DC W.I.P.: American Vampire #1 Preview

 

 

Stephen King has written Carrie, The Stand, The Shining, Pet Cemetery, and many more iconic horror novels. Scott Snyder has written Batman, Swamp Thing, and Justice League. Now, he is rocking your world with Absolute Batman and DC K.O. In his introduction, Rafael Albuquerque talks about what it was like to help these talented writers kick off this 34 issue series that spawned sequel series and spinoffs. It was a series he would return to again and again.

Here's all the info on this special edition from DC Connect:

 

DC W.I.P.: American Vampire #1

Writers: Stephen King & Scott Snyder

Artist & Cover Artist: Rafael Albuquerque

Publisher: DC Comics

Price: $14.99

Issue Length: 32 Pages

Issue Size: 11” x 17”

Release Date: October 15, 2025

 

DC’s Artist Edition line continues! Experience the original art of DC’s greatest issues and artists at original artboard size!

 

Step into the world of comics like never before with DC W.I.P. Get up close and personal with the stunning original artwork from one of comics’ greatest artists.

 

Featuring the never-before-seen inked pages of American Vampire #1! The brilliance of Albuquerque’s work can be seen like never before in this massive oversize presentation. Don’t miss your chance to own this incredible, one-of-a-kind piece of comics history. Featuring a brand-new introduction by Albuquerque.

 

Now, let's take a look inside:

 

 

 

Thanks to DC Comics for sharing this preview with us. 

Count Dalek-ula On Crucial Vampire Fiction

Recently, I vatched the Doctor Who story, "State of Decay," vith my Master. I especially enjoyed "Leaves of Blood," a special on the DVD, in vhich famous British authors list important and popular Vampire fiction of the last century. Authors polled included Peter Crowther (Darkness, Darkness), Simon Clark (Vampyrrhic), Stephen Gallagher (The Kingdom of Bones), Kim Newman (Anno Dracula), and Ramsey Campbell (The Grin of the Dark). These authors may only be Human, and therefore lack the critical assessment capabilities of a Dalek, but they have won awards, sold millions of books, and been driving forces in the Horror literary community. So I vant to share with you their List of Essential Vampire Fiction.

Essential Vampire Stories

Varney The Vampire, or The Feast of Blood 

by James Malcolm Rymer (serialized novel)

"The Vampyre" by John William Polidori (novella)

"Carmilla" by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (novella)

"The Mysterious Stranger" by Anonymous (novella)

Dracula by Bram Stoker

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon

Salem's Lot by Stephen King

Interview With A Vampire by Anne Rice

Of course, Vampires inhabit more than the printed page, and almost seem more at home on the stage, as the popularity of TV shows like Buffy The Vampire Slayer attests. In another extra, pop culture historian, writer, and educator Sir Christopher John Frayling states that Bram Stoker vas involved in the theatre, and infused his novel vith as much camp as horror. 

Certainly Terrance Dicks, author of "State Of Decay," vould agree that public perception of Vampires is shaped less by the source literature than their more sensational movie and TV versions. He vrote his Doctor Who story to appeal to those who had grown up with the Hammer Horror movies, as he believed few people had actually read Bram Stoker's formative novel. 

Thor loves Hammer films!

Between Humans and Daleks, opinions may differ on any Essential Reading List. Having read over my Master's shoulder, I really enjoyed the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter novels by Laurell K Hamilton. Master and I read eleven of them. If you have any thoughts on the stories listed above, or vould like to share your favorite Vampire stories with Master and other readers, please leave a comment. Even if you are a Human, I vill still take your recommendation under consideration. But then, I am a Dalek, and committed to mastering all fields of study. Ignorance must be viped out, expunged and eliminated, excoriated, exterminated...yes! That's the word I'm looking for!

Exterminated, Exter-MINATED, EXTERMINATED!!!!!!!!!

Count Dalek-ula

Treasures of Ojai: Part 3

Oops!  Looks like I've captured more than one (great?) artist.

