The Weird History of Anne Rice’s Vampires in Comic Books

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Before Anne Rice’s stories became TV shows on AMC, or were adapted into films like Interview with the Vampire and Queen of the Damned, comics were the only way to experience her work outside of the novels. In the early 1990s, comics featuring Lestat and his fellow vampires were very popular independent titles, alongside other well-known series like Grendel and Hellboy. However, these Anne Rice comics are now out of print and can only be found through collectors or the resale market. They did, however, show that Rice’s characters had the potential to succeed in different forms of media.

Anne Rice’s novels were most popular in the late 1980s. Though published in 1976, Interview with the Vampire gradually gained a dedicated following. By the time the sequel, The Vampire Lestat, was released nine years later, it built on the success of the first book and quickly became a bestseller. In 1988, the third novel, The Queen of the Damned, reached the top of the New York Times bestseller list. The following year, Ballantine published the first three books together as The Vampire Chronicles, and sales soared. For many Goth readers, these novels were as important as The Lord of the Rings, a dark and dramatic series full of blood and atmosphere.

Anne Rice’s vampire novels faced years of delays trying to become a movie. However, the comic book world was thriving at the same time, with many new, independent publishers joining industry giants like DC and Marvel. One of these was Innovation Comics, which launched in 1988. While they created some original comics, they mainly adapted existing properties, including titles like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Quantum Leap. Innovation also secured the rights to adapt Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat into a 12-issue comic series, with the first issue released in late 1989.

Faye Perozich adapted the story into comics, with Daerick Gross providing the interior artwork and John Bolton creating stunning cover paintings. The comics closely followed Anne Rice’s original writing and accurately depicted her characters – Lestat, in particular, closely resembled actor Rutger Hauer, who Rice herself had envisioned for the role. Fans of Rice’s work loved the comics, which quickly became popular and sold out in stores. Their success was likely boosted by the simultaneous release of the three Vampire Chronicles books in a collected edition, creating a particularly favorable moment for the series.

Innovation quickly expanded its work with Anne Rice’s stories. After finishing the twelfth issue of The Vampire Lestat, they obtained the rights to adapt her other two Vampire Chronicles novels, Interview with the Vampire and The Queen of the Damned. They also turned one of Rice’s lesser-known vampire tales, the novella The Master of Rampling Gate, into a graphic novel and released a series of Vampire Companions. These were comic book-sized publications offering a behind-the-scenes look, including interviews with Anne Rice and photos of fan cosplay and artwork. This was an early way to celebrate Rice’s vampire fanbase, before the internet existed.

Innovation Comics was unfortunately caught in the downturn of the comic book industry in 1994, when many publishers were forced to shrink or close down. Even major companies like DC and Marvel suffered. Innovation itself went out of business, leaving the final issue of Queen of the Damned unfinished. With the exception of The Vampire Lestat, these comics have never been compiled into collections and are no longer available. As a result, fantastic artwork by creators like Christopher Moeller, Alexander Jubran, and Octavio Cariello risks being forgotten by new readers unless discovered through online marketplaces like eBay.

Despite the initial cancellation, Anne Rice’s work continued in comics. Millennium Comics, a publisher that no longer exists, started adapting Rice’s novel The Witching Hour, the first book in a trilogy now being made into the Mayfair Witches series on AMC. They planned for 10 issues, but only released five, leaving the story unfinished. Millennium did successfully adapt another Rice novel, The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned, completing all 12 issues.

In the late 1990s, a small publisher briefly revived Lestat in comic book form, but it didn’t last long. Sicilian Dragon then obtained the rights to adapt Anne Rice’s fourth Vampire Chronicles novel, The Tale of the Body Thief, as a 12-issue series. Unfortunately, poor sales caused the adaptation to end after only four issues, though the remaining story was later released as an original graphic novel. More recently, in 2011, IDW adapted Rice’s ghost novel The Servant of the Bones, and Rice actively promoted the comic herself.

Fans finally got a new take on the classic story in 2013 with the release of a graphic novel called Interview with the Vampire: Claudia’s Story. This version retold Anne Rice’s original 1976 novel, but this time from the perspective of the heartbreaking character Claudia. Adapted into a manga-style format by writer and artist Ashley Marie Witter and published by Yen Press, the graphic novel was so well-received that Anne Rice herself included it in the list of works featured in her novels. Claudia’s Story came out a year before Rice returned to writing vampire stories with Prince Lestat in 2014.

It’s uncertain if these classic stories will ever be adapted into comics again, especially with the current AMC series. However, the original comics themselves should soon be available to fans. Hopefully, a publisher will acquire and properly collect them, allowing new readers to discover these hidden gems – particularly those who’ve become fans of Lestat, Louis, and Armand through the Anne Rice Immortal Universe TV show. Now that these characters are popular on television, it’s a great time to bring them back to the world of comics.

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2025-11-12 20:04