The year is 44 B.C. Julius Caesar has conquered Transylvania, and vampyres are Rome’s new slave class. But when rich mortals start turning up dead with fang marks on their necks, Valens, a vampyre slave-turned-Roman soldier, plunges into the blood-soaked underworld of Rome to capture the Pluto’s Kiss Killer. If he can prove himself, he’ll earn rank and riches beyond what anyone this side of the Tiber has ever seen! But if he fails, he just might find himself on top of the pile of bodies!

Don’t miss this crimson-red, 6-issue thriller that mixes the undead intrigue of True Blood with the brutal Roman action and political drama of Spartacus from newcomers Stuart C. Paul and Christian Duce!

Like most people, I was a little put off by the synopsis. I couldn’t but help but think that this was yet another lame attempt at cashing in on the current vampire fad. But, after reading nothing but positive reviews I am rethinking that. On top of the reviews, CBR’s interview with Stuart C. Paul helped change my mind.

“It’s clearly historically accurate,” Paul jokingly said about the title. “It’s a bloody spectacle. There’s going to be lots of adventure, action, blood, sex, all those good things you expect from Rome and vampires put together. It’s a version of Rome you’ve never seen, obviously. I’m really trying to create a unique world here and do some twists on the classic Caesar mythology, while bringing in some elements from Bram Stoker and the ‘Dracula’ story.”

What do you guys think? Yay or nay?

- Moonlight

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“True Blood fans: Do you think the ancient immortals really demonstrate enough wisdom to be credible? We have yet to meet a philosophical vampire, am I right?”

It’s a great question, one that definitely makes you think on the actions and personalities of True Blood’s vampires, or any vampire in anything. An ancient being should have incredible wisdom and intelligence, they should have a certain level of maturity. Anne Rice nailed this in her novels, her vampires acted their age, which made them very real and believable. Take Marius for example, he was highly intelligent, perceptive and wise – the perfect mentor for a younger and more childish Lestat.

Vampires, like humans, grow and develop over the years – so after thousands of years they shouldn’t be acting like children (unless time has driven them insane of course). I mean, I have read a book where a 6000-year-old vampire acted like a 16-year-old high schooler, it wasn’t believable at all, a vampire THAT old should be somewhat knowledgeable and regal. Having a vampire that ridiculous in the story kind of ruined the whole book for me.

But back to Anne’s question, personally I don’t think the vampires of True Blood are believable – at least not all of them. Take Russell Edgington for example, he is 3000-years-old right? But does he act like a wise ancient being? No, he acts like a giant sack of crazy. Even before his beloved died, when he wasn’t so crazy, he still didn’t come off as 3000-years-old, he is too illogical and hotheaded. Eric on the other hand is believable to me. He wasn’t in the beginning, but in the most recent episodes he has shown his age, shown how time has affected him.

So overall, it’s a yes and no for me. Some of vampires pull it off, while others don’t. It depends on the character’s story and the actors portraying them.

But what do you guys think?

- Moonlight

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3. Anne Rice Leaves Christianity

Elizabeth Bathory is best known for killing over 600 young women, it is believed by most that she tortured them, bathed in and drank their blood. Báthory-Kitzs did some hardcore research and learned that not all was as it should be. “Most of the legends were false, and the untold part of the story, her actual historical character, was left unexplored.”

The opera is set to open in Vermont this fall, but Báthory-Kitzs is currently in the process of raising the $12,000 he needs to stage the production (you can help him out by going HERE).

As for the details on the show – it’s an hour long and is compromised of a musical ensemble of eight, with the addition of one vocalist to play the Countess. “Because the tale is complicated, it’s tricky to make this work,” said Báthory-Kitzs. “So I have the Countess tell part of the story as if talking to herself and others who are offstage, sometimes as if speaking with her children, and other times simply reflecting on her own life and her fate … In other words, she has to invent interactions that the audience perceives as real, or at least real in her own imagination. And that’s the nice thing about monodrama format: the entire world is viewed through the actions of the main character.”