The third exhibit in the Ojai Museum that captured my attention was this selection of ceramic pots.  While I painted ceramics in my youth, I never sat down and actually made them.  The working method of their sculptor, Otto Heino, reminds me of the writing approach of Stephen King.  When Heino puts the clay on his wheel, he lets the evolving shape determine its own course.  Instead of using clay, King approaches each new story with a starting scenario, a What if? idea, and then lets them evolve from there.  I’m trying to learn from King’s example.  Like Otto Heino, he’s proven the validity of his approach: to be less controlling of the process, and celebrate the freedom of creation.

Well, there you have it, the last in my series of three treasures of the Ojai museum that caught my eye.  No one finds inspiration in every type of art, but I hope you found something in these examples, or at least in one of them, to empower your life.  Perhaps, like me, you need to be less worried about structuring your life, and just get on with celebrating it for all that it is.  

Dragon Dave

Related Internet Links

Otto Heino’s bio, courtesy of the Frank Lloyd Wright gallery in Santa Monica, California.

Golson The Strongman

No one thinks bigger than Kevin J. Anderson

In Kevin J. Anderson’s new book Clockwork Angels, we meet Golson, a strongman in a circus.  He pleases his crowds by loading every weight he owns except two onto his barbell, and then lifts the immense load above his head.  But he never adds those last two weights. Instead, they rest off to the side of the stage, bound with a chain and a padlock. 

While he’s far stronger than most everyone else, and feels like he should be able to lift more, Golson is afraid to push himself too hard.  For the last time his mentor tried to beat his personal best, he couldn’t handle the weight.  Instead, he was crushed on stage, while the audience watched.

In the early 1980s, author Piers Anthony experienced a series of excellent three mile runs.  Previously, he had never strung together more than three twenty-two minute runs in a row.  Suddenly, he found himself running faster.  Each thrice-weekly run was under the magical twenty-two minute mark.  As months passed, his speed increased further.  After seven months, he was beneath the twenty-one minute mark. 

Concurrently, Piers Anthony's regimen of Japanese pushups, done on alternate days, decreased in time.  From his normal seventy-five in five minutes, he brought the time down to four minutes-and-seven seconds.  Both remarkable streaks ended when physical pain landed him in the hospital.  Although it turned out that he suffered from nothing more than a kidney stone (mentioned in “Dreaming of Kevin J. Anderson”), I have to wonder: was his body signaling that he had stressed it too far, and he had exceeded the limits of his physical capabilities? 

Like Piers Anthony during the 1980s, Kevin J. Anderson completes several books each year.  How much he pushes against the upper boundaries of his capabilities, or how regularly he exceeds his previous limits, I don’t know.  But I do remember, in his memoir On Writing, that after Stephen King reached each day’s word count goal, he took the rest of the working day off.  He also gave himself time after completing the rough draft for his mind to relax, before he launched into the process of revision.

This week I finished the rough draft of my second dragon novel.  My rational mind tells me I should immediately leap back into the first one, and start revising it, but experience has taught me that when I push my creative muscles too far, they give up, and leave me unable to focus on any writing for a while.  Given how difficult I found it to concentrate this past weekend, I’m listening to experience for the rest of this week.  Hopefully, I’ll be ready to hit the first novel hard next week.  At least that’s the plan.

I was recently shocked to learn that an acquaintance, someone who’s always worked harder than me, had a stroke.  As he's in his twenties, it seems a little too early for that to occur naturally.  Golson’s decision reminds me that, while every day I should do what I can, I cannot do more than I can, for a long period of time, without facing the consequences of excessive physical and mental stress.  In a country where productivity and efficiency seem like gods, his example may strike some as foolish, but to me it seems wise. 

Dragon Dave

Related Dragon Cache entries

Dreaming of Kevin J. Anderson

Stephen King’s Dilemma

In his memoir On Writing, Stephen King wrestled with the fact that, of all the novels he had written, the overwhelming favorite was The Stand.  While he was glad his readers liked the post-apocalyptic tale, this was his second published novel.  He believed he had grown immensely as an author since he had crafted that early work, and by the time he wrote On Writing, had published an astounding number of novels.  He had invested all his stories with imagination, creativity, and passion, and believed some of his later novels represented his best efforts as a writer. Yet by an overwhelming majority, readers loved The Stand more than any of his later stories.

