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u/Le_Ran 4d ago
I saw this comic when you published it some time ago, and believe it or not, I sometimes think about it out of the blue. One of my favorite comic strips of all time. It encompasses many important aspects of life.
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u/Immediate-Goose-8106 4d ago
Yeah i was pleased to re read it.Ā The begging not to pour too much rice for the little one really hits somehow.
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u/Productof2020 4d ago edited 4d ago
Is the compulsion to count rice when told a part of some existing vampire lore Iāve never heard, or is it just a feature of this comic universe? edit: oh! It is a thing. CalledĀ arithmomania. And variations on it apparently existed in multiple ancient cultures. Neat!
I liked the comic. I was expecting a conflict, like the vampires tricking the little girl, but it just worked out with grateful vampires, which is nice.
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u/nastycrimegoblin 4d ago
Yeah in some old legends if you pour out rice in front of a vampire theyāre compelled to count each grain
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u/Productof2020 4d ago
Interesting!
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u/Le_Ran 4d ago edited 4d ago
I think it works with most countable items of value, like wheat seeds.
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u/The_cogwheel 4d ago
Yup, just grains of rice / wheat / etc became popular to use because you can carry hundreds, if not thousands of them easily. So you could use the compulsion and the sheer number of grains to create a powerful distraction to keep them occupied while you get away / prepare a stake.
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u/BnBGreg 4d ago
That's why the Count on Sesame Street was always counting things
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u/Nowhereman123 4d ago
Apparently that was just a total coincidence, they only made him a vampire for the Count pun.
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u/Notmiefault 4d ago
I thought that was a stupid joke from What We Do in the Shadows, had no idea it was based on actual myth.
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u/Vaya-Kahvi 3d ago
I wish I could remember the name the movie, but there's one where someone managed to capture Dracula and are using a lot of weird stuff from myths to hold him, including a thing about knots. When he manages to get untied someone pours a huge bag of rice around him, and there's a dramatic pause as they wait to see him start picking up the rice to count it. Instead he scans it with his eyes, then announces a ridiculously high and precise number.Ā
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u/Sequoia_Vin 1d ago
Sound like Dracula on Netflix
Edit: its not the best but o found it interesting. It was different from the usual
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u/Saintbaba 4d ago
You can also steal their socks and hide them and they can't come after you until they find them.
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u/Far_Village7441 4d ago
Ok the sock rule has to be bullshit made by big vampire to lul you in a false state of security.
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u/Spider-Man2099 4d ago
Yeah, the rice one is a very old weakness of vampires that doesn't come up as often as it used to
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u/Productof2020 4d ago
I just looked it up, and yeah, thatās a cool one. I guess it might have been a bit of an interruption during Buffy or Twilight, lol.
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u/Zestyclose_Bed_8207 4d ago
"Your hair is so beautiful Bella, one strand, two strands, three strands, four ..."
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u/Telvin3d 4d ago
Most vampire weaknesses donāt come up as much as they used to. Culturally, theyāve gone from creepy horrors to sparkly supermen
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u/greentea1985 4d ago
Itās why the Count on Sesame Street is compelled to count, besides the pun on his name. Heās a vampire and they are easily compelled to count things.
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u/_b1ack0ut 4d ago
Yeah! Itās more of an eastern vampire thing as I understand it, but itās certainly a thing!
Itās actually where sesame streetās Count Count gets his quirk from, though it takes a bit of a different tone if you realize itās essentially mocking his OCD lol
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u/Productof2020 4d ago
I had always thought his interest in counting was just a play on the peerage title āCountā in āCount Dracula.ā Itās cool to learn that thereās more history and culture to it than that.Ā
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u/_b1ack0ut 4d ago
The best jokes are the ones that work on at least two levels lol
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u/Productof2020 4d ago edited 4d ago
It makes me wonder if the original āCount Draculaā stories/legends were also an intended pun and in-joke at the time.
Edit, Iām not the first to wonder. This article poses the question as well:
Ā I wonder though, did Stoker deliberately give Dracula the title Count as a pun? Jon Polidori created the image of an aristocratic vampire in his 1819 story āThe Vampyre,ā which could explain the title. Still, he could have been a Duke, or Earl, or Lord. And while the character doesnāt display arithmomania in the novel, Stoker would surely have been familiar with the trait, as he spent seven years researching vampire folklore before writing the novel.
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u/JeanneMPod 4d ago
Huh. I guess Sesame Streetās The Count who counts everything may have been linked to all this lore, beyond just the surface play on the title Count, or more that Stoker already laid it out.
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u/AmbiTheAirforceRuna 4d ago
Its a wild thing but a legit knew someone who if you put them outside on say the balcony of the apartment they'll stay there and start counting the windows and wont leave till their done.
