CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Friends of the Dead

Plot: It has Van Helsing, Dracula, vampires and other night things. Like the movie Van Helsing only not. I don't want to give away anymore. Still currently on the prologue, about 1/3 through.

Violence: 3, escalates to around 8-9 as the story progresses. Most of the violence will be implied if at all possible.

Language: 2 (I'm not sure how the language will go, but there's not going to be cursing left and right, I know that for sure.

Sexual Content: 1 now, around 5 later. No actual sex scenes shown, mostly sexual situations/lewd talk between adults.

Nudity (or skimpy outfits): 1 now, 5 later. Partial nudity, male and female.

Bad Religion: 3--Well, it has vampires. Christianity is mostly implied between the characters.

DeviantART link
Webcomicsnation link

I would just like to assert that it has been medically proven that people who keep up with Friends of the Dead on a regular basis win at life 15% harder than those who do not.

That's the best endorsement of my work that I've ever heard.

I rather like vampires so this thread caught my eye. I read all the pages that have been posted so far -- very nice. I've bookmarked it and will be checking back for new pages.

A warning about the Webcomicsnation page: if you click "last" at the bottom of the page, it will take you right back to the beginning. It's a bug they have to work out.

SirThinks2Much wrote:Like the movie Van Helsing only not.

Huh. Interesting that you say that.

uc pseudonym (post: 1199470) wrote:Huh. Interesting that you say that.

Van Helsing was actually the reason why my friends and I came up with the story. We love the movie, but it's such a bad one as well. So we wanted to make something "literarily correct."

The prologue was something I came up with prior to working with them, but we managed to fit it in.

SirThinks2Much wrote:Van Helsing was actually the reason why my friends and I came up with the story. We love the movie, but it's such a bad one as well. So we wanted to make something "literarily correct."

I think I have a much better sense for your intent in this comic now. There are so many ways people can go with vampires, and from the beginning I was expecting the more relaxed, less fantastic variety. My opinion of the Van Helsing film is somewhat low (saw it only as a social activity) but I'm interested to see what you develop.

I saw VH as a social activity, as well (and I thought it was the best movie ever after I came out of the theatre. It was only after later reflection that I realized just how corny it was).

It's not going to be evident in this comic, but I do plan on going pretty far with a different vampire mythos. I decided to tie this in with a future vampire story, which will open up the "universe" if you will...but that's a long ways ahead. You know, baskets and eggs and all that.

Very nice!

The vampires are coming soon! :D

The prologue was originally OVER by now! Now it's twice as long or more.

Remember this though: it is an absolute essential part of every vampyre story from earliest times to modern movies (and I've seen a good many) that the lead vampyre must offer his first victim wine (and also typically bread) but partake of none himself/herself. This is a timelessly haunting scene because it serves as an inverted communion, which suggests that the vampyre draws the source of his own eternal "life" from an equally inverted source to Christ's sacrificial death (represented in the communion). In practice, this turns out to be stealing the lifeblood and life from his own victims, which makes these dining scenes turn out to be a communion of death.

GhostontheNet (post: 1204240) wrote:Remember this though: it is an absolute essential part of every vampyre story from earliest times to modern movies (and I've seen a good many) that the lead vampyre must offer his first victim wine (and also typically bread) but partake of none himself/herself. This is a timelessly haunting scene because it serves as an inverted communion, which suggests that the vampyre draws the source of his own eternal "life" from an equally inverted source to Christ's sacrificial death (represented in the communion). In practice, this turns out to be stealing the lifeblood and life from his own victims, which makes these dining scenes turn out to be a communion of death.

Where on earth did you get this... I can name a ton of stories where this doesn't happen.

It was kinda like that in Dracula I think...

Anyways, really enjoying the comic

mechana2015 (post: 1204799) wrote:Where on earth did you get this... I can name a ton of stories where this doesn't happen.

And frankly, most of the vampyre stories where this does not occur tend to be written by authors that are not very well versed in Catholic imagery, or wish to downplay this aspect of the vampyre myth. The connection is so strong that Thomas D. Foster, in his influential How To Read Literature Like a Professor lists back to back chapters titled "Nice To Eat With You.... Acts of Communion" and "Nice To Eat You.... Acts of Vampires" that make significant connections between the two. Many of the methods that are useful in interpreting literature are also useful in interpreting cinema. Just a couple of examples of this motif in influential vampyre movies are as follows.

