Somehow we overlooked this gem during both CG week and our roundup of scary sex scenes. We're even more embarrassed that we somehow missed this great moment of terrifying fellatio:

In Thralls, a group of five women are neither vampire nor human, cursed with the need to feed on human blood but unable to turn others. And they need to become free from their demonic master — so they open an underground rave club. You know it makes perfect sense. Thanks to Madeline Ashby for suggesting this one!

Syfy should really spin-off the Nikola Tesla character, or else hire him on as part of Sanctuary's core team. Someone obviously has a great deal of fun writing his dialogue, and Jonathon Young delivers it with such douchebag relish. Tesla wants to revive the long-extinct vampire race, and to that end, has posed as the head of a private addiction clinic so he can infuse his patients with a latent vampire gene. Apparently rich meth heads are perfect candidates for the undead master race.

The plan was to start killing off these latent vamps in a couple of decades when they were older and wiser, so they could become true vampires. But ex-drug users aren't exactly the most cautious characters, and they start dying all on their lonesome being reborn as vampires. The kids catch wise to what's going on, and are soon killing and reviving their fellow former addicts. As a bonus, they kidnap Tesla in hopes of making him their vampire mentor.

Tesla finds them insufferable, and the Sanctuary team has to find the failsafe they know Tesla must have hidden somewhere (in a rather clever callback to Tesla's vino habit, it's stowed in Magnus' wine cellar) so he can de-vampify the undead trust funders. Sadly, it de-vamps Tesla, too, making him mortal and, in his estimation, decidedly less cool. But hey, he's still brilliant, still obnoxious, and now he can actually get drunk off of all that wine.

Seriously, forget Sanctuary Season Three. Give me thirteen episodes of Nikola Tesla on a quest to turn himself back into a vampire and try to take over the world.

Daybreakers will be in theaters January 8th 2010.

The comic, penned by Andrew Cosby with art by Jason Shawn Alexander, takes place after the United States' residents have had to be evacuated to London due to an evil increase in nocturnal carnivore people. The comic tells the story of the American expats in London, and tries to find out where the world went wrong.

Paramount has asked Zack Stentz and Ashley Edward Miller, who've written for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Fringe, and also wrote future blockbuster film Thor, to try their hand at the adaptation, no doubt hoping to crank it out before silver screen vampires have lost their luster. No director is attached at this moment.

[THR]

The third movie in the Twilight Saga, Eclipse, will be on the big, big screen. Which means giant Bella lip biting, hot puppy fight action and abs as far as the eye can see.

The director for the third film, David Slade (30 Days of Night), will have to tackle the tricky plot details which are an all out vampire war with the red-headed Victoria, played by Bryce Dallas Howard who replaced the original actress from the first two films. Should be interesting to watch this all happen on a giant screen, but that also means giant drama sessions as Bella is still stuck in this wolf/vamp love triangle. And nothing says IMAX fun like a nice long talk about love between to teenagers, one in jean shorts.

[via Variety]

The Ripley's collection, acquired by Ripley's VP Edward Meyer, contains 30 authentic vampire killing kits, 26 of which are currently on display in eight Ripley's museums. Apparently the kits are extremely rare; Meyer says Ripley's are the only kits on public display and the remaining few reside in private collections.

It's interesting to see how the items in these kits compare with vampire-killing tools in modern fiction. It looks like there's a heavy reliance on chemical compounds, and the wooden stakes look more like carved knives that pointy sticks, with handy hilts and tips of metal or bone.

Vampires Beware: Ripley's Believe It or Not! Owns the World's Largest Collection of Authentic Vampire Killing Kits [Ripley's Newsroom via Neatorama]

The book is told through the diary of a young teen girl in a private school who is obsessed with her classmate Lucy, and Lucy's possible vampire roommate Ernessa. It's left ambiguous: The reader never really knows if the school is housing a real-life porcelain-skinned vampire girl, or if the narrator is just obsessed with Ernessa's roommate. We got a chance to catch up on this project with the actress from Dr. Parnassus, Lily Cole, cheering her on for making a female-centric vampire film, in the wake of shirtless, sparkly, six-packed male vamps and wolves.

When do you start filming for The Moth Diaries?

As far as I'm aware it's in the beginning of next year. And as far as I know, they were talking about Montreal. But nothing has been set in stone, this industry is always clouds.

Which character are you playing from the novel there's the narrator or the author of the novel, her obsession Lucy or the possible vampire girl Ernessa?

