Rose Black: Demon Seed Due In August

We reviewed Rose Black, the graphic novel published by Rough Cut Comics, recently and teased that the second book was due soon. Courtesy of Rose Black co-creator Ed Murphy we now have the impressive cover by Joel Carpenter to the sequel, Rose Black: Demon Seed, which is due in the next month or so.

Created by Ed Murphy and Tom Campbell, Rose is a 600 year old vampire in a world in which vampires don't exist and over her long life has been everything from a British secret agent to a nun. The new book pits her against Eloise, a genetically-engineered vampire who is depicted as a white angel on the book's cover.

Originally published in 2004 the first Rose Black book was written by Tom Campbell, pencilled by Jaeson Finn and inked by Colin Barr and was very much in the style of 1980s 2000AD with its stark black and white artwork. Since then Jaeson Finn has moved on to become a storyboard artist on films such as Doomsday and Centurion by Neil Marshall as well as the recent Liam Neeson thriller Unknown.

Replacing Finn on the new book is Joel Carpenter, who has previously worked on Pete Nash's football strip Striker, and his pencils and inks are coloured by Derek Dow. “It’s a definite change in style,” said Murphy, “but we felt the colour pages would bring in more new readers than we’d lose from the original fan base. I think Joel’s created some beautiful frames and his style is very cinematic, which is exactly what we were looking for."

Rose Black: Demon Seed is solicited in the July UK Previews for release in August and there are more details and artwork on the Rough Cut Comics Facebook page.