Comic Monsters has an article up today where I answered questions on Alex Van Helsing. I really enjoyed these thought provoking questions from a writer who calls himself "Dwight Frye" after the frighteningly deranged dude who graced both Dracula '31 and Frankenstein.
Read the whole article here, but here's a snippet:
Dwight Frye: Tell us about Alex Van Helsing?
Jason Henderson: Oh, man, this is exciting for me. Alex Van Helsing is a young adult series from Harper Collins about Alex, a 14-year-old who can sense vampires and gets recruited at a very young age to join the Polidorium. Alex is actually a character who showed up in Sword of Dracula as an adult. Ronnie Van Helsing actually gets mentioned in Alex Van Helsing #1, though of course she’s much younger, because the Alex Van Helsing stories take place years earlier than Sword of Dracula.
Alex Van Helsing: Vampire Rising is the first AVH book, and it comes out from HarperTeen in May 2010. I’m already contracted to write two more, so #2 comes out in May 2011, and #3 comes out in 2012. Those are the hardbacks; there will also be paperback versions in between. And the initial response, a month or so before it's out, is very positive. The ALA gave us a great review, and so have a lot of the bloggers who have seen early copies. Of course now I’m busy also working on a Ronnie Van Helsing book, though I have no idea what will go down with that. My whole life isn’t wrapped up in that universe—I have other plans—but those are definitely taking up a huge amount of time.
...
Dwight Frye: If Dracula was really a vampire and alive today, what do you think he'd make of "Twilight?"
Jason Henderson: I think it depends on if Dracula had some money in Twilight.
The Dracula in my universe is a cruel, sadistic schemer. I actually think he’d completely ignore Twilight. The vampires in it would not be recognizable to him. Vampires in the Sword of Dracula universe are evil because the curse that makes you into a vampire burns out your conscience and makes you a sociopath. So Edward Cullen wouldn’t happen in my universe, or if a kind and generous vampire did happen he’d be a highly endangered anomaly. The vampires of Sword of Dracula come in several varieties—the smart, the near-zombie-like, and everywhere in-between—but generally they are the bad guys, the fallen, allergic to crosses and Holy Water and all that. They’re the dark side. Plus they have really big plans. So Edward Cullen would be like “Wait, we’re gonna poison the Chicago water supply? We’re gonna kill some Senators? We’re gonna take over a penitentiary and make an army of zombies? Um, I just wanta fall in love with a teenager, man.”
...
I actually really enjoyed Twilight myself; I love seeing other concepts for vampires. I’ve heard some vampire writers hating on the series and I can’t figure out why—it’s not a threat to your bad-vampire story to have good-vampire stories. Plus I guarantee you, if you’re a writer going on the record insulting a popular series, you look pitiful. We should respect one another.
... check out the whole article here.
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