www.nighttrippers.com

NIGHT TRIPPERS GN PREVIEW
By MARK RICKETTS

I was rolling my cart down a supermarket aisle around eleven PM when the sound of Petula Clark's "Don't Sleep in the Subway" suddenly turned into Pink Floyd's psychedelic classic "See Emily Play." It seemed kind of creepy to be shopping for milk while this perverse, mind-bending sonic oddity wafted through the near empty store. Earlier that night I had considered writing a story about vampires in medieval England, but while listening to that distorted organ, sped-up piano, and whimsical lyric it hit me that I should place my vampire tale in that time when color, fashion, music, sexual revolution, and social changeexploded on one crazy scene-- 1960s swinging London.

Think about it: Vampires tripping on acid! Vampires in mini-skirts dancing in cages! Vampires infiltrating the music industry to control the minds of young and impressionable human livestock!

At first, I started musing on a Mod vampire riding a tricked-out Vespa from scene-to-scene, club to club, searching for kicks and victims. But there was something a little too Austin Powers about that approach. I decided to delve deeper into that period, and was particularly drawn to movers and shakers like Brian Epstein (the man who gave the world a little musical group called The Beatles) and Justin de Villeneuve (the man who made skinny fashionable by introducing the world to Twiggy).

That's when I decided to focus the story on a young ingénue named Dot and the ancient, megalomaniacal, yet trendy vampire who would transform her into a pop icon. For months, I completely immersed myself in the music, the fashion, the art, and the films of that time. And once I'd written the first couple of chapters, I felt I'd really hit upon something. It was the right combination of ultra-violet and ultra-violence... I just needed an artist who could reconcile Mod fashion with Gothic horror.

That's when a friend of mine, Matt Anderson, introduced me to Micah Farritor. Micah had just finished working on "The Living and the Dead" with writers Bob Tinnell and Todd Livingston and was looking for his next project. The timing was right, the moon was in the seventh house, Jupiter collided with Mars, and though it may not have been the Age of Aquarius, Micah agreed to join the happening.While lettering the first collection of Micah's illustrations, I only listened to music from the 60s--the more hallucinatory the better. Inspired by all this trippy pop, I decided to approach my friend Ellis Clark of the band Epicycle about contributing music to a Night Trippers podcast. Ellis not only gave his blessing for me to use a track from Epicycle's 2002 album "Swirl", but also volunteered to create new music based on lyrics I'd created for the book.

Then when John Suintres, the interviewer from the comic book oriented website wordballoon.com, joined me for a fictional interview the podcast really came together in a fusion of music and fantasy. You can download this aural extension to the Night Trippers graphic novel at our website http://www.nighttrippers.com/ or at iTunes here.

In May, the 184 page graphic novel Night Trippers hits the stands at a retail price of $16.99. Don't forget to order an advance copy from the March 2006 Previews catalog. Tune in, turn on, and fang out!