I'm supposed to play Ernessa, the girl who is accused of being a vampire. The aspect I like about the book is you don't know for sure. I like the ambiguity in the book. Although it points quite lightly [to the idea] that she is a vampire, there's always the slight possibility that she's not. And the girl who is telling the story has psychological issues and is projecting these ideas on to this other character. I like that a lot.

I'm really excited that you are working on a woman-centric vampire film, it seems like the right direction to take the vampire craze. How do you think that this will be different from the other vampire films coming out right now?

I think that the ambiguity aspect is interesting. In that it might not be a vampire movie, it could be an psycho-analytical movie about crazed obsessions of 16-year-old girls. You know not always in reality, but of jealousy and love. Whether the love is lesbian or not, it gets in the ambiguous territory of love. And girls finding themselves and all the obsessions that come up in that environment. I think the possibility that Ernessa isn't a vampire is kind of, to me, what makes it interesting.

Are you excited to maybe bring back the female vampire movies like The Hunger? And are you ready to be the mysterious object of desire that the book circles around?

I find the character so interesting, because she's the most weird and unusual character. That delicate balance of making her real and making her really strange is quite an interesting kind of dialogue to set up.

I think it's great, we've been swamped with the male shirtless vampires it's time for the women to get back into the vampire spotlight. I hope it brings back the strong female vampire figures.

To be honest I haven't seen any of the vampire movies that are out right now, obviously I know of them and I know that there are male characters in them, but I'd never had that perspective on it.

I'm curious how the script handles the delicate moment that is the narrator walking in on the two girls in bed together? Is that still in the script or is it toned down. It could really go in any direction.

That scene... I'm trying to remember there is a scene like that for sure. I'm not sure how it's going to transpire, I know it's very suggestive, but not like pornographic.

Last time I check it was just you and Scott Speedman on the cast. Do you have any idea who's going to be cast as Lucy or the narrator?

I do think they have several more girls but I don't know if I'm at liberty to say. The script is mostly 18 and 16-year-old girls. So it's mostly new faces... but I don't know if I can say names, because I don't know if their deals are signed or what the situation is.

We've selected ten types of science fiction fans, offering you great gift ideas for fans of the big franchises, this summer's biggest movies, and even something for the steampunks and zombie lovers. You can also check out our fan gift guide from last year, which also includes gift ideas for fans of Battlestar Galactica, Harry Potter, and Batman.

Gifts for the Star Wars Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the Star Trek Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the Transformers Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the GI Joe Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the Doctor Who Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the Joss Whedon Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the Terminator Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the Vampire Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the Steampunk Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the Zombie Fan (Gallery-free view)

Additional gift ideas by Meredith Woerner.

Right now the fans have identified 22 flaws, and counting. We've listed a few funny ones below, but we'd like to contribute some mind-benders of our own. First, the impossibility that is Jacob's transformation to a dog 4 times his size, where does this extra matter go or come from! Also his magic shattering clothes I wish all clothes burst into bits like that. Plus the jean-shorts conundrum. Why are these jean shorts always around — don't they shatter too? Is there some cave in the forest stocked with jean shorts so the werepuppies can slip them on after a fight? We may never know.

But here are a few of the problems the fans have identified:

When Jacob first shows off his tattoo, it is up at the top of his shoulder. Then when he is in the forest at the end with Bella and Edward, his tattoo is about 2 inches further down his arm.

When Bella is flying to Italy they show a Virgin America airplane. Virgin America only flies within certain cities in the US. Virgin Atlantic flies from the US to Europe.

Just as Jacob enters Bella's room through the window, a stunt prop - white band on his right wrist - is briefly visible.

In the montage scenes where we see Bella's depression, when the camera is circling her, the camera man is shown in the mirror (twice) behind her.

The rims of the vampires contacts can be spotted occasionally during the film, especially the Volturi's during the ending scenes — e.g., Jane's in the elevator.

In the main title when the giant new moon appears on the screen the shadow fades over the moon from right to left when it should actually fade from left to right. The moon travels around the earth clockwise. The waning moon should turn to a new moon, not the waxing which is shown.

See the rest at Movie Mistakes.

Heroin For Teens!

TMZ has a picture of Twilight Heroin baggies taken from West Hempstead, Long Island. Apparently they've been getting more popular these last few months.

Random Bitings

An ABC affiliate is reporting that a 17-year-old girl was bitten by a man after getting harassed in a New Moon screening.

