MattBrady
03-14-2005, 05:47 AM
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/IDW/SoD/Ronnie_Van_Helsing.jpg" width="165" height="205" align="right">With a trade collecting the first season (http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=28777) just out, Jason Henderson has provided Newsarama with more details on the upcoming return of <b>Sword of Dracula</b>, his critically acclaimed re-imagining of the Dracula characters and mythos for the new millennium.
The nutshell – in Henderson’s world, Dracula is more than just a creature of the night. He’s a major power player, albeit somewhat behind the scenes, on the world’s geopolitical stage, leading a massive force of followers. Ronnie (Veronica) Van Helsing, and the Polidorium stand against him. Since the property’s debut, <b>Sword</b> has been optioned as a film, and currently has a videogame in development.
And this summer, the story continues, as Henderson told Newsarama that <b>Sword of Dracula Season 2 #1</b> is on track for an August debut.
“I'm nearly done writing Issue 1 now,” Henderson said. “Mind you, the whole concept for Season 2 has been kicking around since I finished writing season 1, but there were certain things we wanted to work out. For one thing, the people who read <b>SoD</b>, and by that I mean especially the rabid ones who really latched onto the characters of the first book, had certain demands. In many ways, Season 1 was my leap of faith-- doing whatever we could to see if people would dig the story and the world, so it was big and ambitious, but had a revolving team of artists because when you're highly independent it's hard to keep artists around, they just can't spend more than a couple issues on a book before they have to go do better paying work.
“But now we're growing up-- this Season the book will feel a lot less indy, certainly when it comes to production values. Season 2 is about growing that next step-- moving up to color, slick paper, and reaching those people who would love the story but simply reject black and white.”
The new season of <b>SoD</b> will mark a continuation of publishers for Henderson. The miniseries saw publication through Image, the trade at IDW, and Season 2 will be published by Digital Webbing.
Henderson said moving the property helped him to make the jump to color, and ensures that he can pay his creators.
“I've been so impressed with the paper presentation of DWP books like <b>Bloodrayne</b> and the most recent <b>Digital Webbing Presents</b> - it's indy work that feels and looks like an E-ticket book. That's what you want. I knew Ed Dukeshire, who runs DWP; he had acted as art director on several <b>SoDs</b> and was the letterer on everything I did. And we were talking about <b>Bloodrayne</b> and a project Tony Salvaggio and I are working on for him, <b>Digital Widow</b>, and we realized DWP was the right home for <b>SoD</b>. I love Image and could have gone back to Image for <b>SoD2</b>, but going to DWP under a different deal puts me and Ed in a better position to shift money first to the team. And making it possible for your team to keep working is key.
“So why DWP? In this case, it's all about relationships and the really good work that DWP has been doing.”
As for the shift from black and white to color, it was something Henderson was hoping to see happen with the trade paperback, but things didn’t work out that way. Even though it’s added work, Henderson isn’t seeing any impact on the series’ release with coloring the book. “Production-wise it means an extra stagger-step in the process, you have to be moving a set of files through one more person, but it's nothing I haven't produced before. <b>Soulcatcher, Sylvia Faust, Strange Magic</b> and my <b>Vampire</b> book were all in color.”
Henderson said the colorist has been selected, but did not want to announce him just yet. The artist on the series will be Terry Pallot, who has already committed to all six issues of Season 2.
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/IDW/SoD/pallotdracula.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/IDW/SoD/pallotdracula_t.jpg" width="165" height="250" border="0" align="left"></a> “Terry is a Canadian artist I worked with first on <b>Soulcatcher</b> when he was inking Lou Manna, but Terry had a very interesting style that fit the military craziness of <b>SoD</b>, very clean and yet very black-heavy, and it was an almost perfect middle ground between the hyper-realistic art [original artist] Greg Scott did - and does, whenever he does an <b>SoD</b> story - and William Belk's crazy manga-esque art. So I wanted Terry back, but in keeping with the new discipline - I think of it as ‘The Way of the Kirkman,’ I wanted to make sure I could lock Terry in for all six. Six Issues, one season, one year.”
