Concept art piece by Christopher Shy
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So it begins... This article or section contains information about scheduled or expected future product(s). |
Vampire Hunter D: Message from Mars, also referred to as Vampire Hunter D: Message from Cecile is a currently running comic book adaptation of Message from Cecile, an unpublished Hideyuki Kikuchi short story never before released in english. This story was only given to fans as a prize during an event in Japan and will make it's English debut in this 5 comic book series published by Stranger Comics.
Synopsis[]
Message from Mars is told from the point of view of Cecile, a girl who could see the future, one of the human colonists on Mars. D arrives to find a colony that is little more than a blood farm. With Left Hand by his side, D sets out to cleanse Mars of the vampiric scourge! We see the ascension of the Nobility in the aftermath of a nuclear war on Earth and a part of the beginning of D's journey as a vampire hunter.
Main Characters[]
- D
- Left Hand
- Sacred Ancestor
- Cecile Romani (a human colonist who now resides in Wells capital city of Mars as a technician training to work on the galactic drive)
Antagonist[]
- Vampiress Elite (unnamed vampire lord who seems to lead a group of Nobility Monster Mix)
- Vampire Elite (unnamed vampire lord who seems to be second in command of a group of Nobility Monster Mix)
- Nobility Monster Mix (mix of enhanced humans, bio-men, genetically engineered animals, and creatures created by the Nobility that attack D in the city of Wells)
- Bruce the energy vampire (a vampire lord who now resides on Mars originally from Earth)
Other Characters[]
- Franz Weaver (a human colonist who resides in Wells)
- Blood farm's human cattle
Beastiary[]
Technology[]
- Galactic Drive (galactic drive is an engine used to propel spaceships)
- Spaceship (mode of transport to travel through space)
Locations[]
- Mars (red planet in earth's solar system)
- Mars Colony (massive multi-city colony built on mars)
- Wells (capital city of the mars colony)
- Blood Farm (a farm where humans are herded like cattle)
Background Information from Scott McLean[]
The story in this comic book series is not planned for the show.
Firstly, the main series of the VHD novels all take place on Earth. This story is set on Mars.
Secondly, when I read Message from Cecile(I think I was the 3rd person to see it in English), I loved the story, but as a short story, I didn't see it adapting well to either a feature film or a TV episode. After sharing it with our team, we thought it could be a great story for a comic book adaptation.
Kikuchi-san had a few questions since American style comic books(24 page, full color comics) don't exist in Japan. After we showed him what we wanted to do, he gave us his blessing.
And so, here we are looking at issue #1 of Vampire Hunter D: Message from Mars.
And a huge thanks to Kevin, the series translator, for putting this story in my hands.
D's Appearance Concept Explained by Scott McLean[]
As far as Cloak vs coat and the interior of the cloak being red, black or something else:
In the novels, D sometimes has a coat, sometimes a cloak. Since a choice had to be made from an art direction perspective, a cloak was chosen.
From a purely practical, art design perspective, solid black everything doesn't work well visually because you have no contrast. Hence, the red interior of the cloak. Or the Deadpool logic of, I wear red so you can't see the blood, could also be applicable since there is an awful lot of blood getting spilled. (Deadpool never actually came up in this discussion process)
Some information on the coloring and inking done on the series by Richard Friend[]
https://www.instagram.com/p/CY7bQPAvgl-/
Ok so here's the info for people who want to grab this. This project was originally a kickstarter maybe 3 or 4 years back. But the original artist couldn't the complete job. Ryan Benjamin was brought on to complete the series. We'd been working together and I was asked about inking it. We were not part of the original campaign.
Ryan ultimately ended up coloring the series (and redrawing the entire first book the other artist had done) which looks INCREDIBLE. But anyway. I finished inking the series which is about 110-125 pages I think in December 2018. Something like that. But if you want to get the book check out @vhdtheseries here for a direct link. I'm not 100% sure who did that piece of art attached to this post. It may be Jae Lee I know that Jae is doing a variant cover.
Very cool drawing and colors for sure. It was really cool to be able to work on a project like this in particular because we got to work under the wing of not only a great company but the original creator of Vampire Hunter D: Hideyuki Kikuchi. He was very particular about the look. It made it a fun challenge. Ok. That's all I know! @ryanbnjmn #vampirehunterd #hideyukikikuchi'
Creative Team[]
Hideyuki Kikuchi- Original short story by luminary author Hideyuki Kikuchi.
Kevin Leahy- Hideyuki Kikuchi's personal translator credited with putting the project in motion by translating the original work used for the story as seen above.