The victim was watching the teen vampire romance movie with another friend when she says a man behind them started making sexual comments to them. After the movie was over, the man allegedly bit the girl on the neck. The bite did not break the girl's skin.

Ugh.

Vibrating Edward

And finally this super fan from Pillow Biters made a plastic pocket size vibrating Edward doll, and then had the actor who plays Jasper autograph it. Come on — you could of at least taped Jasper's face to it!

And thanks to New Moon.org for pointing out that you can make Edward and Jacob kiss in the new EW magazine spread.

El Eternauta
Last year, we found out that 1950s graphic novel by Héctor Germán Oesterheld, El Eternauta was being turned into a film. The book begins with a poison snow blanketing Buenos Aires, killing most people beside our hero Juan Salvo, aka El Eternauta. Jaun dons a scuba suit and heads out to fight our alien invaders and save what's left of the human race. It's being directed by Lucrecia Martel and a little bit of footage is now out:

Meanwhile, Quiet Earth found this fanmade trailer, and like they say, it kind of beats the test footage. But let us remember this is merely TEST footage. I have high hopes for this poison snow alien picture. Even if it's merely to see a scuba suit hero.

Eep
Twitch brought our attention to this horrifying creation. Look, I may be jaded, but if I saw someone with bird arms flying around, my knee jerk reaction would be to shoot it down. It's HEADED RIGHT FOR US! This film is Dutch/Belgian and called iep or Eep! The premise is about a couple who has a baby with bird arms, and instead of smashing it with a rock, they let it grow. But when it gets older it tries to fly South, and calamity ensues.

SUCK
SUCK came out at TIFF, and damn it all if l don't love it. How can you not? It's got Iggy Pop telling you the two most important things in the world: "Always wear a condom and never trust a goddamn vampire." Plus, it's also got Moby dressed up like the biker from YMCA, Henry Rollins and Alice Cooper. I'm not sure how old this is, but here's a new music video from the video I stumbled upon. If you think it's as hilarious as I do check out the clip with Malcolm McDowell and Dave Foley.

Season of The Witch
I know, I know it's not really in our wheelhouse, but giant dragons couldn't stop me from posting an update about Nic Cage's sword fighting film. It's Nic Cage versus MAGIC and zombie monks and apparently leprosy. Coming out March 19th, 2010.

Side A, Vampires:

Blade, Blood Club

Once Bitten, "Hands Off"

Fright Night, "Good Man In A Bad Time"

Love At First Bite, With The Original Track "I Love The Night Life"

Twilight Prom Dance Clip

The Hunger

Side B, Werewolves:

Werewolf Steppers: He Jumps over A Bear Trap!

Werewolves Dance - For more funny videos, click here

Werewolf Bar Mitzvah

Teen Wolf Dance

Teen Wolf Too "Shut Up And Dance"

As a reminder, here's the full trailer for Ethan Hawk and Willem Dafoe's futuristic vampire thriller, Daybreakers.

Here's the official synopsis:

Ethan Hawke plays Edward Dalton, a researcher in the year 2019, in which an unknown plague has transformed the world's population into vampires. As the human population nears extinction, vampires must capture and farm every remaining human, or find a blood substitute before time runs out. However, a covert group of vampires makes a remarkable discovery, one which has the power to save the human race.

I can not wait for more of the "blood jerk" vampire girl — it's amazing to think vampires could be edgy once again. Daybreakers will be in theaters January 8th, 2010.

Call of Cthulhu RPG: Malleus Monstrorum. With the subtitle, "Lore of Things Beyond," you know this book won't steer you wrong. This is actually a revised edition of the Call of Cthulhu RPG's Creature Companion. It collects all the statistics and background information on the many Lovecraftian horrors that have appeared in every published Call of Cthulhu book ever. From crazed cultists to tentacled things to elder gods your mortal mind can't even comprehend, Malleus Monstrorum has you covered.

Star Trek Roleplaying Game: Aliens. There are a lot of aliens out there, and some of them aren't even part of the Federation. In your explorations, you will likely encounter many of them. Therefore, it behooves you to know as much as possible about their abilities, habits and physiology. This sourcebook for the Star Trek RPG fills in all the details. Curious about Horta culture? Wondering how much to tip a Betazoid waiter? Most of these questions are answered here. This also makes a great companion piece to the Starfleet Operations Manual.