Over the last few months, a few of my posts have attracted more page views than the norm.  In my Pages section, you can find a link to my current Top Ten posts.  The first four, all about authors working today, have garnered an astounding number of page views.  Fans of those popular authors evidently liked what I had to say and recommended them to their friends.  Four of my seven-part series on Ritz Cinema also got a large number of hits.  I attribute the popularity of those posts less to the James Herriot connection (or my particularly beautiful prose), and more to the fact that Ritz Cinema is a very special place, and therefore, like Steven Brust, Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, and David Malki, has a passionate following.  My original intention for my blog, to write about particular works of fiction, is represented by only one entry: “Envying Luke Skywalker’s Lightsaber.”  I’m not sure if this is because people like what I had to say, or if they were searching for images of Luke’s lightsaber.  

Blogger has its foibles, some of which I’ve discovered since I started using the Pages function.  One inconsistency I noticed long ago, however, was that the number of page views listed in my Posts section was often different than the numbers represented in the Statistics section.  In many cases, the number of page views is higher on the Posts list than it is in the Statistics section.  One entry in particular, “As Time Goes By in Holland Park: Part 1,” has enough page views on the Posts list that it should reside in number eight on my Statistics section’s Top Ten page.  Yet it doesn’t appear there.  I suppose it doesn’t really belong in my Top Ten anyway, as parts Two and Three only have half as many page views, and “As Time Goes By Jean’s House” frequently appears under search terms that drew people to my site.  This may also explain the popularity of “Catching a Glimpse of Norman Clegg’s House.”  The latter post, which initially attracted average interest, has steadily risen in popularity in the months since I wrote it.  In reading it, I can see why fans of the TV show “Last of the Summer Wine” would like it.  But “Norman Clegg’s House” also shows up regularly under Searches that led people to my blog. 

I apologize to all you “As Time Goes By” fans: I don’t know the address the TV crew used for the exterior of Jean’s House.  (Nor do I know the exact address of Norman Clegg’s house, but I believe the second location the production used was a cottage behind The White Horse Inn, if that’s helpful).  Part one of my three-part entry is about exploring the residential and commercial area of London known as Holland Park, and parts two and three cover the actual park.  The Dutch Garden within the park was an important place for us to visit, as it is there that Lionel first pursues Jean, and realizes that he wants to get to know her better.  (Even if you’re not a fan of the TV show, it’s a beautiful garden, and the entire park is worth a visit).  At least I know that I’m not the only one who still loves a show that started twenty years ago, and aired its last reunion show seven years ago.

One entry that I particularly love, but hasn’t gotten many page views, is my entry “Leaning on Steven Brust.”  While it’s somewhat derivative of “Steven Brust: My Ultimate Weapon,” it not only relates to my struggles as an author, but to Grand Master Robert Silverberg’s own struggles during the 1970s.  I wrote it later in April for those who enjoyed "Ultimate Weapon."  Yet, as Stephen King found with his published novels, what resonates with readers often astonishes the writer.  I know my affection for Jupiter Project, If the Stars are Gods, and The Stars in Shroud surprised Gregory Benford.  His favorites tend to be novels like Timescape and Artifact, SF stories about working physicists such as himself. 

From a business side of things, it makes sense for an author to look backward, study what books have sold the most, and attempt to cater to those tastes.  From an artistic standpoint, it makes sense that a writer should ignore past successes, and follow his muse wherever it leads him.  I hope I never find myself in a place where publishers will only buy one particular type of story from me.  Stephen King’s dilemma (and every popular writer’s dilemma), is that the type of books he longs to write may not resonate with his readers as much as some of his other types of stories.  This phenomenon should not be ignored or discounted.  As readers, we should sympathize with those writers who can only sell one type of story.  But at the end of the day, it’s an author’s job to serve his or her readers, whatever stories they’ve come to love, and for whatever reason they treasure them most.  At this point, the fact that anyone out there loves anything I've written brings me joy.  It’ll be my job to remember that, should I win a publisher’s attention, and see my novels published.  

