The Sabertooth Vampire is a diminished vamp with two very gravid problems : his tremendous fangs , which are longer than he is tall . Mike Russell has been post the discomfited adventures of the unsaved count online , but soon the Sabertooth Vampire will be appear in the pages of Dark Horse Presents — where he ’ll battle a popular Dark Horse part . We talk to Russell about the descent of the long - toothed vamp and his leap into color .
Russell has been runningThe Sabertooth Vampireon his website , where he ’s just launch the third time of year of the silent webcomic . presently , though , he ’ll be making his photographic print debut in Dark Horse Presents issues # 12 and # 14 , out May 23rd and July 18th . This will also be the lamia ’s first set up of risky venture in color , thanks to coloristBill Mudron .
So where precisely did the Sabertooth Vampire hail from in the first place ?
Mike Russell : The Sabertooth Vampire come about because I was world-weary waiting for a movie to commence .
It was January 2011 . I was at a preview showing of that Jason Statham The Mechanic remake , which I was reviewing for The Oregonian . The plastic film publiciser do n’t like us to bring cellphones to the screenings — like , every prison term Apple gives the iPhone a better camera and more processing power , the studios give the security department guards undecomposed night - visual modality gear to employ in the aisles during the screenings . So I ’d initiate entrust my phone at home and carrying around a bantam Moleskine notebook computer to doodle in while I was await for the movies to start . One of those little 3.5 x 5.5 seamless jobs .
One of the doodles was a tiny lamia with oversized fang — an undead Napoleon complex , fundamentally . I posted the cartoon to myTwitter feedwith a caption along the lines of:“My attempt to find a new angle for the young - grownup vampire - fiction market . ”(That sketch is the masking of theSeason One minicomic , BTW . )
A workweek or so later , I was at this thing where local comedian family line go toPortland Opera dress rehearsals and sketch the shows . My palDylan Meconis — a cartoonist I REALLY reverence and regard , and good Lord , everyone record Bite Me ! and Family Man and Outfoxed forever — told me I should do more with that sketch . So I decide to force Sabertooth Vampire webcomics and link them off my Twitter provender until I extend out of ideas . Which , seriously , could be any day now .
What was the reply from Twitter ?
Well , what ’s been really fun is that I ’ve gotten a few pieces of fan graphics , and a disproportionate amount of it for some intellect istextiles - based . I ’ve mystify a lifespan - sizing squeeze plush Sabertooth Vampire from my friend Bobbie , and reader Joseph Vaughan ( @DethMunky1978 on Twitter ) commissioned Diane Koss of cutesybutnotcutesy.com to make two real - live reading of the Sabertooth Vampire hoodie fromthis comedian . And then he send me one of them . Insane .
( When you endure it with the hood down , with the fangs nonchalantly draped down your shoulder , it sort of looks like what Kraven the Hunter would wear if he hunt sabertooth vampires instead of lions . I have a photo of this that I will send you . )
So you have in reality parodied a lot of vampire spiritualist — Dracula , Abbott and Costello , those B - moving picture teras squad - ups , and , of course of action , evenfall — any other vampires you ’re looking to skewer ?
Well , the other day my stepdaughter channelise out that I had n’t done Interview with the Sabertooth Vampire yet . Am grueling at work uprise a Christian Slater imitation .
The Sabertooth Vampire might have to spring up out his hair for that one .
And sweep stuff off table with his branch in miscellaneous fits of cult . And while I ’ve putRenfield in the comic as a variety of pointy - haired man , I have yet to cypher out what to do with Van Helsing . I mean , the vampire pop - culture cony - jam is kind of bottomless these daytime , is n’t it ? And there ’s the Hammer Films stuff , F.W. Murnau … . Plus we require to get him into that burnished - red swirly armour Gary Oldman was wearing . [ Note : Russell actually postedhis take on Van Helsingjust last Nox ]
Will he have a mouthguard ?
Sure . peradventure I ’ll have him hanging out with Parker Posey in “ Blade III . ” ( Seriously — has a lot of fangs ever looked more awkward in someone ’s mouthpiece in a big - budget lamia movie than Posey ’s cleaver in that picture ? She vocalize like she was at the orthodontist half the metre . )
Why did you adjudicate to make him silent ?
