I ran into some old friends:
The AMP COMICS crew know how to throw a good time—big thanks to Don Handfield, Josh Starnes, Joshua Malkin, and David Byrne for the blowout bash!
Saw many friends old and new at the party. (Don, David, Charlie, Eddie, Barbra, Bryant—I wish I’d taken more pictures!) (And brought comps for all you NIGHTMARE THEATER alums at the shindig.)
Speaking of comps…
It’s real! I got to snag an advance copy of PRODIGAL SON, and holy cow is it good to finally hold this thing in my hands after working on it for so long.
Look for it in your local shops soon!
My whirlwind trip was over way too quick and I wish I had more time to see friends on the left coast.
(But I’ll be in you again soon, SoCal. Stay tuned for my 2025 con schedule…)
OK! Substack tells me this thing is getting a little long, so I’ll leave you with this reminder:
Back soon!
Clay
One more thing! On a recent edition of the ComixLaunch Podcast, I talked to Sacrimony’s M. Sorcier about battling burnout. Click the image below to listen:
I think what you're saying without saying it is that Batman (plus Superman and Wonder Woman, for that matter) should be in the public domain so we can play with them.
I'm getting heavy Bouncer feel from Prodigal Sons' cover and holy hell am I now excited to buy that and back the later issues!
I funny enough usually like the public domain characters less familiar to me, Johnny Dollar by Green Archer was such an interesting melding of the old radio dramas (I had to listen to a few to get a sense of what he was, I started reading the books blind) with cybersecurity crimes. Great concept and made me as a consumer more favorable to the pulp era public domain characters.
The other one I've been backing/reading as they come out would be Dacre Stoker's Dracula continuation, it's so great to me that we live in the first time that a Stoker family member has been writing that character since Bram's death.
As a writer I've not really had any jump out at me as must writes yet, though I'm interested in your BBoF and the Carmilla books, she's one of my favorite vampires.