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978-1-63140-162-6 17 16 15 14 1 2 3 4

SUNGLASSES AFTER DARK: FULL BLOODED COLLECTION.NOVEMBER 2014. FIRST PR INTING. Sunglasses After Dark andSonja Blue Nancy A. Collins. 2014 Idea and Design Works,LLC. The IDW logo is registered in the U.S. Patent and TrademarkOffice. IDW Publishing, a division of Idea and Design Works, LLC.Editorial offices: 5080 Santa Fe St., San Diego, CA 92109. Anysimilarities to persons living or dead are purely coincidental. With

the exception of artwork used for review purposes, none of thecontents of this publication may be reprinted without thepermission of Idea and Design Works, LLC. Printed in Korea.IDW Publishing does not read or accept unsolicited submissions ofideas, stories, or artwork.

Originally published as SUNGLASSES AFTER DARK issues #1-6

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Ted Adams, CEO & PublisherGreg Goldstein, President & COORobbie Robbins, EVP/Sr. Graphic ArtistChris Ryall, Chief Creative Officer/Editor-in-ChiefMatthew Ruzicka, CPA, Chief Financial OfficerAlan Payne, VP of SalesDirk Wood, VP of MarketingLorelei Bunjes, VP of Digital ServicesJeff Webber, VP of Digital Publishing & Business Development

IDW founded by Ted Adams, Alex Garner, Kris Oprisko, and Robbie Robbins

WRITTEN BY

NANCY A. COLLINS

ART AND COLORS BY

STAN SHAW

LETTERING BY

THOMAS MAUER

COVER BY

STAN SHAW

EDITS BY

JUSTIN EISINGERAND ALONZO SIMON

DESIGN BY

GILBERTO LAZCANO


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Stan ShawOctober, 2014

INTRODUCTION


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I G O T S O M E T H I N ' T O S A Y T O Y O U A N D Y O U B E T T E RL I S T E N :T H E S TO R Y O F S U N G L A S S E S A F T E R D A R K : TH E F U L L B L O O D E D C O L L E C T I O N

Four years ago, I signed the contract with IDW to

reprint the comic book adaptation ofSunglassesAfter Dark in graphic novel form. Ever since then,

whenever I mention the project to my fans, the

majority of them exclaim: Cool! Its about time! I

always thought she would make a great comic book

hero!, completely unaware that there was a six-issue

miniseries in the mid-1990s.

The reason for why even my dedicated fans know

nothing about the comic book adventures of my most

famous literary creation is a classic study in Fin de

Sicle Comic Book History. The publisher of the

original miniseries was Verotik Publications, owned

by heavy metal artist Glenn Danzig of Misfits and

Samhain fame. Glenn was a fan of my Bram Stoker

award-winning novel, Sunglasses After Dark, and

approached me about adapting it for his new

company. The idea was for Sunglasses After Darkto

bring in a more mainstream audience, as I had just

left a successful two-year stint as writer for DCs

Swamp Thing series.

I was then introduced to artist Stan Shaw, and after a

test run adapting my short story Aphra confirmed

that we were compatible, we began brainstorming on

character design. Since I was living on the Lower

East Side at the time, and he was in the Pacific

Northwest, most of it was done via an ancient, pre-

internet technology known as the thermofax. (You

had to be there.) However, as Stan and I labored over

bringing Sonja Blue to life as a comic book

character, neither of us was aware as to the exact

nature of all the other Verotik titles, save that they

were utilizing such heavy-hitters as Frank Frazetta,

Esteban Maroto, and Simon Bisley.

The first story Stan and I collaborated on, Aphra,

saw print in Verotika #4, alongside a story called A

Taste of Cherry. What followed after its publication is

a long, complicated, and graphic story, one that

ultimately involved obscenity laws, the state of

Oklahoma, and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

While the case was eventually dismissed, the ultimateresult of the scandal was that Verotik titles were

often treated like plutonium. They werent displayed

with the other comics but were, instead, kept behind

the counter in sealed bags with nothing but the title

visible. This includedSunglasses After Dark, even

though it was essentially a PG-13 title designed to

bring in the Vertigo-buying crowd. That meant the

onlyway to buy a copy was to already know about its

existence and pick it up at your local comic book

store. If your friendly neighborhood shop didnt carryit, the only other recourse was to buy it directly from

Verotik Publications, either through the mail or their

online shop (while the internet was still in its wobbly

colt stage), at one of the few conventions they

showed at, or at one of Danzigs concerts. It also

didnt help that the fabled Comic Book Implosion and

Distributor Wars between Diamond, Capital Comics

and Heroes World (which resulted in the closure of

scores of comic retailers in North America) was

occurring at the exact same time. So thatis why,

almost 20 years after the fact, most Sonja Blue fans

are still completely unaware she ever appeared in

comic book form. (Phew)

Both Stan and I have always feltSunglasses After

Darkgot a raw deal and never had a chance of

finding its audience. We became friends during the

production of the series and have remained in touch

throughout the years, and the topic of somehow

finding a way to reprint the series was one we always

went back to. But since Danzig still owns the originalcolor film of the series, and there was no way we

could afford to buy it from him, we would have to

start from scratch. Luckily, Stan and I owned the

rights to the original artwork and scripts, but the cost

of re-coloring and re-lettering the hundreds of pages,

much less printing them, was prohibitive.

But time passed, and with it came the age of digital

coloring and lettering, as well as the rise of the

collected graphic novel. Suddenly, the ability to give

Sunglasses After Dark the second chance it deserved

was no longer beyond our grasp. When my old friend,

Jeff Connor, contacted me in 2009 about writing some

prose stories for IDW, I mentioned that Stan and I were

looking for a way to reprintSunglasses After Dark,

and one thing lead to another... and so here we are. As

to the particulars behind the Herculean task of digitally

recoloring the entire series, I will leave that to Stan to

describe in his own introduction. (Eds Note: He does

not.) As for myself, I used the opportunity to go back

and reconfigure my original dialog and narration so thatthe story reads less like the adaptation of a novel and

more like agraphic novel.

So here is Sonja Blue, in all her punk vampire /

vampire-slayer glory: No sparkling allowed.

Nancy A. CollinsOctober, 2014

INTRODUCTION


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