Sunglasses After Dark

“IF YOU LIKE YOUR VAMPIRES WITH A BIT OF GRIT AND A SIDE OF PUNK, THIS IS THE ONE FOR YOU.” –COMIC BASTARDS

VAMPIRE TURNED VAMPIRE HUNTER SONJA BLUE TRAVELS THE GLOBE, HUNTING DOWN AND DISPOSING OF THOSE CREATURES OF THE SHADOWS THAT PREY ON THE INNOCENT, ALL THE WHILE SEARCHING FOR THE MONSTER WHO CREATED HER. BUT AS DANGEROUS AS HUNTING THE UNDEAD MAY BE, IT'S NOTHING COMPARED TO THE THREAT POSED BY THE OTHER, THE DEMONIC PERSONALITY WHO SHARES HER BODY. CAN SONJA BLUE OVERCOME HER VERY REAL PERSONAL DEVIL IN TIME TO RESCUE AN INNOCENT MAN FROM THE UNHOLY CLUTCHES OF A CORRUPT PSYCHIC HEALER? THIS COMPILED EDITION IS DIGITALLY RECOLORED BY ORIGINAL ARTIST STAN SHAW, COMPLETELY RELETTERED BY THOMAS MAUER, AND HAS RE-TWEAKED DIALOG AND NARRATION

BY AUTHOR NANCY A. COLLINS. www.idwpublishing.com • $34.99

WRITTEN BY

NANCY A. COLLINS ART AND COLORS BY

STAN SHAW LETTERING BY

THOMAS MAUER COVER BY

STAN SHAW EDITS BY

JUSTIN EISINGER AND ALONZO SIMON DESIGN BY

GILBERTO LAZCANO

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978-1-63140-162-6

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SUNGLASSES AFTER DARK: FULL BLOODED COLLECTION. NOVEMBER 2014. FIRST PRINTING. Sunglasses After Dark and Sonja Blue © Nancy A. Collins. © 2014 Idea and Design Works, LLC. The IDW logo is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. IDW Publishing, a division of Idea and Design Works, LLC. Editorial offices: 5080 Santa Fe St., San Diego, CA 92109. Any similarities to persons living or dead are purely coincidental. With the exception of artwork used for review purposes, none of the contents of this publication may be reprinted without the permission of Idea and Design Works, LLC. Printed in Korea.

IDW Publishing does not read or accept unsolicited submissions of ideas, stories, or artwork.

Originally published as SUNGLASSES AFTER DARK issues #1-6 Ted Adams, CEO & Publisher Greg Goldstein, President & COO Robbie Robbins, EVP/Sr. Graphic Artist Chris Ryall, Chief Creative Officer/Editor-in-Chief Matthew Ruzicka, CPA, Chief Financial Officer Alan Payne, VP of Sales Dirk Wood, VP of Marketing Lorelei Bunjes, VP of Digital Services Jeff Webber, VP of Digital Publishing & Business Development IDW founded by Ted Adams, Alex Garner, Kris Oprisko, and Robbie Robbins

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INTRODUCTION

Stan Shaw October, 2014

INTRODUCTION I G OT S O M E TH I N' TO S AY TO YO U A N D YO U B E T TE R LISTEN: THE STORY OF SUNGLASSES AFTER DARK: THE FULL BLOODED COLLECTION Four years ago, I signed the contract with IDW to reprint the comic book adaptation of Sunglasses After Dark in graphic novel form. Ever since then, whenever I mention the project to my fans, the majority of them exclaim: “Cool! It’s about time! I always thought she would make a great comic book hero!,” completely unaware that there was a six-issue miniseries in the mid-1990s.

The reason for why even my dedicated fans know nothing about the comic book adventures of my most famous literary creation is a classic study in Fin de Siècle Comic Book History. The publisher of the original miniseries was Verotik Publications, owned by heavy metal artist Glenn Danzig of Misfits and Samhain fame. Glenn was a fan of my Bram Stoker award-winning novel, Sunglasses After Dark, and approached me about adapting it for his new company. The idea was for Sunglasses After Dark to bring in a more ‘mainstream’ audience, as I had just left a successful two-year stint as writer for DC’s Swamp Thing series.

I was then introduced to artist Stan Shaw, and after a test run adapting my short story “Aphra” confirmed that we were compatible, we began brainstorming on character design. Since I was living on the Lower East Side at the time, and he was in the Pacific Northwest, most of it was done via an ancient, preinternet technology known as the thermofax. (You had to be there.) However, as Stan and I labored over bringing Sonja Blue to ‘life’ as a comic book character, neither of us was aware as to the exact nature of all the other Verotik titles, save that they were utilizing such heavy-hitters as Frank Frazetta, Esteban Maroto, and Simon Bisley.

The first story Stan and I collaborated on, “Aphra,” saw print in Verotika #4, alongside a story called “A Taste of Cherry.” What followed after its publication is a long, complicated, and graphic story, one that ultimately involved obscenity laws, the state of Oklahoma, and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

While the case was eventually dismissed, the ultimate result of the ‘scandal’ was that Verotik titles were often treated like plutonium. They weren’t displayed with the other comics but were, instead, kept behind the counter in sealed bags with nothing but the title visible. This included Sunglasses After Dark, even though it was essentially a PG-13 title designed to bring in the Vertigo-buying crowd. That meant the only way to buy a copy was to already know about its

existence and pick it up at your local comic book store. If your friendly neighborhood shop didn’t carry it, the only other recourse was to buy it directly from Verotik Publications, either through the mail or their online shop (while the internet was still in its wobbly colt stage), at one of the few conventions they showed at, or at one of Danzig’s concerts. It also didn’t help that the fabled Comic Book Implosion and Distributor Wars between Diamond, Capital Comics and Heroes World (which resulted in the closure of scores of comic retailers in North America) was occurring at the exact same time. So that is why, almost 20 years after the fact, most Sonja Blue fans are still completely unaware she ever appeared in comic book form. (Phew) Both Stan and I have always felt Sunglasses After Dark got a raw deal and never had a chance of finding its audience. We became friends during the production of the series and have remained in touch throughout the years, and the topic of somehow finding a way to reprint the series was one we always went back to. But since Danzig still owns the original color film of the series, and there was no way we could afford to buy it from him, we would have to start from scratch. Luckily, Stan and I owned the rights to the original artwork and scripts, but the cost of re-coloring and re-lettering the hundreds of pages, much less printing them, was prohibitive.

But time passed, and with it came the age of digital coloring and lettering, as well as the rise of the collected graphic novel. Suddenly, the ability to give Sunglasses After Dark the second chance it deserved was no longer beyond our grasp. When my old friend, Jeff Connor, contacted me in 2009 about writing some prose stories for IDW, I mentioned that Stan and I were looking for a way to reprint Sunglasses After Dark, and one thing lead to another... and so here we are. As to the particulars behind the Herculean task of digitally recoloring the entire series, I will leave that to Stan to describe in his own introduction. (Ed’s Note: He does not.) As for myself, I used the opportunity to go back and reconfigure my original dialog and narration so that the story reads less like the adaptation of a novel and more like a graphic novel.

So here is Sonja Blue, in all her punk vampire / vampire-slayer glory: No sparkling allowed.

Nancy A. Collins October, 2014