VS – Vampire Siren
This is another of my forays into making a zine set, this time with a mini comic. Though brief, it depicts a fantasy version of a lot of the feelings I had about going out during a particularly unsteady time in my life. Would it be scary? Would there be friends? Or would I find nobody at all? Also, true to my nerd roots, I couldn’t resist posing a truly philosophical question without settling on a real answer; Who would win in a fight, a vampire, or a siren? (Or would they just make out?)
This set has an illustrated mini comic, an art print, and three stickers. 😀 If you’re interested in checking it out, you can find it on my etsy!
The Process
When I started this project I had a hankering to get back into an old favorite pastime of mine – making comics. For my current WIP I have carefully plotted, planned, and scripted everything, but for this I wanted to approach the project purely by seeing where the art took me. No planning, just feelings. I really like how it turned out, even if the pacing could be a bit better. I think it gets all the vibes across to understand the story, and the feelings, that are there.
I wanted to capture a few core concepts with this piece. I wanted to capture a sunset by having the colors of each panel slowly progress from blue to red-purple. You can see my sketches and color choices below.
Sometimes going outside is a lot.
As I said above, I started this project to explore some of my feelings. It will probably come as no surprise that I created this project during lockdown, a time when going outside very much felt just about as spooky as this. I wanted to capture the feelings that often come with having a need but being uncertain of how to meet that need, or if you can even know if you really understand what it is you need. Is the Vampire hungry? Does the Siren feel the same? How often does desire feel dangerous? And how often when stepping into new and frightening territories, is that sense of danger merely an illusion created by unfamiliarity? Is this a dangerous moment, or simply a new one? And most important of all, is introducing a 1v1 battle between a Vampire and a Siren truly getting at those melancholy questions we’ve all pondered at one time or another?
I finished this comic near the end of 2022, right around the time when people were hopeful that the Covid 19 pandemic was finally at an end. Everyone wanted to get back to normal. Everyone kind of knew that wasn’t really going to happen. Maybe some of those strange, frightening feelings are captured here. Heading into a new world after such an experience certainly feels like wading into a strange ocean. I can only hope the people I meet out there in the red waves are friendly. Or at least, that is how I felt at the time.
Vampire Vs Siren – the real question
Of course, the thing we all really care about is who between the two of these creatures would win in a 1v1 battle. (Place your bets now.) Sirens of course would have the advantage of being on their home turf, but how much of an advantage can that be when their main line of attack, drowning, won’t work on their undead opponent? Of course, we have to tweak the lore on Vampires and running water a bit to allow for this, but Vampire lore has been tinkered with by more prestigious writers than myself, so I think we can allow for this one.
The illustration on the right is a quick render of the sketch that was supposed to be the final panel of the comic – rather than the more ambiguous rising moon. I like the unclear ending, it preserves the melancholic uncertainty that the comic was meant to capture in the first place. But of course, I couldn’t resist finishing this fun scene out anyway. 😀
thanks for reading!