Erzsébet is currently set to come out October, 2011 and will star Lisa Jablow and the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble with production and lighting design by Jan Herder and stage design by Pavel Kraus.

For more information on the production visit their official website HERE.
To read Rue Morgue’s excellent article and interview with Dennis Báthory-Kitzs pick up a copy of the magazine HERE.

- Moonlight

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2. Countess Elizabeth Bathory: Part 2
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Odds are most have already heard of “Dark Shadows” and have seen at least a few episodes. Given that it was a half-hour soap opera that ran for about four years, not too many can claim to have seen even the majority of them. The movie “House of Dark Shadows” (starring the original cast) and the 1991 remake–half a season of hour-long primetime episodes–cannot help but be easier to catch in their entirety. More, DS (as it is known) has a reputation for cheese that is not undeserved. Production costs prevented second takes unless absolutely necessary while the flimsiness of the sets were notorious.

Yet precisely because there are so many episodes, and so many flubs that ended up aired, and such a diverse range of talent in both acting as well as writing, DS probably doesn’t get all the credit it deserves. Quite simply, it was startlingly ahead of its time in many ways. Consider Barnabas Collins. In terms of popular entertainment, here was one of the very first reluctant vampires — an attempt to genuinely portray what it would be like to be transformed into a supernatural creature that fed upon people. While the title characters in both “Carmilla” and “Varney the Vampyre” show a few signs in that direction, not until “Dracula’s Daughter” (the official sequel to the Bela Lugosi film) did mass media see anything like regret, depression and loneliness in one of the undead. Apart from a few hints in films during the 1960s (the Baroness in Hammer’s “Brides of Dracula” for instance), it wasn’t until Willie Loomis broke those chains on a hidden coffin that such a character emerged center stage for any length of time. Nor was that the plan! Dan Curtis, creator of the show, had wanted Barnabas a more straightforwardly evil vampire–much as was seen in the motion picture based on the series. Yet his own work on other projects distracted him from the writers’ intentions along with actor Jonathan Frid’s inclination to portray Barnabas as a person instead of a boogeyman. When the character’s popularity took off, Curtis found himself with a fait accomplit.

More, Barnabas did more than inspire Johnny Depp. Anne Rice (she of Lestat fame) openly admitted to having watched the show (as well as the aforesaid “Dracula’s Daughter”) and to have gotten some inspiration. Her first bestseller introduced the world to another Reluctant Vampire (Louis) and heralded the way for Nick Knight, Angel the Vampire With a Soul, Spike, Edward Cullen, etc.

But there’s more. In the 1991 remake as well as other vampire shows (such as “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”) an idea permeated based on one of Karloff’s early films, namely “The Mummy.” This idea, seen now dozens of times, was that of a vampire seeking his reincarnated first great love. Indeed, more than one vampire fan has groaned aloud (or onscreen) at news of another version using the same cliche — for cliche it has become. Yet DS in its original form did something quite different. When Barnabas first returned to Collinwood and took up residence in the Old House, he did not in fact find his beloved Josette reborn. Josette at that time had been established as a ghost. Rather, he found a girl who merely resembled Josette, drank her blood to enslave her and then tried to brainwash her into becoming a copy of his long lost fiancee. A much more interesting use of the trope than the either the 1991 or 2004 (unfinished) versions posited–one where the governess Victoria Winters was not only a Josette-lookalike but pretty clearly Josette herself returned to Collinwood. In the original storyline, though, a far more compelling dynamic emerged. Barnabas, torn and probably to some extent insane by human standards, found himself pulled in two directions. He could accept the possibility of love with this modern young woman, or wallow in the past by trying to turn someone else into Josette (and one has to wonder how well that would have worked, really).

Consider also the character of Angelique — not as she was for most of the show (a Satanic Witch) but as a vampire in one particular storyline that remains a fan favorite. Female vampires who are not simply members of a harem to the main vampire were relatively rare in the late 1960s. Of them all, none showed the full range of Angelique! She loathed her state, longed to be anything else, yet took full advantage of her powers. During the course of that story, she bit to enslave a fair number of men–Jeff Clarke and Joe Haskell among them–but her focus remained on Barnabas, whom she enslaved as he had done so many others. Like the show’s most famous undead, Angelique seems to have been an ancestress, of Janette on “Forever Knight” as well as Pam on “True Blood.”

