10/31/2001:

K, so I'd made a whole strip... and it looked really nice. Wow. Then, as I was putting it into the HTML stuff, I realized that it was Halloween. So... I couldn't just run it! So I wrote this one up, based on an idea that's been kicking around the head for a little. Well, at least Friday's strip is now done, so I can go out Friday. If only I had someone to go out with...

Anyway, I've always been fascinated / freaked out of my gourd by vampires. Ever sinec I was reading a children's version of Dracula in the library, and my brother snuck up behind me and put his hand on my neck, I've had this thing about vampires. Vampires really have it all, in a way: they're strong, can fly, can turn into mist, have basic mind control, etc etc. I think that it'd be OK putting up with the lack of garlic and vitamin D and a change to a liquid diet in return for those powers.. But then there's the whole raft of religious issues. You don't have to deal with all that stuff when you're say... a werewolf.

My sister had this book, 100 Vicious Vampire Stories, which had, as its title might suggest, a wide variety of vampiric tales. One was about cells in the bloodstream. Another was about geriatric vampires with special dentures. Etc. I can't find it on Amazon currently, or I'd give the link.

I don't like the Buffy vampires because I feel that vampires should appear normal, not those bumpy foreheaded things. And since it's TV, they're just sorta screaming things. I mean, that's sort of shocking scary if they pop out at the right time, but not the sort of "freaked out of my gourd" feeling I got reading Dracula that day (yeah, and this was the children's version). The dark mirror of the soul line I totally stole from Neil Gaiman. I think it fits.

Anyway, I remember one notable dream about vampires. Years ago I dreamt that everyone in my family was a vampire except for me. And in some way, it would have been a good idea to just go along and become one of the gang, but I just couldn't. Instead, I felt left out, separated, different. Nice example of adolescent angst, huh? That dream was filed in with the "everyone in the world's a robot except for me" type of dreams, although that thought's a bit more egotistic but the same level of paranoia.

Final Murphy's note for tonight: If you get excited about something that's not definite... it probably won't happen.

-kip