Posted: Feb. 24, 2009

Diana Laurence always wanted to produce a comic book.

A talented wordsmith with an avid imagination, the Greenfield author has some drawing skills - but not quite enough. As she puts it, she is only good at drawing from the neck up.

So when an artistically inclined fan of her writings, including her graphically enticing vampire romance novel "Bloodchained," suggested they could work together, the idea that she could at least be the inspiration behind a comic book proved too seductive to ignore.

A blood pact

CC Rogers, a woman from Austin, Texas, drew first blood when she e-mailed Laurence an artistic depiction of a scene from one of Laurence's short stories, "Abigail's Archer." Rogers' work captured Laurence's artistic spirit.

"I could tell that she really saw things the way I did in my imagination, so she could execute what I had in mind," Laurence said.

The result of their subsequent collaboration is "Sign of the Bloodletters," a comic book set in the Renaissance-style country Audica, the same setting as "Bloodchained." The story tells of an encounter between mortals and the Roicans, a morally ambiguous, blood-drinking vampire bunch introduced in Laurence's 2007 novel.

Rogers, a software engineer, said she has been a longtime fan of Laurence, having read all of her novels and short stories. The two, though they have never met in person, have worked together ever since they exchanged e-mails.

The time she spent illustrating "Sign of the Bloodletters" was "an absolute joy," Rogers said.

" 'Bloodchained' was particularly appealing because of its uniquely fresh approach to vampirism," she said in an e-mail. "With every panel I illustrated, I felt like I was inside that world, getting to know Diana's characters in a way no one else had been able to do before."

A modern comic 'book'

For Laurence, it satisfies a desire she can trace back to her childhood, when she read her fair share of comic and picture books.

"I was unusual, as a little girl, liking comic books," she said. "I was always intrigued by the medium, and I always wished I could draw in the comic-book style."

She has kept the thought of a comic book in the back of her mind despite turning her attention to romance novels in 2004.

When Rogers told her she, too, wanted to do comics, Laurence jumped at the opportunity.

As unlikely as it may be for a vampire romance story to make its way into a comic book, this fantasy benefits from a realistic modern strategy: the online comic.

Though "Sign of the Bloodletters" was released in January in book form, it sold only four copies - not surprising since the intent was for a primarily virtual comic that fans could read for free on Laurence's Web site, bloodchained.com.

Hot blooded

It is something fans of the vampire romance genre are drinking up.

Their collaboration has come in the shadows of the popular "Twilight" book series that spawned a movie, released in November. The recent debut of the HBO television series "True Blood," based on the Sookie Stackhouse book series, extends the genre's flowing bloodline.

Laurence, it should be noted, started writing "Bloodchained" before the genre took off - many fans wrote her requesting she do such a book.

Laurence, whose day job is in marketing but who has written nine paperbacks, is working on the sequel to "Bloodchained," she said.

With the vampire romance appetite at an all time high, people are clamoring for it, Laurence said.

 

Mark Schaaf can be reached at (262) 446-6605.