Sadly, these innovations did not last even on the series itself. Perhaps inevitably, a reincarnation of Josette did eventually show up. Later female vampires were singularly lacking in personality, and were usually under someone else’s dominion. In the last year or so of the show, even Barnabas lost his edge. How dangerous after all is a vampire who never feeds, never bites anyone, never even struggles with bloodlust? But the achievement remained, a series of landmarks in the genre that others would do well to recall and emulate.

Especially Tim Burton and Johnny Depp.

D.MacDowell Blue blogs at http://zahirblue.blogspot.com/.  He graduated from the National Shakespeare Conservatory and is now working on a web series called “End Of The Line” which he likes to describe as “Dexter Meets Twilight“.

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Eretica: This horrifying vamp was often associated with the idea that heretics in Russia would become the undead. An eretica (plural: ereticy) was a woman who sold her soul to the Devil when she was alive, returning after death and, during the day, assuming the form of an old woman in rags. But once the sun set, she and the others of her kind would meet up in a ravine for a sabbat. The legend goes that the eretica was only active in the spring and the late fall, sleeping in coffins of those, who in life, had been quite naughty. If a person fell into the grave of an eretica, then they were doomed to slowly waste away. More on the eretica HERE.

Upyr: The upyr is not to be confused with the upior, upir, upor or the upier – which are separate vampire species found in surrounding countries. The upyr is the main vampire species in Russia, but with Russia being so massive, the legend varies from region to region. The bloodthirsty upyr would first drink the blood of children and then move on to the kid’s parents. This vamp has teeth made of iron and it uses them to chew through obstacles, usually in the winter when their hands freeze in the cold earth. Like many vampires in lore, this vampire doesn’t sleep during the day,  it usually wanders around from noon until midnight. If someone is looking to track and kill this vampire, they need to hook some thread to one of the upyr’s buttons and use it to follow the vamp back to its lair. Once inside, one must sprinkle holy water all over the place and then stake the vampire in its heart – BUT, this must be done with care, because one strike into the heart will kill it, but two will bring it back to life. It can also be killed with fire and decapitation.

- Moonlight

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Merry meet, fledgling. Welcome to a new life, a new world, and a new you. Welcome to the House of Night!

This might seem like a scary time, Fledgling, but never fear! As you start your journey through the ancient halls of the House of Night, this indispensable handbook will aid you in your transition from human to fledgling. Within these pages you will find invaluable information about the history of vampyres.  You will also come to a better understanding of your body’s transformation, as well as read words of hope from great vampyres of the past and learn essential foundations of rituals and lore. Now, Fledgling, read on.  A new life awaits you; your path to that magickal future begins here!

Ok, so when the House of Night series first started I was a huge fan, I absolutely loved the story, characters and how imaginative the books were. But then came along Hunted, one of the lamest books I have ever read, a book that was nothing more than pure filler, a book I hated so much that I haven’t continued to read the series. Once I finished Hunted it was pretty clear that that book had one purpose – to make money. That’s how I see this Fledgling Handbook, it was created for the authors to make some easy cash. The House of Night series has a huge fan base, and fans will buy this book – this book full of information that can be found inside the series themselves. So if you buy this book, you’re just paying for something you’ve already paid for. Lame.

But that’s my opinion on it, what do you guys think?

Oh and before you drown me in hate mail, I do plan on finishing the series. I have heard that they get better again and hopefully they do. I really did love the first couple books, but Hunted ruined it for me. Anyway, yes, I will get around to reading the other books… eventually.

The Fledgling Handbook 101 will hit bookshelves October 26, 2010.

- Moonlight

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Written by Scott O. Brown with art by Ferran Xalabarder, Nightfall is about a man sent to a prison run by vampires. Oh yea, you know this is going to be one action packed testosterone-filled movie.

