We recently had the chance to catch up with Mark Miller about his new comic series, Vatican City. In the 3-issue comic series, millions of vampires invade the last surviving stronghold for humanity: the Vatican.
Vatican City sets up a simple premise. A sudden vampire uprising ushers the world into chaos within a matter of hours. The entire United States is plunged into darkness in one evening. So too is Rome. However, there’s one location that the vampires simply cannot step foot inside; the sacred land of the Vatican. And so, our protagonist, Guido Cavelti (who originally entered the Vatican in a bid to join the Swiss Guard) joins two thousand tourists and staffers in relative safety behind the walls and ancient, holy relics of Vatican City. All the while, millions of bloodthirsty vampires surround them, prepared to wait for as long as it takes to strike.
We gave issue #1 a hugely positive 4-star review, praising its brutal, exhilarating, and chaotic action set in a unique environment.
In our interview with Millar, the acclaimed writer revealed his inspiration behind the series. “I love vampires and I’m a Catholic,” he explained. “What better chance to get a choice to explore both? I was walking around the Vatican with my wife a few years back and said all the holy statues and crucifixes would make this the perfect place to hide out in a vampire apocalypse. So the seed was planted there. I like stories where a small number of good guys face impossible odds and this seemed an ideal situation with 8 billion vampires and the last free humans seeking refuge behind those walls.”
He’s also got plenty of first-hand knowledge of the Vatican, having visited there before. “I took my wife there on a date when we were just going out,” he noted. “It was actually amazing. She wasn’t even a Catholic so it was an odd choice in hindsight when cinema and restaurants were maybe more obvious.”
Millar initially began developing the idea a few years back, as part of the Netflix Millarworld deal. “My day job at Netflix means I have to create a certain amount of movie and TV concepts every year and write them up as scriptments for us to develop,” he said. “Vatican City was done four or five years ago I think, but I decided I wanted to do a comic book too.”
As for the vampires themselves, they very much fall in the cunning and calculating Dracula-style category, as opposed to rampant I am Legend vampires, for instance. “Oh, definitely calculating. That’s the difference between a vampire and a zombie as they’re both undead. A zombie is essentially a retarded vampire!”
So what is it that the vampires actually want? Well, that would be delving into spoiler territory, but Millar points us in the right direction. “They basically want to step out of the shadows and take their place at the top of the food chain,” he hints. “Humans are still alive, but they’re cattle or blood-banks on a global level. But there’s a big twist here we get in the back-story.”
Vatican City features some glorious illustrations from Per Berg, an artist that he’s had a long-standing appreciation for. “I’ve hugely admired Per for years and had been looking for something to work with him on,” he said. “His more sci-fi style wouldn’t have suited this, but I saw this Max Max story he did with a much rougher, more European ink line and I pounced.”
Millar has no plans to continue the story once the 3 issues are over. “No, 100% done in one,” he confirmed. “It’s a good story with a beginning, middle and end. Just the way I like them.”
So what’s up next for Mark Millar? The acclaimed author has lots of exciting projects in the works, both in comics and film — where he’s previously seen immense success with movies such as Kick-Ass and Kingsman. Prepare for some big reveals coming soon!
I have Magic Order wrapping up in a few weeks. The big finale. Vatican City is running at the moment and the new series of Huck just started a couple of days ago. Nemesis launched in August and there’s something big early in the New Year, but in the shorter term our biggest announcement in quite some time comes May 27th at noon New York time. Stay tuned. This is both movie and film news, both announced on the same day.
Vatican City will be compiled as a TBP in October. You can pre-order it here.