World of Darkness: Armory Reloaded. This is, essentially, a book of violence. Not only does it provide a list of efficient and brutal weapons to use in the battle against vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures (or on their behalf, if you swing that way), but it also amplifies the World of Darkness combat rules, making them…well, more violent. When I reviewed this book for Robot Viking a few months ago, I called out this paragraph from the intro, which perfectly exemplifies the approach taken throughout the book:

We want to emphasize here and throughout: combat is some scary business. Blood spattering in the mud, people screaming, the smell of cordite burning nostrils. Bombs blowing people to bits. A vampire's claws leaving a man with his guts hanging out and his wife standing ten feet away, crying so hard she breaks a rib.

Wow.

AD&D 2nd Edition: Van Richten's Guide to Vampires. They aren't here for you to fall in love with, they don't generally smell nice, and they sure as hell don't sparkle. In the many worlds of Dungeons & Dragons, vampires are universally evil. They're usually placed at the apex of the undead hierarchy (liches sometimes compete for the top spot), so you'll find them behind nefarious schemes as often as they're responsible for a rash of bloodless corpses. Van Richten has hunted and slain vampires of all kinds, so you'd do well to heed his advice. Don't bring garlic, bring an enchanted sword. Or, better yet, a Daylight spell.

Gamma World: Machines and Mutants. Gamma World has gone through so many editions and revisions it's hard to keep track. This is from one of the more recent incarnations of the post-nuclear apocalyptic setting. Imagine a world that's a little bit Logan's Run, a little bit Fallout, and that's pretty much Gamma World. This is perhaps the most bizarre manual on this list, as it documents all manner of weird robots and freakish mutants. No, I mean really freakish. Sentient, evil penguins. Genetically engineered fireproof bears. Exploding fish. My personal favorite is the Architect, a robot that's been continually building for decades, creating non-sensical road networks dotted with houses that will remain forever empty. Also, there are man-eating cars.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

This is the opening scene of the film, when we're first introduced to the stylish, bloody ways of our heroes.

Directed by Tony Scott, who later went on to direct Top Gun (I know - WTF?), The Hunger is based extremely loosely on a Whitley Strieber novel. Catherine Deneuve plays a hot vampire lady, thousands of years old, whose lover is a delicious-looking David Bowie. They rampage through the city, eating cute club kids, when (uh oh) Bowie suddenly starts aging. Trying to cure him, Deneuve visits a snacky Susan Sarandon, a scientist who studies the link between sleep and aging.

Unfortunately Bowie isn't curable, but Sarandon is so hot that Deneuve realizes she can at least get a hot new vamp girlfriend out of the deal. What will happen when Deneuve makes her move on Sarandon? What's going to happen to Bowie? I don't want to give you too many spoilers, but let's just say there's some smokin' hot vampire girl love, and ankhs are unsheathed more than once.

If you want a dose of underground 80s glitz with vampires, The Hunger should be on your must-rent list this weekend.

The Hunger via IMDB

THR broke the news of Noxon's involvement, and also revealed that...

The new version will keep the comedy-horror tone while modernizing the effects.

Keeping the tone sounds good, but it would be a shame to lose the campy horror of the original movie's long-fingered prosthetics.

Noxon wrote 22 episodes on Buffy episode including "Villains," where Willow goes bezerk and rips off Warren's skin — a very special episode indeed. She was also the producer on Buffy for the end seasons and worked on Mad Men, writing ""The Inheritance" and serving as a consulting producer. So perhaps there's hope for this film yet — especially since the entire project was almost dumped a few months ago because they didn't think they could get the script to work. That shows some kind of dedication to getting it right, which in itself gives us a tiny cause for optimism.

So what is American Vampire?

The series follows, and is focused on, the concept of vampire geneology and vampire evolution. It reimagines vampires as these creatures that have evolved as the bloodlines hit different populations at different times, so there's different species of vampires, like there are different breeds of dogs. So there's this whole hidden history, this whole secret family tree. But the thing that it's about specifically is, there hasn't been a new breed of vampire in a couple of hundred years for reasons that are part of the fun mystery of the first couple of [story cycles]. There's only this one dominant species, and it's the one that's the classic, Euro-centric, nocturnal, stake through the heart... You know, the vampire that, when I conceived of the series, we were all a little sick of. The star of the series is the bloodline, this new breed of vampirism. The forward-moving part of the series, the part that's most exciting for us is, we have new characters with each cycle, with big parts played by favorite characters from the past, but we'll also be revealing parts of the secret history and how the world of vampires came to be the way it is. And also, the brewing tension between all the breeds of vampires that exist now.