When industrious, right-wing survivalist David Paxton is sent to a tough Texas prison, he has no idea that it’s secretly run by vampires using the inmates to feed on. Now, Paxton’s one hope of escape is a desperate prison riot and an uneasy alliance with a ruthless killer named Robbart.

After looking into this graphic novel and finding nothing but HORRIBLE reviews on it, I have to say that I am a bit nervous. Seriously, reviewers have trashed everything from the “cliché storyline” to the “childish artwork.” Hmmm… that makes one a bit nervous. But if you ignore the negative reviews and think about the story and the director signed on to the film adaptation – then there is a chance the movie could rock all things awesome.

The problem with a story like this is that is can very easily be turned into some cheesy B-movie trash, and no one wants that. But, if you have the right director, the right actors, and a high budget, then you’ve got all you need for the next badass vampire action flick.

What do you guys think? Does an action packed vampire movie sound good to you? Or are you not a fan of the gore and fight scenes? Also, has anyone read this graphic novel? Is it as bad as some are saying? Let us know in a comment below!

- Moonlight

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Click here to view the embedded video.

First off, the song that this episode is named after, Fresh Blood, by The Eels, is badass, –I’ve liked it since like, before it was cool, dude. Seriously! I did! Anyway, there’s one episode left in the series, and of course, they make us wait for two weeks before we get to see the finale. I’ll be absolutely losing my mind, in the meantime. Getting on with it; Bill immediately heads off to rescue Sookie from Eric’s dungeon, but Pam is there, waiting for him with the usual piss and vinegar running through her veins. Despite the fight Pam puts up, Yvetta, of all people, pops up to save Sookie from the dungeon. Awww. Girl bonding.

Once again, there’s not a lot of Bill and Sookie screen time, –lots of bubbling subplots, –but what does happen is pretty crazy. After Bill and Sookie escape, they discuss their lives after a ‘new beginning’. Meanwhile, Eric is off convincing Russell Edgington to spare him, in exchange for the ability to walk in daylight, –with the use of Sookie’s blood. They show up right in the middle of Sookie and Bill’s lovey dovey time, and snatch her. Eric has a plan though; after the two drink from a helpless Sookie,  –Bill watching from the sidelines, also aware of said plan, –they go for a walk. Outside. In the daytime. Eric handcuffs himself to Russell, and they start to fry. Hopefully, his plan is to outlast Russell, because if Eric dies, I swear to god, I’ll lose my frigging mind.

In the land of subplots, things are getting pretty crazy. Jesus might just have shown Lafayette his true face; and it isn’t pretty. It’s like, goblin-esque, with green and such… Creepy. Lafayette kicks him out, nicely, and then has some pretty screwed up V-induced nightmares later on. We probably won’t get to see the whole story until the fourth season. Over at Jason’s house, Crystal is explaining herself to Jason, about the fact that she turns into a big ass panther. Jason freaks out a tad, and goes off in search of answers. He finds Kitch and realizes, he’s on V, –the new steroid. But since everyone’s on it, and no one will care, –Jason is helpless to do anything but accept the death of his football record. He heads back to Crystal, who insists they somehow stop the DEA raid coming to Hot Shot.

At Bill’s house, Jessica and Hoyt are sharing a special little reunion. She comes clean about killing the trucker, and Hoyt accepts her, by offering her his own blood. But weird things are going on behind the scenes of Hoyt and Jessica’s little make-up thing, –Summer has run to Maxine Fortenberry, Hoyt’s mama. They begin scheming to get Hoyt back to Summer, and in the preview… you’ll see Hoyt’s mama with a big ass sniper rifle looking thing. Hopefully, Bill will get back to help Jessica before something horrible happens.

Tara’s having an emotional crisis after she learns that Jason was the one who shot Eggs; she heads to Merlotte’s to confront Andy. But I think, personally, her heart might have softened a little when Andy breaks down and cries over what he did both to Tara, and Eggs. She stays behind at the bar to talk to Sam, who is obviously having one hell of a bad evening. He stumbles into his own bar, cussing and freaking out. He tells off Terry, poor guy!, then Arlene, and Holly, and pretty soon, Tommy trips one of Sam’s nerves too. Sam fires him, and tells him to get the hell out of his life, –which comes back to haunt him later, while Tommy is breaking into his safe. But in the meantime, Sam is busy having angry drunken sex with Terry.

