Unlike Harry Potter, Twilight, The Hunger Games or Fifty Shades of Gray, Anne Rice’s seminal vampire novels were not the instant pop culture sensation the way we are used to seeing with book series now. These days, a book series hits big almost right away, selling multiple millions in almost no time at all, and movie adaptations announced and in production almost simultaneously as the books are coming out. In fact, when Interview with the Vampire came out in 1976, it flat out flopped in hardcover, selling only 25,000 copies. The subsequent paperback release did marginally better, but the book’s reputation grew steadily over time, and eventually a cult following developed, especially among the goth subculture, the LGBT community and female readers. By the time The Vampire Lestat, the sequel to Interview, came out in 1985, the cult novel had become a bonafide sensation in the interim. It was because of that growing reputation of the first book that the second novel was an instant best-seller, and began what would become The Vampire Chronicles. As of 2012, Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles series has sold 80 million copies worldwide. In terms of book series, the Vampire Chronicles are the best selling adult-skewing fictional book series behind only James Bond, Perry Mason and the Star Wars novels.
But despite the huge success of the novels, The Vampire Chronicles adaptations in other media has been spotty at best over the past thirty-five years, including in comic books. In 1990, Innovation Comics produced a twelve-part adaptation of The Vampire Lestat which was a huge hit, leading to comic book adaptations of Interview as well as the third novel in the series, The Queen of the Damned. But Innovation comics went bankrupt in the comics bust of the mid 1990’s, leaving the final issue of Queen unpublished. In 1994, eighteen years after hitting bookstores, Interview was made into a blockbuster film starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Kirsten Dunst. The movie made $104 million at the box office in the States (about $200 million adjusted to today’s dollars) Back in the 90’s though, studios weren’t thinking ahead when adapting sprawling book series; actors were signed for one movie at a time, not like the multi-picture deals you see now with actors being locked in for three, sometimes four movies in advance. So when the time came to make a sequel, all studio Warner Brothers eventually produced was a terrible cheap-o version of The Queen of the Damned, and one that bore little resemblance to the book and tanked at the box office. Aside from a short lived Elton John Broadway musical, that was the last adaptation we’ve seen of the Chronicles in any format, all while the vampire phenomenon Anne Rice began resulted in the vampire boom of Twilight, True Blood, Vampire Diaries, Being Human and more.
The original comic book versions of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, published in the early 90’s by Innovation Comics. The cover artwork was usually far better than anything in the interiors.
But now Yen Press, the manga style graphic novel company who had much success with their recent adaptation of Twilight, has come in and secured the license for Anne Rice’s series and is giving it new life outside of the original books once again, and the first offering is Interview with the Vampire: Claudia’s Story. The adaptation is done entirely by Ashley Marie Witter, an artist whose only comic book work so far is a series called The Eternal Sad, as well as various web comics. Yen Press took a chance on the mostly unknown Witter, but it payed off, as she produced a beautiful book that is as professional looking as anything from a seasoned comics pro.
Yen Press has a true gem on their hands with Interview with the Vampire: Claudia’s Story in my opinion. The artwork for newcomer Ashley Witter is highly detailed, while also being lush and sumptuous. While the look of the artwork is certainly in a manga style, it isn’t overly manga-esque, and shouldn’t be off-putting to anyone who isn’t into Asian comics. The artwork is done almost entirely in sepia tones, with only the blood and moments involving fire done in a red color. This trick, or one very much like it, has been done many times in comics, most notably Sin City, but that doesn’t make it less striking or effective here. The more feminine look to the men in this series is a staple of manga art frankly, but works here in a way that manga-esque adaptations of overly muscled and masculine western characters like Batman never really does. The male characters in Rice’s novels are almost always said to look feline and androgynous, so in a way this is a match made in heaven. Unlike other adaptations of this universe before, the characters here look exactly as they are described in the books. The original Innovation comics series made the character of the vampire Armand for instance, described in the novels as a 17 year-old cherubic auburn haired boy, into an older looking and frankly ugly looking man. (the movie version of Armand was a thirty-something, jet black haired Antonio Banderas, maybe the biggest deviation in terms of looks for any character in the film.) The character of Louis in this graphic novel also looks more like the character as described by Rice.
The best thing about this graphic novel though, is that it’s not just a straight up adaptation of the original book. The original novel, for those among you who haven’t read it or seen the movie, is told from the point of view of a vampire named Louis, a plantation owner who is transformed by a French aristocratic immortal named Lestat during the time of antebellum New Orleans. At about the mid-way point of the book, Lestat transforms a six year old orphan named Claudia into a vampire, completing his vampiric family. This adaptation is told from her point of view instead of Louis’, mostly from the moment she is “born” and then proceeds from there, jettisoning the first quarter or so of the original novel. The character of Claudia only really appears in that first novel, but made such an impact that she is mentioned in almost all the subsequent books. But Rice herself never did a follow up book told from her point of view as she did with so many other characters introduced in that first story, making this a unique extension of the Vampire Chronicles mythology for long time fans.
Despite all the good, there are a few things that are odd about this adaptation however; first off, the title itself is kind of a misnomer, as the character actually being interviewed in the original novel isn’t being interviewed here at all. In fact, there is no modern day interview framing device, as the character of Claudia is obviously now telling the story. But telling the story to whom? And from where? (SPOILER for the novel and movie here folks, but Claudia dies at the end.) Of course I understand the business reasons for putting Interview with the Vampire in the title, as that is the most famous book in the series, but still….The Vampire Chronicles: Claudia’s Story would have worked just as nicely as a title in my opinion. But really, the title is a minor quibble. The notion that the main character is telling her story from beyond the grave is what’s a little more strange to me, but hey…if it worked for American Beauty, then I can buy it in a book about a vampire. So as I said, these are minor complaints.
Yen Press has made a gorgeous product here, and I certainly hope we see similar adaptations for the other books in the Vampire Chronicles series coming from them sometime soon. Anne Rice’s vampire novels is at the top of the list of my favorite fictional universes, and yet the one with the least amount of adaptations in any media. Hopefully this is the start of something more. And then maybe I’ll get my Vampire Chronicles cable television series I’ve been fantasizing about for years to actually happen before too long.