The Secret Origin of Sebastienne Mazarin (Part 1)

Back on August 24th you were introduced to Pandora Zwieback 1.0—the original, non-Goth version of Pan that I created for an unfinished screenplay in 1984. But how about her mentor, Sebastienne “Annie” Mazarin, 400-year-old shape-shifter and professional monster hunter—where did she come from?

Would you believe from comic books? Yes, indeedy.

The project began in 1993, with a comment made to me by artist Louis Small Jr., who at the time was being heaped with praise for his work on Harris Comics’ new Vampirella series (recently reprinted in Dynamite Entertainment’s Vampirella: Masters Series, Vol. 5). Although comic fans loved his art, he wasn’t feeling much of that love from his bosses at Harris—in fact, they’d already started promoting the artist scheduled for the next story arc! Understandably annoyed, Louis wished he could create his own Vampirella-type character, to show Harris what they were missing out on by ignoring him.

A few days later, I presented him with Heartstopper, a proposed series about a shape-shifting monster hunter named Sebastienne Mazarin: half French, half Brazilian, all badass.

As I explained to Louis, having Annie as a shape-shifter instead of a vampire would deflect any negative comments about how he was just trying to rip off Vampirella by drawing another female bloodsucker. And making Annie a Latina would help her stand out from the multitudes of white superhero women that dominated the market. Louis agreed, and got to work sketching.

The first thing you probably noticed is Annie’s wearing a lot less than today’s version. Such was the state of the industry in the 1990s—a decade when having a half-naked female character in your comic practically guaranteed it would get published. And sell phenomenally well. It’s a period now known as “the bad girl era.”

(Bad-girl comics—for those of you unfamiliar with the term—starred heroines who possessed a lot of attitude but very little clothing; a bikini and thigh-high boots with stiletto heels were the basic uniform. Vampirella, Catwoman, Lady Death, Shi, Flare, Witchblade—the list was endless. And the one thing they had in common was that they sold insane amounts of copies—because fanboys DO luv their scantily clad fantasy women…)

True to form, the bad-girl approach worked. Louis and I had gotten a bit chummy with Joseph Monks, co-creator (along with artist Joseph Linsner) and former writer/publisher of the horror comic Cry For Dawn. After a creative-differences split with Linsner, Monks planned to continue publishing and was looking for projects. When I pitched Heartstopper he said it was definitely something that would make for a good series, and wanted it to be one of CFD Productions’ new titles. (I’m pretty sure it was Louis’s sketches that sold him.)

First, though, he wanted to tease the series in the first issue of his anthology series NightCry.

That sounded like a good plan, so Louis and I got started. I wrote the first-issue script, and Louis…ran into scheduling problems. Apparently those Vampirella issues he drew proved to be more popular than expected, and now he was being flooded with art commissions and offers to draw comics for other, larger publishers. And when you’re a freelance artist trying to make a living from drawing comic books, you’ve gotta go where the money is. (Being a freelancer myself these days, I understand that logic all too well.) It was easy to see that Louis would never have the time to focus on Heartstopper.

That didn’t stop him from trying, though. He managed to complete eight penciled pages as the deadline for NightCry #1’s trip to the printer drew ever closer. Then Monks—realizing he had room for only four of those pages (one of the other stories ran long)—handed them off to an inker to make that deadline, rather than give Louis time to ink them himself.

The problem was, the new guy was a rookie inker. Never been published. Never really inked anybody before, either. The results were…pretty ugly.

In the end, between the bad art job and Louis being unavailable to work on the series, it was decided that Heartstopper was not going to be one of CFD’s new titles. In retrospect that was just as well—the company folded two years later—but I was still disappointed.

But, I thought, maybe if I can find another artist who’s as good with the bad-girl stuff as Louis is, I can try and place the series with another publisher.

And that was when an equally talented artist named Uriel Caton entered the picture…

13 Days of Pan-demonium: The Pan-tom of the Opera

It’s day 5 of The 13 Days of Pan-demonium, in which we’re celebrating the publication of BLOOD FEUD: THE SAGA OF PANDORA ZWIEBACK, Book 1, on sale right now from StarWarp Concepts and all fine online bookstores.

Say hello to artist LOUIS SMALL JR.!

Those of you who follow horror comics and “good girl” art (and combinations of the two) probably remember Louis as the penciller of Harris Comics’ Vampirella comic books during the 1990s, when scantily clad bad girls were all the rage—if a comic back then had Vampirella in the title, odds were good he was drawing it!

I first met Louis at the 1993 Great Eastern Convention in New York, shortly after Harris’ Vampirella #1 (volume 1) had hit comic shops. I was pleased to meet him; he was annoyed that Harris was promoting the artist drawing the story arc after his, instead of the guy currently drawing the series—they didn’t even have copies of Vampirella #1 for sale at the show!

But Harris’ screwup turned out to be a boon for me. Based on the respect I’d shown him at the convention, Louis offered to draw—for free!—the cover to my upcoming Lorelei #0: the first full-size comic starring a succubus character I’d created a few years before. And then he came back to draw the cover for Lorelei #1!

These days Louis is…I guess you could say semiretired from the comics industry, but you can still find him sketching away at conventions and taking on tons of commissions.

And before you ask…”Pan-tom of the Opera”? Yeah, definitely one of my ideas. And that’s probably one of my least lame Pan-related puns!

The 13 Days of Pan-demonium continue! Come back tomorrow to see who our next artistic guest is!

What Are…The 13 Days of Pan-demonium?

Can anything prepare you for the mind-blowing awesomeness of a dozen fantastic artists (plus me) presenting their unique interpretations of the one and only Pandora Zwieback? Okay, probably yes, but it works better (for me, that is) if you say no!

What are the “13 Days of Pan-demonium”? It’s a celebration of the release of BLOOD FEUD: THE SAGA OF PANDORA ZWIEBACK, Book 1, on sale now from Pan’s publisher, StarWarp Concepts. (Just click on the Blood Feud cover at the top of the sidebar for more information.)

Which artists are involved? Here’s the lineup: Neil Vokes (Doctor Strange: From the Marvel Vaults); Louis Small Jr. (Vampirella); Uriel Caton (JSA Annual and Pan’s co-creator); Elizabeth Watasin (A-Girl and Charm School); Teresa Challender (Wandering Star); Dave Hoover (Charmed); Eliseu Gouveia (the Pandora Zwieback e-comic); Chris Malgrain (Stan Lee’s Alexa); Henar Torinos de la Torre (Mala Estrella); Caanan Grall (contributor to Comic Book Resources’ “The Line, It Is Drawn” feature) Jim Coon; and Ciaran Lucas.

Ah, but in what order will these stunning pieces of art appear? The only way you’ll find out is if you check this blog each day for the latest masterpiece. A devious attempt to draw the attention of all you potential readers, you say? I call it genius!

Prepare yourselves! The hour of Pan-demonium approaches!

(That didn’t sound too hype-y, did it? … Naaaah.)