Dynamite Announces Historical Fantasy Blood Queen With Fritz Casas and Sparkshooter's Troy Brownfield

Today at the ComicsPro Retailer Summit in Atlanta, Dynamite Entertainment announced the launch of a new title based (loosely) on the "Blood Countess" Elizabeth Bathory, set to launch as an ongoing, monthly comic in June 2014. Titled Blood Queen, the series will be written by Sparkshooter's Troy Brownfield (formerly my editor at Newsarama, just so that's been established) and drawn by Fritz Casas. It's the first ongoing series for Brownfield (at least in print), but not his first turn with Dynamite; prior to heading to Zenescope to be a kind of utility infielder there, writing one-shots and miniseries and filling holes in the creative lineup, the writer had a Buck Rogers annual at the publisher, which he co-wrote with Newsarama founder Matt Brady.

In an announcement interview with (surprise!) Newsarama, Brownfield stressed the three S's of Blood Queen: Swords, sorcery and...Slayer. "I think it would be fair to call it 'highly fictionalized,'" the writer joked. "Bathory is one of those historical characters that invites interpretation. Here you have someone that, in real life, is reputed to have been responsible for the death of 600 people. She's infamous for the notion of bathing in blood to keep her youth. And when tried for her crimes, she was locked away in a tower until the end of her days. It's a case where the true story is almost stranger than something you'd invent. We've taken the basic idea of Bathory and some elements of her history and set it down in a landscape that's more of a dark fantasy." He added that the book's first arc, "Reign in Blood," is named after an album from metal icons Slayer (arguably not that surprising given the fact that Brownfield writes not one but two ongoing webcomics about musicians). "I want to name every arc after a different Slayer album, because I am troubled," he joked.