Nosferatu (1921)

Jonathan Harker has just reached the castle of Count Dracula to find a pasty-faced noble that looks suspiciously rat-faced. Dracula seats Harker down to a rich feast that prominently includes bread and wine. Harker feasts while Dracula remains superficially occupied with the details of his contract to move from Transylvania to Bremen. Then, after an especially skelletal clock strikes the midnight hour (the hour of death), Harker cuts his finger while slicing the bread and an especially tense standoff occurs between the two that makes Harker begin to suspect that Dracula is not as he seems.

Dracula (1931)

Renfield has arrived at Castle Dracula, but the dark and gloomy atmosphere of the ruined castle makes him suspect that it has been abandoned. Then, in a classic scene of film history, Renfield unexpectedly encounters the handsome and charismatic Count Dracula on a long staircase filled with enormous spider webs. After waxing poetic about predatory animals like wolves and spiders, Dracula leads Renfield into a well lit dining hall, and prepares a feast of bread and wine. Renfield cuts his finger while slicing the bread, and Dracula's bloodlust is triggered, but Renfield is obliviously saved by the crucifix (symbolic of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection) around his neck. Dracula offers Renfield wine after he places the crucifix in his pocket (symbolic of his personal rejection of Christ's sacrifice). When Renfield asks Dracula whether he will join him in drinking wine, Dracula responds with the classic line "I never drink.... wine." So influential was this line that when the theatrical production of Dracula was being revived, the directors had to add this line to the script because audiences everywhere demanded it.

If you wish, I can keep this list going for at least a dozen vampyre movies up to the present.

For that, I'll endeavor to *NOT* put in a scene like that. I can forget it if I wish. It is not essential in the least, and there is a heck of a lot going on in my story other than vampires (I suppose you haven't seen the movie Van Helsing, on which I said this comic was inspired by). I'm avoiding religious overtones for the most part, and working with historical/literary context instead. Keep in mind that there have been myths about vampires in areas where Catholicism had not yet spread, even predating Catholicism. Therefore, this sort of scene is not an inbred part of the myth. Someone could become a vampire by being a seventh son, committing suicide, or being born with red hair. As far as I know, none of these aspects have been included in any vampire movies, and certainly not Bram Stoker's novel. Neither of those movies you mentioned follow the novel that closely, either.

I don't suppose there's an influential book out there called "How To Read Literature Like a WRITER."

Writing vampire with a "y" doesn't make it any more valid than writing it with an "i." If that were the case, we'd be writing our "s'" as "f's".

SirThinks2Much (post: 1205171) wrote:For that, I'll endeavor to *NOT* put in a scene like that. I can forget it if I wish. It is not essential in the least, and there is a heck of a lot going on in my story other than vampires (I suppose you haven't seen the movie Van Helsing, on which I said this comic was inspired by). I'm avoiding religious overtones for the most part, and working with historical/literary context instead. Keep in mind that there have been myths about vampires in areas where Catholicism had not yet spread, even predating Catholicism. Therefore, this sort of scene is not an inbred part of the myth. Someone could become a vampire by being a seventh son, committing suicide, or being born with red hair. As far as I know, none of these aspects have been included in any vampire movies, and certainly not Bram Stoker's novel. Neither of those movies you mentioned follow the novel that closely, either.

I don't suppose there's an influential book out there called "How To Read Literature Like a WRITER."

Writing vampire with a "y" doesn't make it any more valid than writing it with an "i." If that were the case, we'd be writing our "s'" as "f's".

This post is the most epic win ever to be won.

That post is so awesome, I don't even know what to do with myself.

I have been keeping up with your story when I can, and I'll definitely continue to do so! 8D

GhostontheNet (post: 1205135) wrote:And frankly, most of the vampyre stories where this does not occur tend to be written by authors that are not very well versed in Catholic imagery, or wish to downplay this aspect of the vampyre myth. The connection is so strong that Thomas D. Foster, in his influential How To Read Literature Like a Professor lists back to back chapters titled "Nice To Eat With You.... Acts of Communion" and "Nice To Eat You.... Acts of Vampires" that make significant connections between the two. Many of the methods that are useful in interpreting literature are also useful in interpreting cinema. Just a couple of examples of this motif in influential vampyre movies are as follows.

