VAMPIRE GIRL: The 10th Anniversary

Here it is, ten years after the fact. VAMPIRE GIRL was certainly one of my more peculiar and often overlooked (more on that later) creations, and the story of how it came to be is also a rather peculiar one . . . it all started with a song from one of rock-and-roll's quirkiest and most eccentric artists, that eventually lead to a web comic mini-series that really had hardly anything to do with the actual song itself, other than bearing the same name.

The Inspiration
It was October 2011, and Comcast's (now xfinity) Sounds of the Season Music Choice channel featured a playlist of Halloween music - just right for the occasion. In all honesty, I had never really heard much Halloween music before, and while there were a few songs featured in the playlist I had certainly heard before under other circumstances ("Witch Doctor" by David Seville, "Purple People Eater" by Sheb Wooley, "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker, Jr., "Headless Horseman" by Bing Crosby, "Tain't No Sin," "Devil Went Down to Georgia," just to name a few), there were a lot of songs that were completely new to my ears, and have since become just as much of a tradition to listen to every October as, well, Christmas music every December.

You ever get a song so stuck in your head, that it's almost impossible to get it out? That's what happened to me during this particular time (and it wasn't just Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London" or "Here Comes the Bride (of Frankenstein)" by Elvira and The B-52s): a really catchy, toe-tapping, almost rockabilly-esque song by Modern Lovers' Jonathan Richman.

Needless to say, this song wasn't just stuck in my head - it was practically etched and seared into my brain like no other song had been before . . . I had to do something about it!

The Development

Levana's evolution
during development,
from something of a
chibi-esque little girl to
an older twenty-
something-esque young
woman.

The strange thing is VAMPIRE GIRL didn't originate as a web comic; given how catchy and fun the song is, my thinking was it needed to be set to some kind of production number . . . in fact, I'll even go as far as to say it seemed like it would have made for a great number on THE MUPPET SHOW, that's how much I felt like the song was so fun. With that in mind, I envisioned such a production number with Steve D'Monster and Bethany Crystal, with Bethany in the part of the titular Vampire Girl, and Steve as the de-facto admirer of said Vampire Girl. However, at the time, I had other projects with Steve in the works (including planning a multi-part Christmas Eve special that never got made), so I considered that option off the table.

Still, I really needed to find some kind of a creative outlet for my own cathartic purposes from having this song stuck in my head so badly, and eventually, I began doodling vampire girls. After a few doodles and sketches, I eventually settled on a design that I liked particularly well, and decided that this design needed to be turned into an actual character . . . first thing's first, she needed a name, but I couldn't think of one. Ordinarily, I like to give my characters names that either fit their appearance or personality, or names that you don't hear very often (especially for fictional characters). A few different suggestions were pitched to me, including one from an artist friend of mine, Kimmi Guerrero, that just felt right: Levana. In Hebrew, "Levana" means "moon." In Latin, "Levana" means "to lift," or "raise up." In Roman mythology, "Levana" is a fertility goddess who protects newborns. In this case, "Levana" just seemed like a perfect name for a vampire! Now, I just needed to actually do something with her.

I came out of "Cartoon
Retirement" to tell Levana's
story.

Given that Levana was a cartoon character, doing a comic strip about her seemed like the most logical thing to do. Once upon a time, I dabbled in cartoons, comics, and even a little bit of animation, as it was always something I enjoyed doing, and seemed like something I would like to do as a career . . . but I had been doing such almost non-stop from 1999 into 2007 . . . quite frankly, I was getting very tired of it, and ended up suffering from burn-out . . . I didn't want to do it anymore, because puppetry had taken over as my one true passion, and that was what I wanted to focus more of my energy on. But for Levana, I was willing to come out of my "Cartoon Retirement" and do a comic about her: even if it was a short subject, like a mini-series or something that wouldn't run for too long . . . all I needed to do was figure out a story for her. Even though such characters always appeal to me, I was especially interested in developing somewhat subversive characters at the time, such as Ella the Elf, who was conceived shortly after Levana was (unlike traditional Christmas elves who are cheerful, jolly, and sugary sweet, Ella is snarky, cynical, and cold . . . no pun intended), so the idea came to me that Levana was a vampire . . . who didn't want to be a vampire. The life of a vampire had so many limitations, as so many things ordinary people take for granted can kill her: she can only travel by night to avoid sunlight, her diet is extremely limited to avoid things like garlic, and even she is disgusted by her thirst for blood. This is what lead to the comic's tagline: "She lives a life of irony."

Just your friendly, neighborhood
vampire hunters.

That became the main plot line of the story: Levana's journey to finding a way to make her a mortal girl. But, there still needed to be more to it than that; like every story, there needed to be conflict. This is where the comic's antagonists came in: upon learning about her mere existence, a pair of modern-day vampire hunters (named simply Vampire Hunter and Goofy Idiot Sidekick) attempt to hunt her down and destroy her.

Get high with a little help
from your friends.

There were still other details that needed to be filled in as well, and (dark) fantasy was a genre I had never really worked with before - but another artist friend of mine, Marie Kerns, was totally into that world; so after consulting with her, and bouncing around other ideas, all of the other little voids were filled in, such as Levana having befriended a hospital employee (CNA Laura) who would sneak her some human blood whenever she has urges from withdrawals or relapses, and figuring out how, exactly, she would eventually get to become mortal (with the aid of a cranky old wizard, and a very handsome doctor), the whole story was set into place.

