Mm.

So that's, that's the challenging part.

But, and it's so awesome to hear that Vampirates number one worked for you on that level, 'cause it's, it's probably the single toughest thing in any story, even if it's a brand-new world like Vampirates, even if you're doing Yeah.

Uh, and I'm, I guess because I am...

Now, well, before I even say that, do we have, like, a roadmap? Is this an ongoing series? Is, is there a, an, an end in sight? Uh, th- we definitely have five issues.

What was sort of the impetus for this one?

Luca and I, Luca Pizzari, my esteemed co-creator, we worked on a Marvel book called Weapon X, and we enjoyed it, and we met up later trying to come up with a, a t- a title that we should do together.

And after bandying some stuff about for a while, Luca just looks at me and he goes, "All I have is a title, it's Vampirates.

Wow

... drawing from a lot of things that both Luca and I discovered we have a shared passion for.

Uh, and it's about the ruler of the Vampirium, which is the big, uh, government there, since vampires run the church and the state.

Uh, she's forced to abdicate, essentially, uh, flees the capital, uh, and makes the mistake of, uh, stowing away, essentially, on a pirate ship, uh, with a captain, Captain Keo, that despises her and the Vampirium.

And so she has to fight her way back, uh, up from the ranks of lowly cabin girl to becoming Queen of the Seven Seas, getting her revenge and possibly reclaiming her throne.

Freddy, what else can you tell us about these characters, the main characters?

Well, uh, Luca did a great, uh, on one podcast described them as like an, like the Doom Patrol, but they're vampires, [laughs] which I think is sort of a great way to describe it.

Like, um, we have one character...

Is there, what else do you want to fill in there?

There, there's a coup, uh, with some, uh, people who don't think she's n- nasty enough to the humans, so there already there's sort of a political sociological element there.

And yeah, she winds up, uh, uh, through a means I won't spoil here, uh, she basically accidentally, uh, stows away on a pirate ship.

And so she starts from ...

And that's sort of the other thing that was really appealing to me was this idea that you have someone who's at the very top of the society who basically becomes a cabin girl and has to work her way up from the very, very bottom.

Um, and she's stuck with someone, as it turns out, again, if you read the first issue, the reasons are obvious, um, who doesn't like her [laughs] or, or the Vampirium very much.

So, uh, I like seeing characters under pressure, and this is definitely a pressure-filled situation.

Uh, tell us a little bit more about her.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, but he spent a chunk of his adult life, um, first in England, in London, and then here in New York in the States, and so English is a second language to him, and so the idea of, like, language, of, like, words, you know, he thinks about English words maybe different than those of us who grew up, you know, with it as our first language do.

And so he just thought it was amusing that no one had ever taken the word vampire, uh, and the word pirate and, and smooshed them together.

So, uh, his, uh, he sort of stumbled upon it, and, uh, this series is the result.

Aloha.

Awesome.

Thanks, Jason.

[singing] Come all you sons of salt and bite who fear no morning sun.

called something like that actually until i met you i actually thought that was the only iron wolf book i didn't know there was something before

there was only like three issues of it because what happened was, is DC put out this insane, I collect old seventies comics.

Like I'm a seventies kid.

So I just randomly started this seventies comics collection.

And it's the nerdiest thing ever because it's, it's very specific.

It's licenses.

The comic companies no longer have.

Right.

[laughs]

[laughs] Well, you know.

We're, uh, we're, we're combining two of our favorite genres.

Um, Luke and I became buddies.

Uh, we worked on a book for Marvel called Weapon X with Greg Pak and a bunch of other fine people.

Um, and, uh, we both lived in Brooklyn at the time.

And, uh, we showed up, and, uh, and [laughs] both Luke and I had totally unrelated projects we pitched at each other.

Yeah