“Vampire Hunter D” fans, get excited – an American adaptation of the series’ short story “Message From Cecile,” retitled “Message From Mars,” is on the way via publisher Stranger Comics.
A crowd-sourced effort for the project, launched on Kickstarter a month ago, has so far raised more than $76,000 from over 1,000 backers, well above the $25,000 goal.
Brandon Easton, comic writer and current staff writer on Marvel’s TV series “Agent Carter,” will adapt the anime short story into an American-style comic, helped by Christopher Shy, Michael Broussard and creative teams at Stranger, Unified Pictures and Digital Frontier.
“Vampire” began in the 1980s as a series of Japanese novels by Hideyuki Kikuchi and has since spawned an anime film, video games and manga. The original short story for “Mars,” written by Kikuchi, was an published work only made available to fans at an event.
The story is set in a post-nuclear world and follows D, a half-vampire, half-human vampire hunter.
According to organizers, Kickstarter funds will go toward the design and creation of the comic, as well as toward exclusives available only through the campaign, which ends Aug. 6.