For nearly an entire month, I worked almost non-stop (things slowed down because of Thanksgiving, obviously) putting the comic together, until it was finally completed and ready to be published.

The Inaugural Run

Original Smack Jeeves
cover art

On Thursday, December 8, 2011, VAMPIRE GIRL debuted. Originally hosted on Smack Jeeves, the comic ran weekly until March 29, 2012 for a total of seventeen strips (I had originally planned it for about thirteen, but the story ended up running a little longer than I thought it would) . . . and nobody read it.

There were certainly a number of factors at play as to why the comic went virtually unnoticed during its initial run: I think the biggest problem was it was a couple of months too late . . . granted, the comic wasn't necessarily Halloween-themed, but vampires are traditionally associated with Halloween, so the timing was way off.

Another factor was probably due to the fact that the whole mainstream vampire craze - while still very popular at the time - was kind of fizzling out and losing quite a bit of steam just the same . . . so again, with that in mind, VAMPIRE GIRL kind of felt like it missed the bandwagon and ended up tailing way far behind.

But as it turned out, one major factor was VAMPIRE GIRL, evidently, did not fall into the zeitgeist. During its initial run each week, I would take a peak at whatever the most popular web comics were that were generating a lot of traffic, and I came to notice that there were three particular categories of comics that seemed to dominate Smack Jeeves (and I presume other hosts at the time): Westernized Manga, stolen video game sprites, and LGBT. Not a lot of room for originality it seems, but then again, so is the internet (YouTube has been having similar problems ever since Google bought it out).

As a stunt one week, I took a particularly suggestive verse from Jonathan Richman's song and used it to advertise the comic in an attempt to lure in visitors and readers: "Is she in Heaven? Is she in Hell? Is she a sex industry professional?" Obviously, it didn't work . . . but, in a way, it was a fun little tribute to Jim Henson trying to get THE MUPPET SHOW sold under the title SEX AND VIOLENCE. Still, VAMPIRE GIRL ran for seventeen weeks, and aside from a few friends following it (out of politeness, I'm sure), nary a soul gave it a glance.

The Scrapped Second Season

"Vampress" Concept Art

Even though Levana's character and story arc were completely wrapped up in those seventeen strips, I played with the idea of a continuation of her story into something of a second season . . . something that not only would have shown how much she was embracing her new life as a mortal, but also showing what kind of consequences she may have faced for forsaking her vampish lifestyle. The idea I had was that Levana was now working at the same hospital as Laura and Dr. Charmin, where she was something of an orderly, mainly taking care of children (I guess they put in a good word for her and used her babysitting experience to help her get the job), little knowing that somewhere out there, an evil vampire empress (a "vampress" if you will), had discovered that one of her own has basically thrown away her birthright, and must be punished severely for it. Clearly, this would have been a lot darker and more along the lines of an actual horror-comedy than the initial comic was.

Incomplete rough draft of a
Season 2 strip, showing Levana's
new position as a hospital
orderly, reading to a sick kid.

I got as far doing some design work for such a second season, and even started making plans on how this continuation of the story could play out, but ultimately, I decided against it, for two main reasons: 1) As I said previously, Levana's arc was already wrapped up in those initial seventeen strips, and although it's a trend that Disney's been real hot about in the past couple of decades, I wasn't sure if we really needed to explore what happens after "happily ever after." 2) Again, nobody even read the comic during its original run, and the archive saw very, very little activity in the years afterward, so why continue another season of strips of a comic that nobody was even reading to begin with? In the end, I just left it as it was, and never pressed forward with any continuation of the story - I will admit, I sometimes still feel curious about how, exactly, such a continuation could possibly play out.


Other Random Thoughts
I never really had intentions of wanting to see VAMPIRE GIRL adapted into animation, however, every now and then, what few people have looked at it (mostly friends) have asked me who would I consider providing the voices of the characters . . . I do think about that from time to time, and I do believe I have in mind what my ideal voice cast would be:

Nika Futterman as Levana

Kat Cressida as Laura

Michael Dorn as Vampire Hunter

Rob Paulsen as Goofy Idiot Sidekick

John Byner as The Wizard

Tom Kane as Dr. Charmin

(Although Tom Kane has since endured a stroke and unable to do voice work anymore)

That being said, I have had thoughts about it being adapted into a live action short - maybe even with Steve D'Monster serving as the storyteller . . . although I have absolutely no idea who would be ideal to play each of the characters, the app Artbreeder has actually given me a pretty interesting idea of what a live action Levana could possibly look like, which blows me away.

Last year, when the COVID-19 pandemic was really peaking during its first wave, particularly in the U.S. where it was treated more like a political opinion than an actual threat to people's health and safety, I ended up utilizing the cast of characters in a couple of P.S.A. comics as it were, and although I had no intentions of actually rebooting the comic as a whole, I did have a few other brief little set-ups, gags, and jokes pop into my mind at the time as well, which resulted in these few little random strips I did, samples of which you can see here:

COVID Comic A

COVID Comic B

The Crossover That Nobody Asked For

Positive Negative

It's All About the Vitamins

Hang in There, Baby

So, there you have it: the story behind VAMPIRE GIRL on this day of its 10th anniversary. I would welcome you to browse the archive of the comic, but you can't do that anymore: As of late 2019,  Smack Jeeves has been bought out by another company, and basically, their entire server has been completely overhauled and redesigned, which has effectively killed the web comics that were being hosted on their server, including VAMPIRE GIRL, so I decided to just completely delete the comic altogether, so it's no longer online or available for viewing.

Behind-the-scenes