Just in time for Halloween, Abrams ComicArts is releasing a heist book with a vampiric twist, written and drawn by animator and comics creator Stephan Franck. Silver: Of Treasures and Thieves draws on gothic horror and classic heists as protagonist James Finnigan attempts to steal a mythical and immeasurable treasure.
Silver picks up after Finnigan accidentally loses his grifter gang's lifetime fortune during a heist gone incredibly wrong. Then, he finds a notebook in the crypt of the Harker Foundation that describes a treasure he and his gang can only dream of. He also finds a bar of pure silver that only teases this ancient stash.
Unfortunately, the treasure is hidden in a castle full of vampires.
"Not to get too philosophical right off the bat, but what's always fascinated me the most about vampires is their relationship with immortality, which would be a complicated thing for anyone to handle, let alone for people whose relationship with life itself is tenuous at best," Franck tells Newsarama.
"In Silver, the vampires aren't superior beings. They are the dead masquerading as the living," he explains. "In other words, the vampires in Silver are stuck between their unwillingness to die and inability to feel alive. While most of them indulge in abject nihilism, others – and that's the take on Dracula in Silver – are stuck in an existential crisis, forever looking for meaning in a world, where by definition, they can't find any.
"That's of course a metaphor for all of us, as many people today feel like the world is broken, and that finding meaning in it is not an easy task. That's also the question that the con men in our story also need to face: What does it mean to feel alive? Is it just trying to win a game? Is it walking around, cheating death forever? Is nihilism a good choice, or is there something more?"
Newsarama readers can get a first look at Silver: Of Treasures and Thieves in the preview pages below.
"There are a lot of fun elements coming together in Silver. There is the heist aspect, with all the twists and turns that I'm pretty sure will keep the reader guessing until the very end. And there is of course the world-building, with a mix of pulp, horror, and adventure, that builds and builds and builds, to really savagely epic proportions," Franck says.
"All the comedy is coming straight from the characters, who all have really fun voices. Finnigan, Sledge, Tao, and all their crew of wonderfully broken individuals constantly use their wits to cope with extreme situations, so we get to really have a lot of fun and keep the tone light without ever undermining the suspense or the stakes."
Silver: Of Treasures and Thieves will be available October 25.