Dragon Dave

Related Dragon Cache entries

As Time Goes By in Holland Park: Part 1

Still Leaning on Steven Brust

Escaping the Heavy Imprint of Man

Holmfirth's beautiful Holy Trinity Church

Growing up, I was never all that enthused by scenery.  Whenever we would go away on vacation, I would sit in the back seat of our old Plymouth and play with my toys.  I lost one of my favorites, a spaceman, when he strayed too close to the open window while we sped along the freeway.  “Wait!” I cried.  “Please, we have to go back for him!”  My father, ever wise, explained that a rescue was impossible: all the cars behind us would have already squashed the life from my beloved spaceman.  And that was that: the last time my toys strayed near the vortex created by the sheer velocity with which our brick-like car pushed through the seemingly empty air.

Which side of the street am I supposed to walk on?

Later, my interests expanded from toys to reading, and I would encircle myself on the bench seat with my favorite books.  “Look up at the scenery,” my mother would admonish.  I thought this strange, as at home she usually urged me to turn off the TV and read.  But she never took my books from me, which I was grateful for, because in those days the scenery conjured up by authors far outstripped anything that the real world could provide.  Visits to planets filled with giant mushrooms, journeys aboard rockets with talking animals, or bouncing across the Moon’s rugged landscape in a spacesuit, making the most of the lesser gravity: these were the vistas that thrilled me.

"Ah...breathe in that air!"  (Okay, maybe not so deeply).

While I never lost interest in the imagined world conjured up by authors of Fiction, my interests in what the real world had to offer gradually ripened.  Jagged chasms with multicolored layers of rock like the Grand Canyon, or huge, placid expanses of sparkling blue water, such as Lake Tahoe, roused my appreciation on family outings.  But I don’t think it was until I settled down into my post-college life in suburbia, with a wife and a job and a house and a dog, that escaping the city, and driving off to explore landscapes less altered by man, really began to appeal.

Finally, I find my lonely road.

Stephen King once said, “Character is plot,” and of course, he is right.  An author draws in the reader or viewer with the people who inhabit his stories.  For “Last of the Summer Wine,” those characters were primarily Foggy, Norman, and Compo.  Yet, as my appreciation for the series grew, I realized that as much as I enjoyed watching the antics of these men who refused to relinquish their youth, I also loved the Yorkshire countryside.  Visiting Holmfirth, taking the bus tour, and walking around the town in the early morning hours were all great, but what I really yearned to do was walk along the rural roads.  I’m not a great walker at home, but I feel a certain thrill when the trio walk along these twisting, narrow, wall-lined roads, surrounded by empty fields, abandoned barns, unpeopled parks, or tranquil stretches of woodland.  Wesley might pull up in his Land Rover, say, “How do, lads,” and offer to give them a lift.  They might come across someone in need of assistance (who might later wish these three men had not happened along).  They would almost certainly bump into Howard and Marina, the two erstwhile lovers who never manage to be completely alone.  But mostly I loved how the pastoral countryside drove the dialogue, solidified the characters’ relationship, and their musings on life.  Some of their best misadventures were born along the road.  It wasn’t all that unusual for Foggy to experience a eureka-moment, inspired to attempt some grand scheme by the vast, uncluttered vista. 

"Where will it lead me next?"

To escape the hubbub of Holmfirth, to walk roads largely devoid of traffic, to see the gentle countryside unfolding around me, that was what I yearned for.  I recognize that inspiration can strike anywhere and at any time, even in the heart of a bustling city, and even in the noisiest environment.  Still, I yearned for a place of peace and quiet, devoid of distractions and the heavy imprint of man.

This entry will conclude with Walking in an Artist’s Footsteps.

Thanks for walkin' along,

Dragon Dave

Related Dragon Cache entries

A Journey into English Fiction: Part 1

The Power of Big Ben

Westminster Bridge in Color, and in Black and White