Local comic artists bring vampires to South Philadelphia

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Local comic artists bring vampires to South Philadelphia

POSTED: Monday, February 8, 2010, 3:29 PM

Twilight: Forks, OR. True Blood: Bon Temps, LA. The Vampire Diaries: Mystic Falls, VA. The current crop of pop culture vampires like to stick to small towns.

Not so for Tony Trov, Johnny Zito and Christine Larsen's Philadelphia-set "LaMorte Sisters," about Maddie, a new girl at LaMorte Home for Lost Girls run by sect of hardass nuns who take in little ladies affected by vampirism.

Drawn by Christine Larsen (who Molly Eichel liked so much, she Kaleidoscoped her), "LaMorte Sisters" debuted with an eight page run on October 16 of last year on Zuda Comics, DC Comics' web division. Zuda named it an "instant classic," and gave Trov, Zito and Larsen a contract with DC to do 52 more pages, at a rate of one new page per week. They're currently at 24, with new pages debuting every Wednesday.

To the creators, it's basic coming-of-age material, despite the supernatural aspects of the story,: "It's really about growing up too fast in South Philly," Zito says.

Lamorte_sisters-1 The LaMorte school itself is modeled on Saints John Neumann and Maria Goretti Catholic High School. "When we were kids, it was this creepy all-girls' catholic school," Trov says, who along with Zito grew up in South Philly (Larsen is fro New Jersey). "The janitor would stare at you, the statues would come to life. There were ghost stories."

"We put Philadelphia in everything we write," Zito adds.

"LaMorte" originally started out as a screenplay but later transformed. "The great thing about comics over film is the instant gratification," says Trov. "We get to see the concepts fleshed out almost instantly. It's amazing to see a character come to life through lines on a piece of paper."

Trov and Zito are also behind "The Black Cherry Bombshells," another Zuda comic, making them the only team on Zuda to be publishing two series simultaneously. Launched in 2008, "The Black Cherry Bombshells" follows the exploits of an all-girl gang fighting other gangs for supremacy in a future Las Vegas where all men have turned into zombies. It is now in its third 52-page "season."

While comics is a seemingly male-dominated medium, Trov and Zito's Zuda comics are both lady-centric. "We like to super-imposed female characters over traditional male action movie roles," Trov explains. "Plus Zuda Comics is very-girl friendly."

"We entered Zuda with ["The Black Chery Bombshells"], and that opened the door for us to pitch all kinds of new projects to them," Zito says. "They liked the zombies so much they went for vampires.

While vamps are a ubiquitous breed in today's pop culture landscape, Zito doesn't view "LaMorte Sisters" as a bandwagon jumping entity.

"Everybody likes vampires at some point," Trov says. "David Bowie made a vampire movie. True Blood and Twilight just kind of picked up where all that left off."

"They're universal! It's sexy, it's the undead," Zito agrees. "We're happy to be another brick in the wall of vampire lore."

Especially if that lore is set in your own backyard. Check page nine of "LaMorte Sisters" for an establishing shot of a Philly street. More recent pages features images of Grays Ferry.

"Look for more Philadelphia," Trov says. "It's going to be a Philadelphia story."

A new page of "LaMorte Sisters" debuts every Wednesday at zudacomics.com/lamorte_sisters.

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