Everybody wants in on those precious comics IPs! The big news for Vault Comics since my last pubwatch is Forbes’ report about the publisher securing a new investment deal with activist investor Jeff Ubben, global talent agency UTA, healthcare entrepreneur Rick Matros; and Black Squirrel Partners. Although the terms of the deal have not been made public, Vault CEO and publisher Damian Wassel indicates that the original founders will maintain a majority stake in the business.
In other news, Vault showed their gratitude to retailers that ordered their new Western horror comic, West of Sundown #1, with a special Vault Vintage cover by The Crow’s James O’Barr. The cover, designed by Tim Daniel, is an homage to Bernie Wrightson’s iconic 1971 cover art for House Of Secrets #92. The title has already sold out and has gone into its second printing.
Coming Soon
Coming in June this year is Mindset, written by Zack Kaplan, illustrated and coloured by John J. Pearson, lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, designed by Tim Daniel, and featuring variant covers by Martin Simmonds.
“When an introverted tech geek from Stanford, with dreams of changing the world, accidentally discovers a form of mind control, he and his friends do something unexpected – they put the science into a meditation app to help users break their addiction to other manipulative technologies and platforms. But after their rags-to-riches rise, a wake of murders and a series of mind games, their Mindset app replaces all rival social media and achieves a cult following of a billion users, and they must ask the question – are they helping people or controlling them? “
Fans have been waiting a long time for Jon Tsuei and artist Stacey Lee’s Fox and Hare, but May 25, the wait will finally be over.
“When black market coder Aurora Yi uncovers top secret data that has tapped into the past lives of the citizens of Mazu Bay, her world is turned upside down. The mega corporation Synastry Designs wants its data back and is hot on her trail. Aurora has no choice but to turn to the Fox and the Hare, the most feared mercenaries in the city, for protection. Rebellion. Reclamation. Rebirth.”
Cover Gallery
Aren’t they gorgeous?
Spotlight
Constance Der Abend had intended to sleep through the American Civil War. How inconvenient that she is awakened right in the middle of it, but how fortunate that it is the hapless confederate soldier, Dooley O’Shaughnessy, who digs her up and becomes her loyal servant in West of Sundown #1. The pair live in decadence in New York for many years, with Constance feeding on the true monsters of society, until hunters take everything from them, forcing Constance to return to the earth that rebirthed her.
And so West of Sundown sets the stage for its vampire western horror story. In terms of vampire lore, Constance maintains much of the basics as she moves fashionably through high society. The first issue doesn’t waste any time in establishing what their lives were like during this period of their partnership, and the loss of their home to the hunters’ torch is keenly depicted in flames and melting flesh.
More striking than the gorgeous covers — like this one — is the relationship between Constance and Dooley. When they initially meet, Dooley seems like a hapless soldier who falls at the feet of a goddess. Indeed, Constance instantly brands herself as a woman who expects to be served and obeyed without question, and Dooley’s constant wide-eyed fearful face makes him seem like a simple minion. This dynamic certainly does exist to an extent, but the writers offer a deeper relationship than master and servant, with a respect and caring that isn’t so typical in vampiric lore. As the scenes shift to New York and then on the journey to New Mexico, we also see a pair who have formed a unique and genuine reciprocal bond that we learn more about through Dooley himself in narration that isn’t bound up in too much self deprecation and guilt. The monstrous reveal at the end of the first issue promises lots of old west horror shenanigans to come, but it’s this relationship that has me particularly invested in what happens after sundown.
