There's no way to progress this series of blog posts without dropping some serious spoilers. Since this is a horror comic I don't think you'll be very surprised to find out that our dear Lauren is a vampire who hides her existence by working as a night nurse for dying people; she drinks a little bit of their blood each night. When they die, who's going to do an autopsy? After all, her patients are dying.
In Rex's story there isn't really a transformation from human to vampire; he handles that subtly.
Of course, this is a comic book, and in a visual medium like this (and with the tropes of trying to emulate the old Warren horror magazines) "subtle" just won't do. So, I'm going to modify Rex's original description of the confrontation scene (below) and have her do a full-on "vamp-out" scene.
Original text by Rex Munsee:
Loren smiled and began to rise up from her chair. Victor reached into his shirt and held the crucifix out in front of him. Instantly, Loren turned her head and moved against the wall. He heard a cry of pain and a guttural snarl.
“Stay back! I don’t care that you’re a vampire! 1 need you to listen to me! I want to make a bargain.”
In a hoarse voice she croaked. “Put it away.”
Victor lowered the crucifix to his side.
Her crimson eyes glared at him through her tangled mane of hair.
Here's my take on what she'll look like with full frontal fangs.
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| © 2023 Mike Mitchell |
If you compare this to the previous character design, you'll notice I did more than just add a vampy face. I changed her entire physique by making her a lot thinner and exaggerated her poses. The hair still clearly needs work, by the way. I'm still playing around with its color, as I'm still concerned about how I'm going to standardize it against dark backgrounds. (Yeah, I did a few tests already, but they're a waste of time until I really settle on the look and feel of the interior scenes in the house.)