Brandon Easton-Adapting "Message from Mars" is veteran comic writer and screenwriter Brandon Easton.
Yoshitaka Amano-Inspired by the original production design created by the legendary Yoshitaka Amano.
Christopher Shy-Visual development was spearheaded by the wonderful Christopher Shy.
Michael Broussard-The stunning art for “Message from Mars” is being created by the amazing Michael Broussard.(First Comic)
Ryan Benjamin- Taking over for Micheal Broussard as the main artist for "Message from Mars" after the first comic. He will now be the main artist of the series in general.
Richard Friend- Veteran Artist who will be providing inks for the series, replacing Micheal Broussard in this capacity as main artist after the first comic.
Agnes Garbowska-Artist of an alternate art cover and exclusive future motion scene in her style
Hyoung Taek Nam- Alternate Cover Artist
Artgerm- Alternate Cover Artist
Jae Lee- Alternate Cover Artist
Unified Pictures and Digital Frontier- Supporting the creation of comics are the entire creative teams of both Unified Pictures and Digital Frontier.
Full List of Credits[]
Interviews[]
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interview/2016-06-30/unified-pictures-and-vampire-hunter-d/.103801
http://previewsworld.com/Article/184176-Michael-Broussard-Paints-Vampire-Hunter-D
Order/Pre-Order Here![]
Stranger Comics are now taking pre orders directly through your local comic book shop NOW!
Just take the code and give it to them and they can place an order for your Message From Mars Comic!
As seen on the face book page:
PreOrder available now! Vampire Hunter D written by Brandon Easton (#AgentCarter, #MASK). Art by Michael Broussard (#Artifacts, #TheDarkness). Variants by Jae Lee (#DarkTower, #Wolverine) and ArtGerm (#HarleyQuinn, #WonderWoman). Tell your local comic shop the dhampir has returned.
PreOrder Code for:
Cover A by Michael Broussard SEP161905
Cover B by Jae Lee SEP161906
Sketch Blank SEP161907
Hyoung Taek Nam cover can be ordered here:
http://hidehocomics.com/vhdcolor.html
They can also be ordered here:
http://www.strangercomics.com/product/vampire-hunter-d-1b/
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1951067948/vampire-hunter-d-message-from-mars (Former Link for the Kickstarter, this is no longer in use since the kickstarter is over)
Possible Covers[]
There are more to come possible alternate covers coming soon including those from Yoshiaki Kawajiri, and Yoichi Mori. The Cover by Agnes Garbowska may become available as a comic in the future. As well as concept alternate covers by Christopher Shy and Micheal Broussard.
Known Covers[]
Gallery[]
.jpg "Ryan Benjamin and Richard Friend VHD Message from mars comic number 2 color preview vhd-comic-monster-lab-color (1).jpg (1.82 MB)")
.jpg "Ryan Benjamin unnamed preview pencil (1).jpg (304 KB)")
.jpg "Ryan Benjamin Richard Friend unnamed preview black and white (4).jpg (335 KB)")
.png "Ryan Benjamin Richard Friend color unnamed preview (1).png (1.23 MB)")
Trivia[]
- Agnes Garbowska artist for my little pony and many other works including the chibi D alternate cover is a huge Vampire Hunter D fan.
- Agnes Garbowska's cover has a motion capture for the scene leading from before and up to what is depicted to also be released in the future.
- The motion comic made for this will have full movement and a cast of voice actors for the scenes that have not yet been commissioned.
- Talison Jaffe introduced Brandon Easton to Scott McLean to adapt the story.
- Scott McLean met Agnes in 2015 at another venue.
- Scott McLean met Joshua Cozine of Stranger comics in 2015 at another venue.
- The Covers involving the moon were rejected as a cover due to it not being considered on Mars. There was opposing discussion on this including that Mars does have two such moons. These rejected covers may become available as alternate covers.
- There are two colors for the Christopher Shy cover dubbed "Blue" and "Red". The "Red" cover will be the cover considered more targeted for collection.
- There is a scene where various monsters of the Nobility created on Mars attack D. Not all of them are described. Here Kikuchi-san gave the team the green light to come up with their own creative monsters to depict for the comic
- It is in the works for the original "Message from Cecile" work that that comic is based on will become available in 2017.
- Brandon Easton may be part of the creative team to work on the show after the completion of the comic.
- With the success of this project Kikuchi-san has made it known unreleased directions he has planned for the story so the creative team doesn't veer off that preset course and is in line with his thoughts of where the story will head.