Writer Tim Seeley and artist Colin Howell announced a new ongoing series today: Dark Red, which tells the story of a disenfranchised overnight convenience store clerk in a forgotten and impoverished corner of rural America….who is also a vampire.

Early word of the book, which is being published by AfterShock Comics, makes it sound like a story about the country’s growing regional class divides told through the lens of a vampire. That vampire’s name is Chip, and in the series’ official announcement, Seeley describes Chip’s story as “horror-crime title that takes a new look at what it would be like to be a legendary monster and it takes it really seriously with a lot of heart.” Seeley also compared the book, which is due out in March, to one of his most famous works, Hack/Slash.

“It’s a story influenced by current events,” Seeley added, “but told with a down-on-his-luck vampire and a cast of some of the best characters I’ve ever managed to make up. And there’s a lot of my own life in here too. I love to write some good old fashioned honesty next to some decapitations and eviscerations.”

The full announcement with preview artwork from AfterShock Comics can be found below:

Dark Red #1 / $3.99 / 32 pages / Full Color / ON SALE 03.20.19
Writer: Tim Seeley
Artist: Corin Howell
Letterer: Marshall Dillon
Cover: Aaron Campbell
Incentive 1:10 Cover: Larry Stroman

Charles “Chip” Ipswich isn’t one of those coastal elites with a liberal arts degree and a job at a social media start-up who knows where all the best brunch places are…

No, Chip is one of the “forgotten men.” He lives in a rural area in the middle of the country where Jesus still has a place at the dinner table and where factories ship jobs to Calcutta.

Chip is also a vampire.

Stuck working the last shift at a gas station, Chip is lonely and bored…and then his dull, bleak life is turned upside down when SHE comes to town.

Tim Seeley (BRLLIANT TRASH) and Corin Powell bring you a contemporary and horrifying tale of vampirism in the heart of America — one that’ll make you jump right out of your boots.

ON WHAT THE BOOK IS ABOUT AND WHY HE’S EXCITED FOR COMIC READERS TO CHECK IT OUT:

“The story features a rural vampire named Chip, who works full time at an all-night convenience store. He has to make sure his shift is over before the sun comes up.  It’s a pretty miserable existence, because a he doesn’t have access to any of the flourishes and community urban vampires do. And that pisses him off, because he also knows what those fancy bloodsucking fops think of people like him. Then of course, a stranger comes to town, the bodies start piling up, and Chip is forced to confront everything he thinks he knows about himself, vampires, his home, and America itself.

It’s a story influenced by current events, but told with a down-on-his-luck vampire and a cast of some of the best characters I’ve ever managed to make up.

And there’s a lot of my own life in here too. I love to write some good old fashioned honesty next to some decapitations and eviscerations.”

ON HOW MUCH OF THIS STORY IS DRAWN FROM HIS PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:

“A LOT. Which is probably strange to say in a story about a vampire. But we’re used to seeing vampires as this very glamorous, urban phenomenon and I wondered what it would be like to be the bloodsucker who got left out in the country. I grew up in a rural area, near a medium sized town. But I’ve lived in major rural areas now for 20 years, after I had to leave my hometown in search of opportunity. I’ve watched the politics and  lifestyles of rural people and urban people become vastly different from each other I‘ve seen the mutual resentment they share for each other first hand. So, this book seeks to look into that, using a vampire as a metaphor.”

ON SOME OF HIS FAVORITE AFTERSHOCK TITLES:

“I’ve been doing a horror comic deep dive lately, so I’ve been digging SHIPWRECK, ANIMOSITY, BABYTEETH and Cullen Bunn’s stuff like DARK ARK and WITCH HAMMER.”

ON (3) REASONS WHY COMIC BOOK FANS SHOULD ADD THIS BOOK TO THEIR PULL LIST:

“It’s a horror-crime title that takes a new look at what it would be like to be a legendary monster and it takes it really seriously with a lot of heart. I’m getting to combine the crime aspects of REVIVAL with the genre examination of HACK/SLASH and it’s awesomely reinvigorating. Plus, I get to work with Corin Howell, who is doing some really beautiful work on the interiors, and my old friend Aaron Campbell on covers, who has become an absolute master at creeping people out.”

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