If you wish, I can keep this list going for at least a dozen vampyre movies up to the present.

How about a little counter list of vampire movies, books and TV shows that me and a friend have seen where this dosn't happen, many which are very well versed in many of the vampire mythologies or created their own:

Literature:
Dresden Files Novels
I Am Legend
Traveling Vampire Show
Anno Dracula
Those Who Hunt the Night
Traveling with the Dead
The Dark Angel
Companions of the Night
Vamped
The Vampyre
Carmilla
The Priest of the Blood
Vampire Hunter D
Night Watch
Day Watch
Second Sunrise
The Vampire Tapestry
Blood is the New Black
Bite Me
The Historian

Movies:
Blade (I II or 3)
30 Days of Night
The Lost Boys
Interview With a Vampire
Love at First Bite
Blood the Last Vampire
Van Helsing
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Queen of the Damned

TV:
Ultraviolet
Hellsing

As you can see its hardly a requirement.

SirThinks2Much (post: 1205171) wrote:For that, I'll endeavor to *NOT* put in a scene like that.

FishandChips wrote:This post is the most epic win ever to be won.

RadicalDreamer wrote:That post is so awesome, I don't even know what to do with myself.

Its nice to know I am so widely loved. We'll see if I ever bother to share ideas with the likes of you again.

Remember this though: it is an absolute essential part of every vampyre story from earliest times to modern movies (and I've seen a good many) that the lead vampyre must offer his first victim wine (and also typically bread) but partake of none himself/herself.

That doesn't sound like "sharing", more like a commandment.

This statement implied that I *had* to put such a scene in this story. And I am not, for two main reasons: One, this story is not just my story. It's something written by two friends and myself. I'm not going to switch around what the three of us laid out just to shove in a scene that is supposedly "essential." It would not make sense given our characters, how we wrote them, and would be a needless scene that would bog down the story and would have no bearings on the story as a whole.

Secondly, my friends gave me permission to work this story into my own vampire storyline, which runs on a broader set of rules than just those given in the Dracula novel. Since they are set in the same universe, it makes no sense for me to limit this story to Catholic imagery only and then suddenly burst out with ideas that make the old "rules" obsolete.

Again, I don't see why Catholic imagery is a requirement, seeing as vampire myths predate the Church, and variations occur in different cultures worldwide. If anything, that sort of angle is overdone, at least in Western literature.

(The whole Communion scene in Dracula doesn't follow those requirements, by the way. Jonathan is not Dracula's first victim.)

GhostontheNet (post: 1205258) wrote:Its nice to know I am so widely loved. We'll see if I ever bother to share ideas with the likes of you again.

Ghost, whether you were aware of it or not, the tone in your previous two posts sounded very condescending, as though you "knew everything" about vampires, and ST2M's story simply had to follow the rules with which you were familiar. You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but realize that you should respect the fact that it's her story, not yours, to write. Think twice about what you're saying and how it's going to come across next time.

(The whole Communion scene in Dracula doesn't follow those requirements, by the way. Jonathan is not Dracula's first victim.)

Oh yeah. Been a long while since I've read that book.

And...

D:; Sheesh...

Uh...happy post! I am currently pencilling the latest page!

Yayness, keep them coming Rachel! It's a fine effort.

New page!

http://thenumber42.deviantart.com/art/FOTD-Prologue-9-80222111
http://www.webcomicsnation.com/chaos_squid/fotd/series.php?view=archive&chapter=25010&mpe=1&fromwhich=11&direction=f

A simpler page this time around.

And yet another page. Barely sticking to my bi-monthly schedule!

http://www.webcomicsnation.com/chaos_squid/fotd/series.php?view=archive&chapter=25010&mpe=1&fromwhich=12&direction=f
http://thenumber42.deviantart.com/art/FOTD-prologue-10-81570026

Ooh, new page! Good to see the next step in the tale.

Wow, good stuff. I look forward to more.

Me loves this story!! More more! MORE I SAY! XD