Before the AMC Anne Rice Immortal Universe, and even before the movies Interview with the Vampire and Queen of the Damned, the only non-book representation of Rice’s books came in comic book form. In the early ‘90s in particular, Lestat and his undead cohorts were bestselling independent comics, alongside comics like Grendel, Hellboy, and others. But today, these Anne Rice comics are long out of print, and only available on the secondary market. But they were an early indicator that Rice’s vampire characters would have cross-media appeal in future years to come.
Anne Rice’s novels were at their peak of popularity in the late ‘80s. Interview with the Vampire, published in 1976, slowly became a cult classic over time. By the time the sequel, The Vampire Lestat, came out nine years later, it capitalized on the first book’s iconic status and became an instant bestseller. When the third novel, The Queen of the Damned, came out in 1988, it shot to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. A year later, Ballantine sold the three books together as a trilogy, The Vampire Chronicles, and the popularity of the packaged novels skyrocketed. They were every Goth kid’s equivalent of The Lord of the Rings. A new “holy trilogy” soaked in blood and black velvet.
The movie adaptation of Rice’s vampire novels became stuck in development hell for the ‘80s and early ‘90s. But during this same period, the comic book industry was booming. In addition to the big two publishers, DC and Marvel, dozens of other indie publishers popped up during this era. One of these was Innovation Comics, which first started publishing in 1988. Although they had some original titles, they mostly licensed material, like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Quantum Leap. During this time, Innovation licensed Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat for a 12-part adaptation. The first issue hit comic shops in late 1989.
The adaptation was written by Faye Perozich, with interior art by Daerick Gross and gorgeous painted covers by John Bolton. This was a very faithful adaptation of Rice’s prose, and the characters looked very much as she described them. In fact, Lestat looks almost exactly like actor Rutger Hauer, Rice’s pick to portray the character on film. For the most part, Rice fans flipped for it. The comics became an instant hit, flying off comic shop shelves. It’s no doubt because the comics’ arrival coincided with the three Vampire Chronicles now collected and sold together at the same time. It created a perfect storm.
Innovation quickly got deeper into the Anne Rice business. Once The Vampire Lestat wrapped up with issue 12, they licensed Rice’s other two Vampire Chronicles novels, Interview with the Vampire and The Queen of the Damned. Not only that, they adapted one of Rice’s most obscure vampire stories, the novella The Master of Rampling Gate, into a graphic novel, and released several “Vampire Companions.” These standard comic book-sized behind-the-scenes publications featured interviews with Anne Rice herself, and photos of vampire fan cosplay and art. It was an early showcase for Rice’s vampiric fandom, pre-Internet.
But Innovation soon became a victim of the great comic book industry crash of 1994. This is when dozens of publishers downsized or outright collapsed. Even giants DC and Marvel felt the sting badly. Innovation went under, with the final issue of Queen of the Damned never published. Aside from The Vampire Lestat, none of these comics were ever collected, and remain out of print today. Some great artwork from creators like Christopher Moeller, Alexander Jubran, and Octavio Cariello will remain lost to new fans, unless they go on an eBay deep dive.
That wasn’t the end of Anne Rice comics, however. Millennium Comics, another now-defunct publisher, began publishing an adaptation of Rice’s The Witching Hour. This was the 1990 supernatural novel that began its own trilogy, currently adapted as The Mayfair Witches on AMC. The publisher intended this to run for 10 issues, but they cut it short with five, leaving the adaptation incomplete. Millennium adapted another Rice novel, The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned, and that one finished out its 12-issue run.
At the end of the ‘90s, an obscure publisher brought Lestat back to comics at last. However, this became yet another short-lived event. Sicilian Dragon acquired the rights to the fourth Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles novel, The Tale of the Body Thief, for a 12-issue series. But low sales ended the adaptation at issue four, although the rest of the series was told as an original graphic novel instead. In 2011, IDW adapted Rice’s 1996 ghost novel The Servant of the Bones, which Rice herself went on the road to promote.
But in 2013, fans finally saw the return of Lestat and company in comic book form. The graphic novel Interview with the Vampire: Claudia’s Story retold the story of Rice’s first 1976 novel. Only this time, from the point of view of the tragic vampire child, Claudia. Published by Yen Press, writer/artist Ashley Marie Witter adapted the novel, manga-style. Anne Rice was enough of a fan of this adaptation, she included it in her bibliography at the start of her novels. Claudia’s Story hit stores a year before Anne Rice returned to her vampires, starting with Prince Lestat, in 2014.
Will someone ever re-adapt these timeless stories in comic book form again? Who can say? With the AMC series currently running, it seems unlikely. However, the original comics should become available to fans again. Here’s hoping a modern comics publisher acquires the original assets and collects some of them properly at last. Some of these are true gems, deserving to be read and discovered by new audiences. Especially those viewers who have fallen in love with these characters thanks to AMC’s Anne Rice Immortal Universe. With Lestat, Louis, and Armand TV stars now, it’s high time to return them to the pages of comic books.
The post The Weird History of Anne Rice’s Vampires in Comic Books appeared first on Nerdist.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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