PC Cast's vampyre series comes to comics

Wednesday evening at Comic-Con International in San Diego, fans attending the con's preview night were treated to three new announcements at the Dark Horse booth. In addition to an adaptation of Guillermo del Toro's "The Strain" novels and a new project from Tom Morrello of Rage Against the Machine and The Nightwatchman, the publisher announced that novelist PC Cast will bring her "House of Night" series to comics with all-new stories. The first miniseries debuts in November and will be written by screenwriter Kent Dalian with art by Joelle Jones and others, and covers by Jenny Frison.

The "House of Night" series, currently nine books strong, follows teenager Zoey Redbird as she discovers her vampyric nature, plucking her from her normal school life and seeing her transferred to the titular boarding school to hone her newfound skills. Matters escalate, as they tend to do, and Zoey finds herself the custodian of immense power and faced with choices that affect the fate of the world.

CBR News spoke with Cast about bringing her popular series to comics.

CBR News: First, how did this project come together? What made you want to expand "House of Night" into comics?

PC Cast: I grew up reading comic books! I fell in love with Superman and Swamp Thing, Thor and Batman when I was a kid in the '70s. That love has carried through to my adulthood where I've been a fan of Dark Horse for quite some time. When I decided to expand the "House of Night" to comics DH was an automatic perfect fit.

Jenny Frison covers "House of Night"

For fans who might be encountering your "House of Night" universe for the first time through this comic, how would you describe the series of novels? Who is Zoey Redbird, and what sort of situations does she find herself in?

The "House of Night" world is just like ours - only vampyres live there. My vamps are matriarchal, and the Change that turns them into supernatural beings is biologically based. It gets randomly triggered as some kids go through puberty. Once a teenager is Marked they have to go to a special school to be around adult vampyres, or the Change that is taking place within them cannot be controlled and they'll die. Of course many of them don't make it through the Change and die anyway.

Zoey Redbird is a normal teenager who is Marked and then gifted with special affinities by the vampyre goddess, Nyx. Oh, then she has to save the world...

For fans of your novels who don't normally read comics, what would you say is the best reason to pick up Dark Horse's "House of Night" series?

I would tell them that it is unbelievably cool to get to see the world and characters come to life. And as I've been very involved with the art, the depictions of everything from setting to characters are super accurate. It's really a fascinating process and a joy to work with such a talented team. The end product is going to be fabulous!

It looks like this first series will take place during "Betrayed," the second "House of Night" book. What makes this a good starting point for the comics?

It enables us to get into the action of the series because the foundation of the world and the set up is translated visually - plus it drops Zoey smack into a whole bunch of crazy that she and her friends have to figure out how to fix/overcome/deal with.

Will this series explore aspects of the House of Night boarding school that might not have been seen before?

Absolutely. The first five comics bring to life ancient House of Night stories that have only been touched on briefly before, while still maintaining that thread of present day Tulsa action.

What else can you tell us about the story we'll be seeing here?

You'll see everything from current day "House of Night" characters to Cleopatra, Hercules, Freya and more!

I understand you'll be working with Kent Dalian on this series. How did you get connected with him, and what perspective does he bring to the "House of Night" universe?

Kent Dalian is the amazing screenwriter who has adapted the first "House of Night" novel to a screenplay. Through that process he and I have become good friends, and when I found out he is also a lifelong comics fan, I knew he'd be the perfect writer to adapt "HoN." He's doing an incredible job! (I love it when I'm right!)

You mention being involved with the art. Has an interior artist been selected at this point? If so, what does this person's style bring to the story you're telling?

Six interior artists have been selected. Three will render all of the modern settings/characters - three will create the ancient depictions. We're not quite ready to announce all their names yet...