FVZA - AN UNDEAD AUTOPSY
by DAVID HINE
The first issue of FVZA will be in the stores on Oct 28th, just in time for Halloween. It's about a year since I first started on this book and we've been promoting the hell out of it since San Diego when Radical pumped out countless thousands of copies of the preview edition to whet the appetites of potential readers. They have since featured the first 15 pages on their myspace page and are conducting an FVZA contest with www.eerietube.com. In the run-up to publication, I've been invited by Comics Related to give some background into the process that went behind the creation of the book. Rather than talk again about the concept and the series as a whole, I'm going to comment instead about some of the individual pages of art.
First up, let's take a look at one of the covers for issue 1, painted by John Bolton.
John is one of the most celebrated British artists of the last twenty years, known for his work on King Kull, Batman, The Books of Magic and Someplace Strange. The theme he returns to most often though, is vampirism and in particular, female vampires. This cover image was originally produced for a Radical project that never saw the light of day. When I started on FVZA I was sent this image and asked if it would be appropriate for the book. I was stunned. Here was my vampire character, Tess in the flesh. And that depraved creature stroking her vibrant white body is the epitome of the aged vampires who symbolize the corruption of flesh. The cadaverous quality of that ancient body makes it almost tangible while the pale white skin of the vampire is as diaphanous and transient as her youth. Did I want this art for FVZA? Damn' right!
It goes without saying that the first page of a story has to be strong. I needed to have an entry point that was intriguing and summed up the atmosphere and theme. So I started with a climax. Not quite the end of the story but pretty close. Here are two of our leading characters and one of them is about to blow the other away. It should tell you a lot about Landra and it should make you want to know more. How did they get to this place and what will happen next? Therein lies the tale and you'll have to wait for the final issue to discover how it pans out. That image of Landra framed against the full moon with the tear running down her cheek turned out exactly how I wanted. This and the following pages showcase the dream team of Roy Martinez on pencils and Kinsun Loh with Jerry Choo on digital colors.
Landra and her brother Vidal are orphans raised by their Grandfather, Hugo Pecos. Hugo is not your average grandpa. A former director of the Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency, he's convinced that the Undead will return and he's raising those kids to be ready for anything. While most grandparents like to assure kids that there's no such things as monsters, Hugo is telling them to check the cupboards and look under the beds, because the monsters are everywhere. The bedtime story is a corruption of Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel. In Hugo's version the handsome prince is a blood-sucking vampire. Look at the different reactions from Landra and Vidal. You can see who's going to be the ass-kicking vampire slayer in this household. Note also the subtle changes in color and style between the fairy tale and the real-world bedroom.
That variety of color palette and style is used even more effectively here. As the kids grow, Hugo teaches them the history of the Undead. The comic is based on the FVZA.org web site. The site has an incredibly rich and detailed history of the FVZA and I wanted to get as much of that background into the book as possible. Although the first issue runs to 48 pages of story I still had to condense that material into the first quarter of the book so I chose this method of having Hugo Pecos lecturing the kids with the help of a slide show. The flashback scenes are a little ambiguous. Some of the panels are obviously from the slide show but I didn't want to be restricted to photographic records. This sepia-toned rendering could represent photos or paintings in the style of the painter Frederic Remington. Panel 4 is based on the wording of an actual Wanted poster of the period to preserve the authentic flavor, although I did tweak the text a little.
I love that kid turning to grin at us in the bottom panel. It's a great touch, typical of Roy. One of my favorite panels in the whole book. The detail is amazing.
One more page from the education of the kids. The first four panels are clearly intended to represent slides from the lecture. But I wanted an action scene too, so the last image is an actual flashback to the period, but painted in a similar style so we shift seamlessly from the slide-show to 'reality'. Roy loves to draw zombies and it show There's a lot of information on this page, delivered in Pecos's matter-of-fact style. I included that big action panel to keep the page interesting and keep up the pace of the story.
The core of the FVZA is to embed the vampire and zombie legends into real world history. Linking Nazis to vampires can be something of a cliche. It has become a sub-genre of its own. But it was clear from Hugo's biography on the web site that his wartime experiences weighed heavily on him so I decided to include this scene. It makes me feel uncomfortable on all kinds of levels. At first sight this could be a straightforward scene of a liberated concentration camp, until that last panel. If there's a single scene that underlines the fact that the Undead are the victims in this story, this is it.
Most of the artwork in FVZA is presented against a black background. I asked Kinsun to vary that occasionally, depending on the mood of the scene. His choice of background color is particularly effective here. While most of the scenes have a claustrophobic feel this scene really opens up. Hugo's home is located in the desert where he feels safe from vampires. It's the perfect training ground for his grandchildren. Again we see that Landra is a true warrior and we sense her impatience with fighting dummies. The crudely drawn vampire face seems to be mocking her. This is a great example of Roy's ability to lead the eye through the action by the way he designs the page. Looking at the page again I think I might have asked for the katana to overlap the last panel rather than lie behind it. But that's just me being picky.
This page comes a lot later. There are times in every zombie story where you just gotta have some gore. What impresses me the most about this beautiful splash is the attention paid to the hair. The contrast between those immaculate golden locks and the glistening viscera is just so wrong and yet so right.
George Romero has got a lot to answer for...
blog comments powered by Disqus