Steve Orlando Takes A Bite Out Of Vampirella With Dynamite Entertainment's Kickstarter

By Chad Burdette

on July 20, 2024

Currently running on Kickstarter is Dynamite Entertainment’s crowdfunding campaign: VAMPIRELLA BLACK WHITE & BLOOD!

Mirka Andolfo, Tim Seeley, and Steve Orlando are delivering cutting tales of terror that drip blood and beauty in a cutting comics masterpiece with art presented in stark black, white, and blood (red) making the jagged teeth of this thrilling special even stand out boldly against the page.

Steve Orlando ( Scarlet Witch, Virgil, Spider-Man 2099 & Annihilation 2099), sat down with Comic Watch to answer a few questions about his contribution to the Vampirella Kickstarter campaign.

Comic Watch: How did you get into comics as a reader and professionally?

Orlando:

As a reader? I got my first ever comic in the mid-1980s, and it was WEST COAST AVENGERS #16. I have to assume my parents got it for me to keep me amused while they hunt the flea markets of Upstate New York for sports memorabilia and trading cards–but from that moment, I was all in on these books and their wild stories.

As far as breaking in, I began making my own comics at 12 years old, saving money to travel to comicons where I could meet professionals and editors in person, and I began getting critiques and coming back with new comics that worked in response to their critiques. At the same time, I built networks with creators and editors who believed in me and were brave enough to tell me what was wrong with my work–that is to say, the aspects that were not yet professional level. I took the crit, made a new comic, and came back for more.

I did that non-stop, from ages 12 to 29, multiple times a year.

Comic Watch: What is your history with Vampirella and what drew you to this project?

Orlando:

I love the pulp era of science fiction, and there’s always been a healthy bit of that with Vampirella. Yes, she’s a horror character.

Yes, she’s provocative, yes, she’s a sexual character. But she was also a vampire princess from the Planet Drakulon, where the rivers ran with blood. And I loved the mad absurdity of that. Hell, I wrote a paper on her in college in a class covering the literary intersection of sex and death.

And that’s also the draw to this project–Vampirella embodies both, she embodies the line where the blur, not unlike the Cenobites from HELLRAISER. And like them, she’s a force of nature, a being of awe. And that’s where our story comes in.

Comic Watch: What is the elevator pitch for your Vamperella (*Vampirella) story and where did you draw inspiration for it

Orlando:

Our VAMPIRELLA story is, in its way, FATAL ATTRACTION meets THE GODFATHER. As far as inspiration, it’s the same well that drew me to the project, as above–Vampirella lives at the intersection of sex and death, she’s a force of nature. And people have been known to become obsessed with power they can’t comprehend.

Comic Watch: Who is the rest of the creative team that you are working with and how was the collaborative process compared to your other work

Orlando:

I’m lucky enough to be working with Alessandro Amoruso on this, along with my friends at Studio Arancia.

Alessandro understands the raw, primal, meaty appeal of the story. He understands we’re existing on the line between sex and death, and that’s a powerful place to be.

But it’s also as grotesque as it is beautiful, that’s the impossible and enrapturing dynamic. As soon as Alessandro got the script, he took that baton and ran with it–his work is organic, it’s fresh, and it’s often shocking.

Just like Vampirella herself!

Comic Watch: Where there any challenges you faced working with the Black White and Blood theme, did it make you approach the writing in a different way than say your superhero work?

Orlando:

As with any work, we want to make the most of our format. So, as you note above, this isn’t the same as writing any other story–could it be written so?

Yes. But if we’re doing black and white with spot color, we ideally want to structure the story from the start to have ways to highlight the spot color.

On a book like this, as you’d guess, that’s the blood and it’s Vampirella’s costume. We find ways to highlight that and make the most out of it.

On a similar book like, say, DARTH VADER: BLACK, WHITE, AND RED, the places we find our spot color are different, so the ways we push and pull the story are different.

Comic Watch: From the project description it sounds like you are working with some dark themes, besides a great read do you want readers to get something from the story on a deeper level?

Orlando:

For our story at least, this is about understanding our relationship with nature.

Here, it’s personified by Vampirella and inspired by works such as the documentary GRIZZLY MAN. Our characters believe they can know or understand Vampirella because of how she looks–but it’s a facade.

There’s only the illusion of a relationship, of familiarity, or of even understanding. We are prey to nature’s whims, even if we think we understand it–we are mortal. And so too is that true of anyone believing they truly know Vampirella.

Comic Watch: Is there anything new you tried to or feel like you are bringing to the character and/or her mythos as a whole with this story?

Orlando:

This is a quick story, anthology entries almost always are.

But this perspective of art, obsession, and mortality are what we’re bringing to the table. We’re approaching Vampirella like contemporary folklore, like a cryptid, something beyond the pale of modern man.

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So check out the project now and don’t miss VAMPIRELLA BLACK WHITE & BLOOD!

You can find this, and other great crowdfunding projects spotlighted here on Comic Watch every week on out Krowdfunder Korner, every Saturday an 12:00 PM Eastern.