Much in the vein of the popular comic book series Vampirella, 30 Days of Night and Walking Dead, Night revolves around FBI Agent Sabrina Voght and her pursuit of what she suspects to be a werewolf killer hiding among inner city gangs. The plot takes several twists and turns before the killer is revealed and many other surprises are thrown at the reader as well.
We spoke with writer, Troy Hasbrouck, about NIGHT.
The Big Bad Wolf: Can you give our readers a synopsis of Night?
 Troy Hasbrouck: NIGHT is not just a werewolf or vampire comic. The series is designed to
be open to each and every creature of the NIGHT. Werewolves, Vampires,
Minotaur, we've got them all.
The Big Bad Wolf: Who are the main characters?
Troy Hasbrouck:
The series centers around a female FBI Agent named Sabrina Voght. She
works a little out of the usual realm of the FBI and focuses on the
macabre cases that no one else wants. When things get rough, the fangs
come out, literally. She's a vampire, but that is not what defines her.
No
tortured souls here.
Her partner, Agent Andrew Whildon is a biochemist
and he's developed and drug based on the properties of human blood that
help her keep her vampirism in check. The cast of heroes is rounded out
by
a young werewolf on the run by the name of David Skinner. He initially
was
introduced as a suspect, but it turned out he was just a decoy for the
true villain. We've got a nice cast of bad guys featuring a warlock by
the name of Mr. E, an older than written history vampire by the name of
Anubis Peribsen, a zombie animator turned zombie himself, Dwayne Jones
jokingly referred to as "Zombie Boy and lastly our the arch enemy of
Sabrina is a character based on the blood countess herself, Elizabeth
Bathory.
The Big Bad Wolf: Can you catch us up with the current storyline?
Troy Hasbrouck: Well, in the previous story arch, Sabrina was tracking David Skinner and
once it was determined he wasn't the murderer she was looking for, the
two
teamed up and defeated Mr. E. Next, Sabrina was called to Florida to
investigate several Goth massacres and she herself ended up being
captured
and tortured by Elizabeth Bathory. So, in Night issue five, Skinner and
Whildon team up to search for Sabrina. Skinner ends up fighting
Bathory's
newest vampire clan and determines that Sabrina has been taken to a
remote
part of Canada called Yellowknife. The newest issue released soon deals
with Sabrina and what she finds in Yellowknife.
The Big Bad Wolf: What is next issue due out and what number is it?
Troy Hasbrouck:
Most likely the next issue that will be in print will be the Witch
Hunter
/ Night Crossover story that I co-wrote with Monarch Comics' Vincent
Ferrante. Elias Martins from the Brazilian studio did the pencils for
the
crossover issue and they are fantastic.
After that we're going to re-launch NIGHT with a new number one. The
art
teams have changed and it seems like a perfect time for new readers to
jump in so we're starting Night volume 2 with a bang!
The Big Bad Wolf: Is there a trade out that collects the past issues?
Troy Hasbrouck: There are two trades, Night volume 1 collects Night issues 1-3 and this
is
available through LULU as we speak. Night Volume 2 Behold Bathory is
going through a few printing revisions but should be available through
LULU by the end of the month. Night Volume 2 collects Night 4 and 5 as
well as Shades of the Night 1 and 2 and for extra punch we threw in some
of the backup stories from other one-shots.
The Big Bad Wolf: What can we expect from this series in terms of blood and gore?
Troy Hasbrouck:
Once again, thinking of ways to maximize readership, I always say this
is
a PG-13 book. There is definitely blood and violence. Stakes being
driven
into hearts, throats slashed, that's all represented, but no entrails
hanging out or nudity.
The Big Bad Wolf: Night has its own spin off series as well, Shades of the Night. Can you
tell us a bit about this series?
Troy Hasbrouck: Once I hit the convention circuit pretty hard, I started meeting all
these
very talented artists but their style didn't necessarily fit the look
that
was created for NIGHT. I was also running into a trend with buyers that
were reluctant to try a new series when there was already five issues
out.
So Shades of the Night, was created as a continuity free series telling
stories from Sabrina's past, present and future with no ties to the
previous issue. Its wide open on the artistic front too so I can pick an
artist whose individual style fits the script and give them free reign
to
let their style loose! So now the new readers can pick up an issue if
they
like the artist on that issue and read it without having to feel
committed
to picking up the next issue.
The Big Bad Wolf: What issue is that on and when is the next one due out?
Troy Hasbrouck:
Shades of the Night Issue 1 and 2 are both in print now and I have, at
the
moment, four SOTN scripts currently in production. That's the beauty of
the concept of this series. It doesn't matter who finishes first because
there is no order to the series. My hope is to have NIGHT Volume 2
number
1 and 2 completed by the 2009 convention season and to have NIGHT 3 and
4
completed by the end of the year and the Shades stories will go to print
as they are completed but I imagine at least 2 or 3 will be complete for
this summer's convention season.
The
Big Bad Wolf: Is both Night and Shades of the Night an ongoing series?
Troy Hasbrouck: Yes, with NIGHT being the flagship title complete with cliffhanger
endings!
The
Big Bad Wolf: How much are the books?
Troy Hasbrouck: $2.99 for the Black and White issues and $3.99
for
the color issues.
 The
Big Bad Wolf: Who's the creative team on the Night series?
Troy Hasbrouck: Initially Buddy Prince
worked
on the series and he was the artist on Night 1-4, but he has decided to
move on to other projects so DC White stepped in to fill the void with
Night 5. For the second volume of the series I have begun working with a
Brazilian art studio maintaining a steady art style so the only
returning
artist from the first volume will be DC White.
The
Big Bad Wolf: What about for Shades of the Night?
Troy Hasbrouck: Issue one was drawn by a very talented friend of mine, Clayton Moore.
He's
a big zombie fan so I had to give him the "zombie boy" story to work up.
It's actually a trilogy but we're saving the second two parts for later.
We want to use "zombie boy" sparingly. The second issue was drawn by
Dave
Crowson and he did these beautiful pencil illustrations that I felt
obligated not to cover up with any coloring so they are printed straight
from his pencils. His issue is actually a chapter from a novel that I
wrote featuring Sabrina's first night out, her first mission. Upcoming
we
have Erik Williams doing some fantastic water colors. Troy Rider will be
bringing some realism to Shades and David Faught will be bringing a
little
fantasy.
The Big Bad Wolf: Where can our readers find out more about Night?
Troy Hasbrouck:
The best place is www.jesterpress.com. We've got a listing for our
convention appearances and character bios listed so there is some cool
stuff to check out there as well as just all the cool pin-ups from the
various artists but you can also reach us at
myspace.com/jesterpresscomics.
The Big Bad Wolf: In closing, what would you like to say to our readers about Night?
Troy Hasbrouck:
I thank you of course for this opportunity and if this interview has
sparked an interest, then you can have your local shop order all our
books
through Haven Distribution. www.havendistro.com.
The Big Bad Wolf: Thank you for your time,
Troy! Best of luck with this title.
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