As some of you folks may know, I originally published my succubus character Lorelei in a couple of small-press, digest-sized comics that I wrote and drew; the Lorelei One-Shot Special was released in 1989, with Lorelei #1 following in 1991. What you don’t know about is one of the fans I made through Lori—and what became of him…
Shortly after I published that second comic in late 1991, one of the orders I received was from a guy named Dirk Vermin, an artist living in Las Vegas, Nevada who was also the front man for his punk-rock band Vermin From Venus. He’d seen the ad I’d run for the comic, liked the succubus angle and the Tom Sutton cover, and decided that Lorelei #1 was a comic he had to have. Cool! Another fan to add to the then-growing list.
Early in 1992, Dirk wrote back to tell me how much he’d enjoyed the issue—so much so that along with the letter he sent a few creative goodies of his own: a copy of Vermin From Venus’s debut LP, Sex On Planet X; a copy of his debut comic, Betty Page Fetish Comix (starring 1950s pinup Bettie Page, whose bad-girl-next-door killer looks were introduced to a whole new generation of pinup fans through Dave Stevens’s Rocketeer comics); and a T-shirt printed with the Betty cover.
I still have all three of those items. And I wear that T a lot, even twenty years later. (It’s held up surprisingly well, after countless washings.)
I lost track of Dirk after that, in those prehistoric days before the Internet was a common thing, and it wasn’t until recently that I came across Sex on Planet X in my record collection (yes, such things still exist). Curious as to what might have become of Dirk, I went to the Google and ran a search…and was surprised by what turned up. He’s still rocking Vegas—though the band name has changed to The Vermin—but the stunner was, he’s also a TV celebrity! Folks who are into tattoos may recognize Dirk as the owner of Pussykat Tattoo—and the star of A&E’s new reality series Bad Ink, which just wrapped its first season.
Geez, you just never know how your fans are gonna turn out, do ya? 😉 I’ll have to check out the show, now—and knowing cable TV, it won’t be hard to catch it. A&E’s probably running the hell out of it to fill that Breaking Bad void, right? 😀
Last month StarWarp Concepts was an exhibitor at the Baltimore Comic-Con, and it was there that I met Joseph O’Donnell, publisher of the online magazine The Eerie Digest. After talking to Joe about what The ’Warp had to offer to dark fantasy readers, he asked if we could do a follow-up interview for the magazine’s fiftieth issue—and it’s now available!
Forget all about that gun-totin’ “Trinity of Sin” gal from our Distinguished Competition—
Independent publishing house StarWarp Concepts—home of dark-urban-fantasy books and graphic novels—returns for the 2013 New York Comic Con, being held on October 10–13 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.
Are you a fan of seafaring adventure like the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise or classic films like Captain Blood, The Crimson Pirate, and The Sea Hawk? Then does StarWarp Concepts have the comic for you!
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