Well , I really relish drawing it BECAUSE it ’s almost totally gestural . Mostly before now I ’ve take out thesenonfiction pop - journalism funnies for The Oregonianthat imply scads of undertaking - intensive transcription and distillation and verbiage . Basically , the Sabertooth Vampire has become an counterpoison to that . Or therapy , mayhap .
( I also still draw the webcomic in those teeny Moleskines . The original drawings are way smaller than the final print and connection versions . )
pitiful little cat ca n’t even vent his frustration . The quiet does make it feel more like a roadrunner cartoon
I wish well ! Man . Chuck Jones . I ’m sure he ’s somewhere in the back of my mind , maybe revolve in his tomb , every fourth dimension I draw one of these . My two favorite Termite Terrace cartoon of all time are “ Robin Hood Daffy ” and “ Deduce , You Say ” — the ones where the best comedy is all in Daffy and Porky ’s tiny sideways glances while something big and violent happen . ( Also , wide-eyed / nonfigurative Maurice Noble backgrounds . Accept no substitute . )
Are the Dark Horse Presents cartoon strip blend in to be in the vogue of the premature “ Sabertooth Vampire ” comics , or will it be at all dissimilar for DHP ?
Well , a duet of key differences add up up as we were porting the strip over to DHP .
The first big difference was that , prior to February , I ’d drawn and suppose about the comic solely in black and white . Drawing in black and white meant I got to do thing like NOT care about how to colour the night sky so it did n’t vie with the sound effects and little facial expressions . I run to think the color has to be moderately lite - touch on gag comics , or at least on mine . Bill Mudron was crack - coolheaded and froody while I occupy myself sick over that issue . I was institutionalise him stuff like water-colour - y “ Winnie the Pooh ” animation stills for aspiration .
The second bighearted difference is that I , um , draw the comedian slimly more carefully because , you know , Dark Horse . And I had ( very coolheaded ) editor . And size of it / length parametric quantity . It was really good discipline .
And we ’re move to see a special client star ? Any hints as to who it is ?
It ’s a LOT more playfulness not to reveal that . But here ’s the backstory if you need it :
Dark Horse gave me a shot at puff three one - page strips for them , and honestly , like any reasonable nobody , I was a little bothered . Like I enjoin in thepress liberation , Dark Horse Presents was this vast formative Word of God for me — if memory swear out , it was one of the first comics I was buying with regularity at Emerald City Comics in the other ’ 90s in Eugene , Oregon , when I was first getting into comics at U of O. Somewhere in my basement I ’m fairly sure I could dig up DHP # 62 , the one that enfold up the first Sin City serial .
( Man . Emerald City Comics . I also plunk up the first Madman serial there . wish well I ’d grabbed the copies of Grafik Muzik that were on the shelves while I was at it . Once saw Mike Allred at the Kinko ’s down on 13th in Eugene , Xeroxing a promo for what finally became Madman . Fun time and town to get into cartoon strip . )
Anyway . So one path to deal with feeling daunted was to just expect for something absurd , have them say no , and then relax . This is Dark Horse , veracious ? What crossover voter would I dream of doing ? So I drew a moderately elaborate thumbnail book of a comic along those lines , and sent it to the editors with a note that essentially read , “ I know you have to run this by the Jehovah , and I have sex the answer is in all likelihood going to be no , but that ’s okay , I have backup ideas . ” Two hours later , Scott Allie wrote back and aver the creator had signalize off on it . Which more or less made my year .
I ’ve also hear that you ’ve been doing live readings . How does that work with a mostly non - verbal comedian ?
I had to figure that out when they postulate me to do a reading at this event calledComics Undergroundlast November . I had to follow Meconis at that , actually , so no air pressure . Basically , I choreograph this glide show that was time to the musical beat of songs I had in my head when I drew the comic strip .
What vocal are in your head when you ’re pull back ?
A surprising number of them are my ally Fatboy Roberts ’ flick - scotch remix / mashups , actually , which you’re able to download costless of charge atgeekremixed.com—“Fistful of Rupees”and“Three Panel Philosophies”immediately come to mind . There might also be an mortifying amount of Yacht Rock .
Do I dare ask about Yacht Rock ’s influence on the airstrip ?
I WISH I could be that placid .
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