“Scotland
horror author Carmilla Voiez and Belarus artist Anna Dmitrieva meet on a
Deviant Art and create eye popping horror graphic novel.”
"Starblood, the graphic novel", is due to be released May
29 2015. There is a Facebook based party to celebrate and all guests will be
given a free webcomic "Sex, Skulls and Sorcery" just for being there.
The party can be found at
https://www.facebook.com/events/392139034287981/
The
graphic novel is based on Carmilla Voiez's debut novel Starblood. Starblood and
Carmilla Voiez have won three awards since 2013 – Horror Fan's Asylum Horror
Author of the Year 2013, Fearventure Author of the Year 2014 and The Three
Bookateers' Horror Release of 2014, for the Starblood Trilogy.
Anna Dmitrieva has created concept art for computer games for the past 3
years and has a passion for bringing characters to life in her art.
Together
they have created something uniquely terrifying, Starblood the graphic novel,
which will be released on May 29th 2015.
They are working together to make graphic novel versions of the other
two books in the Starblood Trilogy. Psychonaut will be released in 2016 and
Black Sun in 2017. All graphic novel titles are published by Vamptasy
Publishing an imprint of US independent publishing house Crushing Hearts and
Black Butterfly.
Synopsis
-
STARBLOOD,
a tale of magic and horror and the debut novel by Carmilla Voiez, has been
transformed into a graphic novel by Anna Dmitrieva.
Blinded by love, Satori, a young magician, attempts a spell that goes
horribly wrong, resulting in the demon Lilith returning to Earth. Satori knows
he must send Lilith back. The dark goddess, brimming with power, makes it her
mission to wreak havoc on Satori's life by ensnaring Star, the woman he loves,
and her friends into a web of chaos and deceit.
Biographies
-
CARMILLA
VOIEZ -
Carmilla
grew up on a varied diet of horror. Her earliest influences as a teenage reader
were Graham Masterton, Brian Lumley and Clive Barker mixed with the romance of
Hammer Horror and the visceral violence of the first wave of video nasties.
Fascinated by the Goth aesthetic and enchanted by threnodies of eighties Goth
and post-punk music she evolved into the creature of darkness we find today.
Living
in the quiet town of Banff in North East Scotland, she finds inspiration in the
wildlife, castles and desolate places which surround her. She lives with her
two children, two cats and one poet-clown-partner by the sea.
Her
books are both extraordinarily personal and universally challenging. As Jef
Withonef of Houston Press once said - "You do not read her books, you
survive them."
Signed to Vamptasy Publishing in 2012 three books in the critically
acclaimed Starblood Trilogy have been published both separately as paperbacks
and in one volume for Kindle.
ANNA
DMITRIEVA -
Anna Dmitrieva is a CG artist from Belarus. Until 2012 she worked as a
freelancer. From 2012 she has been working for Fenomen Games and is mostly
involved in concept art creation. Her dream is to work full time as an
illustrator.
FAQs
-
Why
did you decide to release a graphic novel version of Starblood?
Again
and again I've been told that Starblood is an incredibly visual book and
readers would love to see it as a movie. I haven't had anyone grab the movie
rights YET, but it got me thinking about how else to bring the story to life.
I've always loved graphic novels and when I met Anna, an incredibly talented
artist who shared my vision, well the rest is history.
Are
there any significant differences between the novel and the graphic novel?
Yes. The graphic novel focuses on three characters: Lilith, Satori and
Star, whereas the novel focused on Freya as well. Anna saw some of the
characters differently, in particular Star, who in the novel and my head had
black ringlets. I loved her drawings so much I decided not to ask her to change
Star back, but it did mean some of the dialogue had to change. In the graphic
novel Star is referred to as the girl with the big eyes, whereas in the novel
it's the girl with the curls.
Do
you and Anna plan to work together again?
Absolutely.
We've already committed to making graphic novel adaptations of Psychonaut and
Black Sun.
Did
you learn anything new about the story when you saw it in graphic novel form?
I realised just how much sex and mutilation I had written. It's a very
adult graphic novel. I also realised that I had unwittingly written a few
caricatures as background characters and vowed to avoid doing that again. Of
course in comic art everything is magnified, but it was an eye-opener.
How
long did it take to make the graphic novel from start to finish?
If
you include the time it took to write the original story, then about three
years. The script and the art was produced during the same period with
preliminary sketches, discussion and changes to both. Then Anna worked on the
final images and a few minor changes were made during that process. It took
about a year of Anna and I working together, to produce the finished book.
Whose
book is it?
It's
definitely our book. With her art, Anna has added as much to the story as I
have with the words and original plot line. One couldn't exist without the
other.
Do
you think releasing this book will change your life?
I love my life, but it can always be made easier by a steady income. Now
a film deal, that would rock. Or a Starblood TV series. A girl can dream.