Oh and Arlene? She tries real hard to lose her baby, with special tea from Holly the Wiccan, but… after waking up with Terry in an emotional wreck, and blood all over they head to the hospital. Arlene is relieved, and ready to comfort Terry, but the baby is still alive. While Terry is overjoyed, Arlene is miserable, and still determined not to have Rene’s child. The child she believes is going to bring the same evil into the world. Proof that ignorance kills, and a woman’s fear can be stronger than her desire to protect her own offspring. All right, that might be a bit harsh, but I do believe Arlene is turning into a massive twat.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Harmony was one of Cordelia’s ditzy best friends throughout high school, although she was more like Cordy’s second in command. Harmony was pretty much the stereotypical blonde – she was pretty, stupid, shallow and only cared about her dating status and her clothes.

Harmony always looked down on the Scooby Gang and Cordelia’s close relationship with them. She constantly mocked and teased the entire group – she was a bitch. This changed on graduation day though, in order to stop the Mayor from devouring the entire class of 1999, the Scooby Gang enlisted the help of most of their classmates, including Harmony. This resulted in Harmony’s death – she was killed by a vampire henchman of the Mayor’s.

In season 4 it was revealed that Harmony didn’t just die like everyone thought, she had in fact been turned into a vampire. She reappeared in Sunnydale dating Spike (aka Blondy Bear), whom she said she loved. Spike, however, didn‘t have any love or patience for Harmony’s ditzy behavior and he soon grew tired of her, and even attempted to kill her. She survived though (thanks to the Gem of Amarra) and Spike left her, returning only after the Initiative neutered him since he desperately needed help and food. But Harmony had wised up and had enough of his abuse by then, so she turned him away… and then burnt his possessions.

Harmony came back to Sunnydale in season 5, this time with a small and idiotic group of vampire followers and delusions of grandeur. She tried real hard to be badass, but instead came off as a big joke. After her minions turned on her and Buffy staked most of them, Harmony ran back to Spike, asking him to keep her safe. Spike ending up keeping her around for sex for a while, before once again tiring of her and throwing her out.

The next time we see Harmony she is in L.A. with Angel at Wolfram & Hart, and that’s where she becomes an awesome (and much hotter) character.

Favorite Harmony Quotes!

Harmony: “Is Antonio Banderas a vampire?”
Spike: “No.”
Harmony: “Oh. Can I make him a vampire?”
Spike: “No. Wait, on second thought, yeah. Go do that. Take your time. Do Melanie and the kids, as well.”

“Hey, I don’t have a pulse. Cool. Can we eat a doctor so I can get a stethoscope and hear my heart not beating?”

Spike: “Taking up smoking, are you?”
Harmony: “I am a villain, Spike. Hello.”

- Moonlight

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According to TheBookSeller.com:

The four limited-edition titles: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn, will be published by Atom on 14th October as £7.99 paperbacks, available only in the UK and Ireland, and Little, Brown’s territories including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India. The white editions will not be available in the US.

The white titles will only be published between October and Christmas 2010, replacing the usual black jackets. The titles will have crimson-edged pages and crimson back covers, with text confined to the spines.

A £75 hardback box-set of the Twilight Saga, plus the novella The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, is also being released on 12th October.

If you don’t live in the UK, Ireland or those other areas, then you are screwed. Personally I think that if they do it in one country then they should do it in all of them – considering how insanely popular Twilight is. Publishers would make a fortune off of this, I’m sure there are countless fans that would love a white copy. There’s a slim chance that another publisher may copy the white cover idea, but that’s just me guessing. I can see A LOT of Americans buying these if they were available here.

But hey, if you’re desperate enough, you can import it from the UK – it will cost a small fortune though.

Anyway, to pre-order the books go HERE. If you live in the UK then you’ll want to pre-order as soon as possible, these books will no doubt fly off the shelves.

- Moonlight

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