Speaking of Scott, Henderson said that his original partner on the property will return to provide a few covers for the new series (original cover artist Tony Harris is unavailable), and will also provide art for a couple of standalone Polidorium stories as backups in the new miniseries.
Breaking away from the production and creative side of things, Henderson said that the story of Season 2 will see the threat of Dracula find its own threat – aside from the Polidorium. “Remember, this is the world where the vampires are the most powerful criminals and terrorists,” the writer said. “In Season 2, something is ripping through them and it's got Ronnie concerned. But the threat is more insidious than the ‘let's turn Dallas into Hell on Earth’ capers of the Angels in Season 1.
“I'll say this: the story takes place a few months after the events at the end of Season 1, with Ronnie Van Helsing dealing with some personal problems in Europe while she stays on the outs with the Polidorium, but not for long. This season is about a mystery-- a new player shoving the various Vampire organizations around, one that everyone-- the Polidorium, Dracula and his lieutenants, and the rival kingpins Ruthven and Bathory-- want revealed and destroyed.
“We're going to see Dracula ripping through some people with some new powers, but we're also going to dig deeper into his organization, and some old secrets. Old secrets will crop up for Ronnie, too, and we'll learn more about what happened between her, her brother, and a few of her sisters. We established in <b>SoD Season 1</b> that Ronnie has a big family; in fact in my mind there's a whole other series about Ronnie as a teen. We did a short story about Ronnie and her practically perfect in every way bitch of a sister Judith in <b>DWP #21</b>, due out this month, and Season 2 will give us some answers about what happened to her.
“I'm really stoked. The thing we must always to remember is that we're always out to prove our mission statement-- you've seen Dracula, but you've never seen him like this. Fans of <b>SoD</b> can rest assured that we are passionate about keeping a few things: cliffhangers at the end of every chapter - we might like a trade, but we write for the reader, momentum, and of course Dracula as the most evil f*** ever.
“And fans of Ronnie? Heck, they're sort of proving that you can have a Van Helsing you've never seen before, either.”
The nutshell – in Henderson’s world, Dracula is more than just a creature of the night. He’s a major power player, albeit somewhat behind the scenes, on the world’s geopolitical stage, leading a massive force of followers. Ronnie (Veronica) Van Helsing, and the Polidorium stand against him. Since the property’s debut, <b>Sword</b> has been optioned as a film, and currently has a videogame in development.
And this summer, the story continues, as Henderson told Newsarama that <b>Sword of Dracula Season 2 #1</b> is on track for an August debut.
“I'm nearly done writing Issue 1 now,” Henderson said. “Mind you, the whole concept for Season 2 has been kicking around since I finished writing season 1, but there were certain things we wanted to work out. For one thing, the people who read <b>SoD</b>, and by that I mean especially the rabid ones who really latched onto the characters of the first book, had certain demands. In many ways, Season 1 was my leap of faith-- doing whatever we could to see if people would dig the story and the world, so it was big and ambitious, but had a revolving team of artists because when you're highly independent it's hard to keep artists around, they just can't spend more than a couple issues on a book before they have to go do better paying work.
“But now we're growing up-- this Season the book will feel a lot less indy, certainly when it comes to production values. Season 2 is about growing that next step-- moving up to color, slick paper, and reaching those people who would love the story but simply reject black and white.”
The new season of <b>SoD</b> will mark a continuation of publishers for Henderson. The miniseries saw publication through Image, the trade at IDW, and Season 2 will be published by Digital Webbing.
Henderson said moving the property helped him to make the jump to color, and ensures that he can pay his creators.
