Fear Vampirates!

Cape Breton Post
Friday, April 20, 2007
Page: B8
Section: Arts/Entertainment
Byline: Matthew Daye
Source: Cape Breton Post

Since 1995, artists with comic ideas have used the web to make a name for themselves but few have made their comics about Canada.

One Sydney artist is going where most others feared to tread.

Kelly Barrie, who goes by the pen name Jones on her comic, writes and draws Vampirates! The story blends fantasy with reality to create a rather strange series of events.

"It's about these vampires who end up stealing one of the Newfoundland ferries and they're going to take it to Saskatchewan," Barrie said. "They haven't really thought about how the St. Lawrence doesn't make it all the way to Saskatchewan but they'll cross that bridge when they come to it."

The comic features three vampire characters: Hassan, from parts unknown, a Cape Bretoner named Clyde, and a Montreal native named Ira, all of which are all original characters.

"There are other characters, like Patrick Murphy, who is from the song The Night That Patty Murphy Died. So I basically took that guy from the song and made him into a character for the story."

The villain of the comic is another Canadian pop-culture reference, taken from the song The Last Saskatchewan Pirate by Tractor Jack.

The webcomic, which features the caution 'Warning: Vampirates! contains offensive language and Canadians' is considered to be for people 16 years old and up.

It has serious themes, but quirky humor is always present.

"Doing webcomics is kind of stressful sometimes, so I just toss out weird random things to keep readers on their toes," Barrie said. "Recently, for April Fools Day, I turned one of the main characters into a radish for the day, because I thought it would be amusing."

While she writes and draws Vampirates! by herself, she's also taken on the art for another webcomic that has a similar sense of humor, written by a friend.

"It's about a thief and a communist in 1887 Colorado."

Vampirates!, which Barrie writes and draws for free, can be found at http://vampirates.comicgen.com/