Just as the title suggests, today’s the day we begin celebrating the first publication of J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s trendsetting vampire tale, Carmilla, which debuted in serialized form in the pages of the magazine Dark Blue—running from the December 1871 issue through March 1872—then was reprinted in Le Fanu’s short story collection, In a Glass Darkly, which was published later that year. And what better time to mark the occasion than during this year’s Women in Horror celebration?
If you’re unfamiliar with what’s probably Le Fanu’s most famous work, here’s the back-cover copy from the edition that we published in 2010, which has become the most popular title in our Illustrated Classics line:
Before Edward and Bella, before Lestat and Louis, even before Dracula and Mina, there was the vampiric tale of Carmilla and Laura.
Living with her widowed father in a dreary old castle in the woods of Styria, Laura has longed to have a friend with whom she can confide; a friend to bring some excitement to her pastoral lifestyle. And then Carmilla enters her life.
Left by her mother in the care of Laura’s father, Carmilla is young, beautiful, playful—everything that Laura had hoped to find in a companion. In fact, the lonely girl is so thrilled to have a new friend that she is willing to overlook the dark-haired beauty’s strange actions…which include a disturbing, growing obsession for her lovely hostess.
Carmilla, it seems, desires more than just friendship from Laura….
What makes it a “trendsetting vampire tale,” you ask? Well, beyond acting as an inspiration for Bram Stoker in the creation of the vampire brides who threaten Jonathan Harker in Stoker’s seminal novel, Dracula, Carmilla is regarded by a good number of literary experts as being one of the first lesbian vampire stories. Beyond Le Fanu’s well-written prose, it’s that “scandalous” aspect that’s helped keep the tale of Carmilla and Laura in the public’s awareness, and which (naturally) has appealed to filmmakers for decades—Hammer Films’ The Vampire Lovers, director Roger Vadim’s Blood and Roses, and the comedy Lesbian Vampire Killers (starring talk-show host James Corden!) are prime examples of sex being the primary box-office appeal of Carmilla.
On a more literary note, critics continue to enjoy this tale:
“What makes Carmilla so endearing [is] the fact that the story is centered around two female characters, whose complicated relationship is colored by thinly veiled lesbian undertones.”—Slate
“Like many vampire romances, Carmilla and Laura’s love is doomed and unhealthy, but glorious.”—io9
“Carmilla manages to pack in a lot of creepiness, narrative complexity, and moral ambiguity. It is worth reading both as a progenitor of the vampire genre and as a nuanced portrayal of a female relationship—part romance, part horror story—that exists outside the confines of masculine power.” —The Toast
“With a cover that looks like it belongs on the paranormal romance shelf in a bookstore and half a dozen illustrations provided by Eliseu Gouveia, [the StarWarp Concepts] edition stands a good chance of tempting some younger readers to pick up this classic vampire tale…. I wish I’d picked this book up in seventh grade instead of slogging through Dracula.”—The Gothic Library
On Monday, we’ll begin looking at some adaptations of Carmilla, starting with a comic version that first appeared in the pages of Warren Publishing’s Creepy #19, from 1968. Come join us in celebrating Carmilla’s anniversary!
Carmilla—the SWC edition, featuring six original illustrations by artist Eliseu Gouveia (Lorelei: Sects and the City, A Princess of Mars)—is available in print and digital formats, so visit its product page for ordering information.
Coming to the SWC blog this Saturday, February 18, is the first installment of 
First up on Simian Saturdays will (naturally) be the movie whose novelization we’re publishing: the original, 1933 version of King Kong, starring Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot, and the stop-motion-animation magic of visual-effects master Willis O’Brien.
This weekend, science fiction, fantasy, horror, and comic book fans from across the United States will be gathering at the 24th annual Farpoint convention, being held at the Radisson Hotel North Baltimore in Timonium, Maryland. And among the guests in attendance will be SWC’s own Richard C. White, who’ll be there to promote the release of his latest book, For a Few Gold Pieces More, which came out just this past Tuesday.
He’s a Man With No Name…but probably not the one you were expecting.
He’s the bestselling author of the licensed fantasy novel Gauntlet: Dark Legacy: Paths of Evil, and a popular writer of fantasy, science fiction, and crime tales, including Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers: Echoes of Coventry and The Dark Leopard: Mouse Trap. But if you’ve been paying attention to the works of Richard C. White, you’ll notice he’s been building quite the backlist here at StarWarp Concepts.
Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination
X-Men: Darktide was a licensed short created by the students of the DAVE (Digital Animation & Visual Effects) School in Orlando, Florida. Like The Lego Movie, it involved blocky toy versions of the characters—in this case, the Minimates line produced by toy manufacturer Art Asylum—and was developed as a special straight-to-DVD supplement.
Heroines & Heroes is a collection of comic stories and pinups all drawn by me, dating back to my days in the early 1990s small-press movement—that age of dinosaurs in which creators like me used to make our comics by printing them out on photocopiers and then stapling them by hand. In H&H you’ll find mainstream heroes and small-press heroines, and even a couple of anthropomorphic bikers.
Yes, years before DC Comics tried mixing their horror and superhero characters in a team setting, author Richard C. White (Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination, The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon Special) assembled his own set of costumed heroes who fight supernatural monsters—only they do it to turn a profit!
The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon Special was Rich’s second SWC release since our 2010 relaunch—a 48-page pirate-fantasy comic created and written by Rich, and drawn by Bill Bryan (artist of Caliber Press’ Dark Oz and DC Comics’ House of Mystery). It’s Rich’s love letter of sorts to the classic pirate movies he grew up watching on TV, like The Crimson Pirate, Against All Flags, Captain Blood, and The Sea Hawk—not to mention it has a certain resonance with the more contemporary Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise, of course! (Hey, with a new movie coming out this year, it’s not a bad thing to let Jack Sparrow fans know about Sea Dragon’s availability.)
No events to show
