Film company Framelight Productions has launched a $20,000 Kickstarter campaign to fund Sword of Wood, a graphic novel based on an unpublished medieval horror story by Chuck Dixon. Framelight acquired the film and transmedia rights to Dixon's story in 2010, and has hired the writer and artist Estève Polls to create the graphic novel.

Set during the First Crusade, Sword of Wood follows a holy knight named Lord Corrington who returns to his hometown to find the village ransacked by a swarm of vampires led by a villainous lord dubbed "the Apostle."

It's interesting that Framelight is so open about this project being in service of the anticipated film, stating on Kickstarter that the graphic novel is being produced to add "pre-market awareness" of the film. One of the Kickstarter rewards is is a walk-on role in the film; while none of the $20,000 is set to go toward the big-screen adaptation, the expected delivery of the reward is October 2015 -- the same as the graphic novel's publication date..

Here are the cover and several pages, already inked, of Sword of Wood by Polls:

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