So there's a big, behind the curtain, story that we're working on as well [as the individual story arcs].

So how did it get started? Did you pitch it to Vertigo?

I came up with it as a concept a few years ago, actually - I don't know how interesting this is, it's kind of a boring story, but I was in one of those model shops, like Warhammer shops, down in the West Village and I saw one of those figurines, and it was a zombie confederate soldier. I just started thinking about how, in so much vampire material at the time - and this was before Twilight, more around the Queen of the Damned time - vampires were always nocturnal and aristocratic and elegant and it just seemed so out of place, and out of touch with any straight-up American iconography that I could come up with, or my favorite genres, like westerns or 50s sci-fi and all that kind of stuff. I was like, how come we never see vampires in these kind of places?

I started to develop the idea back then, and I thought about doing it as a series of stories, I thought about doing it as a book, and at one point I was going to do it as a screenplay with a friend. But basically, I started doing some comic work on the side about a year ago, and I got the chance to pitch it to Vertigo last summer when an editor at Vertigo called Mark Doyle, who's since become one of my closest friends, read one of my stories in an anthology of literary writers coming up with new superheroes. He actually approached me at a reading for the book and asked if I was a serious comic fan, or just moonlighting for the purposes of the story. I told him I was, I'd always been, and I feel like he gave me a pop quiz; he was all, Well, what're you reading right now? And at the time, it was Final Crisis and Secret Invasion and everything like that. I think he was convinced, and he asked me if I wanted to pitch something. So I went there and I think he sort of expected me to pitch something more literary, but I was like, Hey, what about this vampire thing?
I'd been thinking about doing it as a comic for awhile, and thinking about approaching people who do more horror comics, like IDW or whatever, and then this came along and he really flipped over it. Once we got it on the table, it went pretty fast through development there. It was pretty much greenlit when they asked if there was anyone that I knew who from the writing world who might be interested in giving it a quote or a blurb. I knew Stephen King from before, so I asked him if he would be willing to do it. He read the pitch and decided that he really liked it and said, I'll do you one better. If you want, at some point, I'll write an issue for you. It's pretty funny; I called Vertigo on, I think it was a Friday afternoon, and left a message saying that Steve was interested - By the way, he makes you call him Steve, I don't want to sound like an asshole going "Steve, Steve" - I left a message on Friday afternoon pretty much when the office was already closed saying that he was serious about wanting to do an issue, and it was Monday morning, 9 in the morning, I get a call and everyone was there, and they're all "Did you say Stephen King was interested in doing an issue...?" [laughs]

Once he was involved we wanted to [work out how best for him to write an issue or two]. The characters were all developed, I had the seasons mapped out from the pitch. Steve wanted to write this character, who was planned for the second cycle, but Mark and I came up with the idea of doing it like an eight-page, or a teaser, at the end of each issue, to show a glimpse of Skinner, who's the first American vampire. He started writing it, and then he wrote me an email two weeks into it and asked if I'd mind if he went off the reservation a little bit. I was, like, go ahead, do whatever you want. He wound up writing five episodes of sixteen pages, doing so much better than I could've ever done. It really does raise the bar for the series, and he introduced so many big ideas about what the American West means to us, and all these questions about fact and fiction and legend versus history, and all this stuff that really enriches it. Not to mention, he just makes it really scary and vicious.

How did Rafael [Albuquerque, series artist] come aboard? His preview art is beautiful.

Oh my God. I promise you, this guy is incredible. He came in and did some sketches to see if he got the characters, based on the scripts, because the scripts were done, and he just nailed it immediately. It was, that's our guy. The funny thing is, some of the promo art, the sketches of Pearl...? That's from his audition, those're some of his first sketches. That was the first thing I saw from him, and I thought, that's my character. That's exactly her. She's a little bookish, independent, a little quirky. He's been such a creative force on the series, he brings so much to it.
Rafael, when he read the scripts, was like, Why don't I do the different cycles in different styles? So he would up doing Steve's cycle - which is the origin story of Skinner, who's the first of the new American vampire species, born of this random mutation - in these beautiful washes, so it has this painted, antique quality to it, as well as a creepiness. And for mine - which takes place in the 1920s and picks up on the second American vampire, the first person Skinner turns, who's this young girl and a struggling actress in the silent film industry - he did it in this precise inked, art deco style. I can't reiterate enough how amazing he has been on the book. He's enhanced it, he's been a total superhero himself on it.

