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Thomas E. Sniegoski's Writer's Commentary on Vengeance Of Vampirella #5 – Putting the Hemorrhage on the Page

Published Mon, 24 Feb 2020 14:00:07 -0600

Thomas E. Sniegoski has a Writer's Commentary on Vengeance of Vampirella #5, out now from Dynamite.

Vampirella, who had been dead for twenty-five years, is back with a vengeance and Mistress Nyx couldn't be happier. Nyx has recruited one of Vampirella's biggest foes—the telekinetic, blood obsessed hit man Hemorrhage – to assist her. When this issue opens, Hemorrhage has found Vampirella, and their reunion is going just as well as one would expect.

Page 1:

Page one opens with an amazing Michael Sta. Maria page! Hemorrhage has created an enormous construct of blood from his and Mistress Nyx's recent murder victims. Michael's depiction is spot on, and Omi's lovely blood coloring is just perfect. I really love the image of this huge, blood giant with a tiny Hemorrhage floating inside—like a twisted heart. Good stuff.

Pages 2-6:

This was pretty interesting. Michael had gotten a little behind in the schedule, and we came up with a way to shorten how much he'd have to draw in this issue—so he could catch up!

I suggested we do a scene through another character's perspective so that a different art style might reflect this particular character's mindset. I chose to do the scene through Hemorrhage's absolutely skewed sense of reality.

For this scene we needed an artist, though. My editor, Joe, didn't have anybody right away, but I remembered my buddy Justin Mason was looking to do some stuff and I thought his style would be perfect. I showed Joe some samples of Justin's work, and he got the gig . . . and he did not disappoint in the least. Justin is one of those guys that you can't imagine that he's not working on multiple cool projects for multiple publishers! His style is quirky and his storytelling is spot on. I love what he did with my script. What's neat is that the Hemorrhage section is the first time we're getting any information on the character's past.

I love the fact that the character was pretty twisted even as a little kid, using his own blood (and others, later) to kill his abusive parents. Justin really nailed Page 2.

Also, we get reacquainted with Hemorrhage's obsession with Vampirella, and how it came to be.

Yep, Justin Mason is the real deal . . . everybody should hire him to do cool sh*t!

Page 7:

Michael's return to the issue art! This page jumps back and forth between the Passion constructs trying to help Vampirella, and Pendragon captivated by the fact that the sun is shining down upon the earth again. Also, we see here that Hemorrhage's unique telekinetic gifts work on any fluid—including living ectoplasm. The villain actually rips apart the constructs with his mind.

Pages 8 – 9:

We have Mistress Nyx's response to the sun shining down upon the world again. She believes humanity's inspiration from this will be short-lived. She is also super interested in what Hemorrhage is up to. Telepathically she reaches out to see how he's doing. Remember, Nyx wants Vampirella around so that somebody will be able to challenge her again. Nyx doesn't want Hemorrhage screwing things up before they can really get rolling again. I love Omi's coloring here . . . all the Hemorrhage sections are tinted a hint of red, seeing as we're seeing him from inside the enormous blood body he's in. Nice stuff.

Pages 10:

This is a beautiful Michael page. We basically have Vampirella drowning within the blood construct's body. But then Nyx reaches out to her, inspiring her to fight back—inspiring her to take strength from the blood she's floating in.

That last panel on the page is absolutely killer. She genuinely looks scary.

Pages 11-12:

Pendragon gives the world a pep talk. Seeing as Vampirella's mission to restore the sun was a success, Pendragon is using this victory to inspire humanity to fight back! Two nice, relatively calm pages. Shows that Michael can do the quiet stuff too.

Page 13:

Inspired by Nyx and Pendragon's words, Vampirella finds the strength within to fight back. She, again, is tapping into the monstrous side of her nature. This is something I'm going to be examining quite a bit in future issues.

This page kicks major ass. Vampirella has swum, shark-like, through the blood body to attack Hemorrhage. That third panel of Vampirella attacking is just beautiful stuff.

Pages 14 – 19:

These pages are what I was leading up to since Hemorrhage's return. The final, knock-down, drag'em-out battle between he and Vampirella.

I was super specific about the following pages. I wanted this fight to look hard—difficult—freakin' brutal.

We also really get a sense of Hemorrhage's obsession about Vampirella. He really does love her . . . it's just that his idea of love is super f**ked up.

Vampirella in these moments has just gone completely feral. Hemorrhage is throwing everything he has at her—and he is hurting her—but he's not stopping her. Michael's art and Omi's colors make these pages sing. Really powerful stuff and exactly how I wanted them to look. I couldn't have asked for a better art team.

Page 16 is especially nice. She is just chopping everything that he's throwing at her down. She's relentless, being driven by the savagery at her core.

Page 17 came out really well too. Here is where Hemorrhage decides to convince Vampirella to go steady with him. HA! This is where the psychopathic telekinetic begins to explain how much he loves her, and how they need to be together.

And Vampirella actually seems to be listening . . . or is she just trying to get closer? Hmmmmmm.

Page 18 is where it all comes to a head. Hemorrhage professes his love . . . she's either going to be his gal, or he's killing her—again.

Great work on this page from Michael. One can practically feel the tension. He followed my script perfectly. Love it.

Page 19 was a page I was REALLY specific about. It had to be absolutely brutal. Hemorrhage was fast—but Vampirella was faster. She breaks his neck, twisting his head completely around, nearly ripping it from his body.

This whole section, though, makes you think . . . Did Hemorrhage maybe want to die at Vampirella's hands? If she wasn't going to accept him, maybe he felt it was better to die than to live without her again.

All kinds of crazy thoughts were going through my noodle writing this issue and especially this powerful scene.

Page 20:

Here Vampirella is beginning to feel the effects of the injuries she's sustained during this last battle with Hemorrhage. As she collapses, the Passions reconstitute themselves, and absorb her, to take back to the main Passion craft and to Pendragon.

Here is a Vampirella that's becoming very aware of the fact that she has come back from beyond the grave much more savage . . . more monstrous.

Again, something that I'll be exploring in future issues.

Page 21:

Mistress Nyx comes along to see what's happened to Hemorrhage . . . not surprised to find him dead. She admonishes him for what he tried to do, somehow communicating with his blood . . . which now exists as its own entity.

In the original Vampirella: Death & Destruction, Nyx brought Hemorrhage back from death with Chaos magic. I'd like to think that this is why his blood is somehow a living thing now, beholden to her.

This living blood will play a part in stories down the line as well.

Page 22:

Nyx and Hemorrhage's blood stroll away; they have quite a bit to prepare for.

Nyx's last line makes me smile . . . "Now it's a party."

This issue was an absolute blast, and came out fantastic!