COMICS

The following page features an overview of -- and extracts from -- some of the comics I've previously worked on.

X-MEN UNLIMITED #42

This issue was published in April 2003 and featured my story Emma Frost -- Ice Queen, which I'm including here.  The artwork was by Keron Grant and Rob Stull.  Aside from their sterling work, I also think the colorist, JD Smith, did a wonderful job.  Special thanks also to editor, David Bogart, who commissioned this story and played a major role in much of the work I've done in comics.

I first began working on comics back in 1998 when I was hired by David Bogart at Harris Comics to work on their famous Vampirella title.

The first issue I worked on, published in January 1999, was Vampirella #0, part of the on-going monthly continuity, picking up the story after Grant Morrison and Mark Millar had left the title.  Initial storylines and scripts were co-written with Steven Grant.

The first issue included the first comics work I had published, a story featuring Vampirella's feline frenemy, Pantha, in a story entitled Year of the Cat, which  established threads of the subsequent continuity and introduced Pantha's arch-enemy, the immortal -- and, needless to say, thoroughly immoral -- Nazi occultist, Dr. Midwinter.  Mike Mayhew provided the artwork.

The next project I worked on for Harris Comics was a crossover with Chaos! Comics necromantic anti-heroine, LADY DEATH ...

Originally planned as a one-issue stand-alone adventure that embroiled Vampirella and Lady Death in a violent conflict -- a literal bloodbath, in fact -- in pursuit of the mysterious Heart of Hell, possession of which would either save Vampirella's doomed world, Drakulon, or grant Lady Death supreme power over all the regions of Hell, this issue segued with the monthly title's ongoing continuity and set the stage for a return 'grudge match' that served as the climax of the over-arc.

The continuing story, entitled World's End, continued in Vampirella #13, which -- following the war in Hell -- saw our haemophagic heroine take on the forces of Heaven itself ... principally the archangel Metatron, guardian of the sacred Tetragrammaton.

Meanwhile, as Vampirella found herself in a rather tight spot, Pantha's ongoing adventures progressed as the Year of the Cat storyline continued with the shapeshifting avatar of the ancient Egyptian goddess, Sekhmet, encountering her Nazi nemesis, Dr. Midwinter, once more.  This time in modern day Berlin ...

Throughout 1999 and 2000 I continued on the monthly Vampirella title as the series' sole writer, working with various artists such as Patrick Zircher, Kevin Lau, Dorian Cleavenger, Mark Texeira and the late Louis Small Jr. 

During this period Vampirella's adventures included encounters with a lycanthropic war criminal/bounty hunter, a newly-evolved species of vampires and a sacrilegious coven of blood-drinking nuns. 

Meanwhile, in a parallel narrative, Pantha faced such perils as a snake-worshipping celebrity death cult, a revitalised Hellfire Club and her ongoing conflict with Dr. Midwinter.  All of this led -- inevitably -- to the ultimate showdown ... 

This two part story 'book-ended' a 1960s retro-adventure which saw Vampirella travel back in time to 1969, the year Forrest J Ackerman's iconic heroine first graced the pages of the original Warren Magazines publication.  A sequel to the original Vampirella/Lady Death crossover, this story brought together all the series' principle protagonists and antagonists in a climactic denouement to the ongoing monthly title ...

So, just when it looked as if Vampirella was doomed, she finds herself unexpectedly reincarnated along the astral continuum of her own karmic time-line when her old ally and sidekick, Pendragon, reintegrates her fugitive soul with her body while performing a magical ritual back in groovy 1969 ...

In the middle arc, Death Valley, Vampirella finds herself trapped in the past, desperately seeking the means to return to her own time and averting the genocidal apocalypse Dr. Midwinter and Lady Death are preparing to unleash.  The key to her quest lies with Pantha whom she meets as a B-movie actress starring in an exploitation film.  Complications occur when our heroines encounter the White Skulls, a gang of neo-Nazi bikers, dabbling in the occult and making plans for their own Helter Skelter holocaust ...

Vampirella Vs Lady Death concluded in dramatic style with a climax, appropriately entitled The End, in which Vampirella -- with the aid of the Spear of Destiny -- returns to her own time, defeats and subsequently joins forces with Lady Death. 

Together they destroy Dr Midwinter and the Nazi occult conspiracy, averting the imminent Apocalypse and saving humanity.

This story brought the ongoing Vampirella title to an end, leading to a brief hiatus that paved the way for the launch of ...

-- The manga-influenced Vampi, which I co-created with artist Kevin Lau.

The series ran for 25 issues which I wrote between 2000 and 2002.  The comic re-imagined Vampi in a futuristic, sci-fi style urban environment where she faced various threats in her quest to find a cure for her blood addiction. 

The series' initial story arc, Switchblade Kiss, was re-issued in both hardcover and paperback editions by Harris Comics/Anarchy Studios ...

And the second arc entitled Tainted Love was also re-published in both formats.

Dynamite Entertainment have re-published the first eighteen issues of the monthly Vampi series along with a short story previously exclusive to Previews magazine along with bonus material in Vampi Omnibus Vol. 1, which is currently available from all the usual outlets.

Dynamite Entertainment have also re-published the complete Year of the Cat and the two-part arc Venus in Furs/Femme Fatale along with other Pantha stories by Mark Millar and John Smith as Vampirella Masters Series Vol. 7: Pantha.  This title is currently available from the usual outlets.