It sounds like this a really big story.

I'm so excited for the places we're going to go. We're already mapped out through the first twelve issues. The next cycle is already page broken, after these first five issues, and after that, the next cycle is pretty much thought out. And after that, I know what decade it's taking place in. It's fun with all of the press it's getting, the fun of introducing [the concept]. There's something sexy about an American vampire, because "It's American!" [laughs]. It's an interesting time to be American. Part of the series is about investigating what's horrific about the American character, and what's heroic about it, and the difference of that in different periods. But we're really way ahead of the game in terms of giving ourselves time to do eight or nine drafts of the scripts, because, believe me, no-one is more aware of a potential vampire backlash or the pressure once Steve is not on the series. We believe in it a lot.

American Vampire seems to be more than just a title, it's a statement of the book's intent, the American versus European...

Well, it's a fun hook, and there's a kind of, I guess, patriotic thrill in introducing a vampire that's supposed to be American and is stronger and more vicious and so on, but the story isn't about cultural stereotypes. The idea is that the bloodline mutates randomly at various times, and some of the characteristics of the person are adapted into that vampire. So it's the characteristics of a person, of Skinner, rather than a nationality, because otherwise you get into the specifics of, what makes us African-American, what makes us... It's person-to-person. Every once in awhile the bloodline will jump, not with every new person it hits, but every once in awhile, the blood will make something new with someone.

We're trying to keep it geneological, but the vampiric qualities have an American characteristic, because it comes from the character of Skinner and he is a character that's iconographic to the [Old] West, where he's this vicious snakelike outlaw. He has this desert quality, but they're based on him, based on a broad cultural assessment on what makes us American.

But what we are starting to do is explore the idea of American identity through the different time periods. With the first issues, it's a little tough, just because of the format, sixteen pages of story for Steve and sixteen for me, so there's a tightness to it that works really well for the way they double as stories. But there's more breathing room, I think, for exploring the decades once we get past the first cycle.

Pearl seems as iconic in her own way as Skinner.

I can promise you that the way they come across on the page, they're not someone you've seen before. Skinner is not The Man With No Name, in the same way that Pearl is very much her own character while keeping that quality of the "20s Girl." She's someone who's more fish out of water, she's a lot more bookish and isn't caught up in the glamour. She loves acting for her own reasons, and a lot of it comes from her upbringing. We try to flesh the characters out so that they're more than just their iconographic selves, especially these two. Pearl and Skinner are two opposing forces early on the series. Skinner is anarchy and violence and fun, and has the opinion that what makes us American is what keeps the west wild, and that we should be wild, and the taming of the west he sees as a feminization, an imposition on the American character. You can imagine how that works itself out in different time periods, where there's prohibition, or the construction of Las Vegas.

Pearl, on the other hand, is ethical and struggling to be someone who carries the best qualities of what we would think as American. She has a more hopeful and optimistic belief.

Is this going to be a series where there's a lot of jumping around in time periods, as opposed to telling the story chronologically?

Yeah, each one is going to approach a different decade, at least at first. Each story will pick up in a different decade but the same bloodline in surprising ways, so there will be some chronological jumping.

Are you watching True Blood, reading or watching the Twilights?

I'm a huge fan of True Blood. Some things I've not caught up with... I read the first Twilight - my wife has actually read all of them - but my feeling is, each one of them brings something different to vampire lore. I've never seen vampires as teen heartthrobs the way that Twilight does it, or the reimagining of vampires as a sociological underclass and the Southern Gothic elements of True Blood make that really fresh. For us, we're trying to bring something new to the table too. American Vampire wasn't conceived as the tale end of a trend. It definitely, for me, predated both of those, so I'm hoping that - When each one of those came out, we were all, Oh, it's just part of the trend, but the better stuff comes out in the crashing of a wave and you're like, That's awesome! We're hoping that we have that kind of response.

We really have put a lot of sweat and blood into it about making it something different and high quality, so that if there were no other vampire things around, you're look at it in the same way. I was thinking about it, but other than Bram Stoker's Dracula, I haven't seen a vampire comic since the peak of 30 Days of Night. For us, it's great not to be on TV with Vampire Diaries or True Blood, and we're not a movie, so hopefully it'll stand apart as a good read.
American Vampire debuts in March from Vertigo.