IF YOU LIKE YOUR VAMPIRES WITH A

BIT OF GRIT AND A SIDE OF PUNK,

THIS IS THE ONE FOR YOU.
COMIC BASTARDS

VAMPIRE TURNED VAMPIRE HUNTER SONJA

BLUE TRAVELS THE GLOBE, HUNTING DOWN
AND DISPOSING OF THOSE CREATURES OF THE
SHADOWS THAT PREY ON THE INNOCENT, ALL
THE WHILE SEARCHING FOR THE MONSTER WHO
CREATED HER. BUT AS DANGEROUS AS HUNTING
THE UNDEAD MAY BE, IT'S NOTHING COMPARED TO THE
THREAT POSED BY THE OTHER, THE DEMONIC
PERSONALITY WHO SHARES HER BODY. CAN SONJA
BLUE OVERCOME HER VERY REAL PERSONAL DEVIL IN
TIME TO RESCUE AN INNOCENT MAN FROM THE UNHOLY
CLUTCHES OF A CORRUPT PSYCHIC HEALER?
THIS COMPILED EDITION IS DIGITALLY RECOLORED BY
ORIGINAL ARTIST STAN SHAW, COMPLETELY RELETTERED BY THOMAS MAUER, AND HAS
RE-TWEAKED DIALOG AND NARRATION
BY AUTHOR NANCY A. COLLINS.
www.idwpublishing.com $34.99

WRITTEN BY

NANCY A. COLLINS
ART AND COLORS BY

STAN SHAW
LETTERING BY

THOMAS MAUER
COVER BY

STAN SHAW
EDITS BY

JUSTIN EISINGER
AND ALONZO SIMON
DESIGN BY

GILBERTO LAZCANO

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978-1-63140-162-6

17 16 15 14

SUNGLASSES AFTER DARK: FULL BLOODED COLLECTION.

NOVEMBER 2014. FIRST PRINTING. Sunglasses After Dark and
Sonja Blue Nancy A. Collins. 2014 Idea and Design Works,
LLC. The IDW logo is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office. IDW Publishing, a division of Idea and Design Works, LLC.
Editorial offices: 5080 Santa Fe St., San Diego, CA 92109. Any
similarities to persons living or dead are purely coincidental. With
the exception of artwork used for review purposes, none of the
contents of this publication may be reprinted without the
permission of Idea and Design Works, LLC. Printed in Korea.
IDW Publishing does not read or accept unsolicited submissions of
ideas, stories, or artwork.
Originally published as SUNGLASSES AFTER DARK issues #1-6
Ted Adams, CEO & Publisher
Greg Goldstein, President & COO
Robbie Robbins, EVP/Sr. Graphic Artist
Chris Ryall, Chief Creative Officer/Editor-in-Chief
Matthew Ruzicka, CPA, Chief Financial Officer
Alan Payne, VP of Sales
Dirk Wood, VP of Marketing
Lorelei Bunjes, VP of Digital Services
Jeff Webber, VP of Digital Publishing & Business Development
IDW founded by Ted Adams, Alex Garner, Kris Oprisko, and Robbie Robbins

1234

INTRODUCTION

Stan Shaw
October, 2014

INTRODUCTION
I G OT S O M E TH I N' TO S AY TO YO U A N D YO U B E T TE R
LISTEN:
THE STORY OF SUNGLASSES AFTER DARK: THE FULL BLOODED COLLECTION
Four years ago, I signed the contract with IDW to
reprint the comic book adaptation of Sunglasses
After 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 Dark to
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, preinternet 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 ultimate
result 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 included Sunglasses After Dark, even
though it was essentially a PG-13 title designed to
bring in the Vertigo-buying crowd. That meant the
only way 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 carry
it, 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 that is 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 felt Sunglasses After
Dark got 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 original
color 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 reprint Sunglasses 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 that
the story reads less like the adaptation of a novel and
more like a graphic novel.
So here is Sonja Blue, in all her punk vampire /
vampire-slayer glory: No sparkling allowed.

Nancy A. Collins
October, 2014