“I've been so impressed with the paper presentation of DWP books like <b>Bloodrayne</b> and the most recent <b>Digital Webbing Presents</b> - it's indy work that feels and looks like an E-ticket book. That's what you want. I knew Ed Dukeshire, who runs DWP; he had acted as art director on several <b>SoDs</b> and was the letterer on everything I did. And we were talking about <b>Bloodrayne</b> and a project Tony Salvaggio and I are working on for him, <b>Digital Widow</b>, and we realized DWP was the right home for <b>SoD</b>. I love Image and could have gone back to Image for <b>SoD2</b>, but going to DWP under a different deal puts me and Ed in a better position to shift money first to the team. And making it possible for your team to keep working is key.
“So why DWP? In this case, it's all about relationships and the really good work that DWP has been doing.”
As for the shift from black and white to color, it was something Henderson was hoping to see happen with the trade paperback, but things didn’t work out that way. Even though it’s added work, Henderson isn’t seeing any impact on the series’ release with coloring the book. “Production-wise it means an extra stagger-step in the process, you have to be moving a set of files through one more person, but it's nothing I haven't produced before. <b>Soulcatcher, Sylvia Faust, Strange Magic</b> and my <b>Vampire</b> book were all in color.”
Henderson said the colorist has been selected, but did not want to announce him just yet. The artist on the series will be Terry Pallot, who has already committed to all six issues of Season 2.
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/IDW/SoD/pallotdracula.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/IDW/SoD/pallotdracula_t.jpg" width="165" height="250" border="0" align="left"></a> “Terry is a Canadian artist I worked with first on <b>Soulcatcher</b> when he was inking Lou Manna, but Terry had a very interesting style that fit the military craziness of <b>SoD</b>, very clean and yet very black-heavy, and it was an almost perfect middle ground between the hyper-realistic art [original artist] Greg Scott did - and does, whenever he does an <b>SoD</b> story - and William Belk's crazy manga-esque art. So I wanted Terry back, but in keeping with the new discipline - I think of it as ‘The Way of the Kirkman,’ I wanted to make sure I could lock Terry in for all six. Six Issues, one season, one year.”
Speaking of Scott, Henderson said that his original partner on the property will return to provide a few covers for the new series (original cover artist Tony Harris is unavailable), and will also provide art for a couple of standalone Polidorium stories as backups in the new miniseries.
Breaking away from the production and creative side of things, Henderson said that the story of Season 2 will see the threat of Dracula find its own threat – aside from the Polidorium. “Remember, this is the world where the vampires are the most powerful criminals and terrorists,” the writer said. “In Season 2, something is ripping through them and it's got Ronnie concerned. But the threat is more insidious than the ‘let's turn Dallas into Hell on Earth’ capers of the Angels in Season 1.
“I'll say this: the story takes place a few months after the events at the end of Season 1, with Ronnie Van Helsing dealing with some personal problems in Europe while she stays on the outs with the Polidorium, but not for long. This season is about a mystery-- a new player shoving the various Vampire organizations around, one that everyone-- the Polidorium, Dracula and his lieutenants, and the rival kingpins Ruthven and Bathory-- want revealed and destroyed.
“We're going to see Dracula ripping through some people with some new powers, but we're also going to dig deeper into his organization, and some old secrets. Old secrets will crop up for Ronnie, too, and we'll learn more about what happened between her, her brother, and a few of her sisters. We established in <b>SoD Season 1</b> that Ronnie has a big family; in fact in my mind there's a whole other series about Ronnie as a teen. We did a short story about Ronnie and her practically perfect in every way bitch of a sister Judith in <b>DWP #21</b>, due out this month, and Season 2 will give us some answers about what happened to her.
“I'm really stoked. The thing we must always to remember is that we're always out to prove our mission statement-- you've seen Dracula, but you've never seen him like this. Fans of <b>SoD</b> can rest assured that we are passionate about keeping a few things: cliffhangers at the end of every chapter - we might like a trade, but we write for the reader, momentum, and of course Dracula as the most evil f*** ever.
“And fans of Ronnie? Heck, they're sort of proving that you can have a Van Helsing you've never seen before, either.”