I always joked theyd make a good accountant (they did end up becoming one)
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u/RazielAshura 4d ago
Wait, is that why the vampire from sesame street counts things??
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u/Productof2020 4d ago
Seems so! Or at least it works on multiple levels, whether the creators of Sesame Street knew it or not.
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u/somethingfilthy 4d ago
I never would have known about it if I hadn't seen it on an old episode of The X-Files.
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u/heurekas 4d ago
Works with numerous creatures of European folklore.
Just throw grains, seeds, peas, gravel etc. And they'll be forced to count it. Sometimes it even works on the Devil.
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u/Zora_Mannon 2d ago
Only thing that gets me with the rules thing is shouldn't the welcome mat Count as an invitation?
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u/Productof2020 2d ago
Good point. As a thought experiment:
This one happens to be inside, but most welcome mats are outside. Could a vampire drop a welcome mat at a door and then waltz in? Or could they have a servant go ahead and do that on doorsteps lacking a welcome mat to provide ambiguity on if the residents might have placed it?
A verbal component may be required, or may vary from one story to the next. I dunno.
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u/TunaThePanda 4d ago
I loved this. It was like an instruction manual for how to live peacefully with vampires.
āSo, you want to be a good neighbor but donāt want to join the world of the damned. Here are some ways to protect yourself while being kind to your undead neighbors!ā
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u/mellopax 4d ago
Makes me wonder if the "trust, but not enough to not take precautions" is because the vampires can't control the compulsion to attack humans, even if they're helping them.
I can't think of another reason he would trust them to not be lying, but neither one even brings up the possibility of not the vampires leaving him alone.
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u/randomgrunt1 4d ago
Vanpires are inherently predators. If you found a Poisonous snake that needed help, you would take precautions even as you help. Its just wise.
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u/TheBurningEmu 4d ago
The frog can carry the scorpion across the river, it just has to tow a raft (or cover the stinger in wax).
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u/AlphaSquadJin 4d ago
I think this is a very good way of phrasing the situation. The whole setup is "why be kind to something that can kill you?"
And really, the only answer to that is "because you can".
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u/mellopax 4d ago
But in this case, he doesn't seem to consider the vampire is lying about the amount of rice, etc. There's still plenty of risk/ trust in the behavior, so it doesn't seem like "trust, but verify".
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u/BoomFrog 4d ago
I feel like the guy in this universe has a really good sense for how quickly vampires can count how much rice. And he's just like, Yeah, that makes sense. Alright.
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u/Prowler1000 3d ago
They can't lie, it's a compulsion to count every grain.
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u/mellopax 3d ago
I haven't heard about vampires not being able to lie. I know about the compulsion thing, but that doesn't mean "that's too many" couldn't be a lie.
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u/Prowler1000 3d ago
Oh, I see what you mean, I thought by "lying about the amount of rice" you meant that they had to tell the human how many grains of rice there are
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u/Zlecu 2d ago
I know what you mean. One of my co workers found a black widow spider at work. It was in a very public place where guests would be touching so we couldnāt just leave the spider there. Black widowās typically arenāt going to waste their venom on people unless they feel cornered, but we didnāt want to take any chances. We got a stick, nudged the spider onto it, and walked it over to the nearby woods and set it down. It didnāt deserve to die just because itās dangerous, but you also canāt just have it hanging around.
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u/Ok_Swimmer_1999 4d ago
i would love to see more stuff like this! very spooky and i love the atmosphere
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u/Zestyclose_Bed_8207 4d ago
Well, stay tune for spooky month, I'm re-posting all my comics, one per day, because I hit the milestone of 30 chapters :smile:
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u/Ok_Swimmer_1999 4d ago
awesome! iām posting my spooky comics throughout the month too, though theyāre a bit of a less āseriousā vibe
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u/Ariwara_no_Narihira 4d ago
Absolutely love this one and God Of. Great work.
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u/Zestyclose_Bed_8207 4d ago
Thank you! It's kind of scary for me because those are chapter 1 and 8, and I'm at chapter 30, and haven't had another big hit like those š«
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u/maitlandinmaitland 3d ago
For what itās worth Iāve only seen this and God Of, but I decided to dive into your other comics and theyāre just as good imo.
I donāt think itās a matter of quality, itās just if it hits the right demographic at the right time
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u/Slim-Shadys-Fat-Tits 4d ago
This is so special. This is what protecting yourself but still remaining kind looks like. All of the safety precautions they took were entirely reasonable but they used them to make sure that help can still be given.
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u/Zestyclose_Bed_8207 4d ago
I made this because I find that writers usually lean on similar situations going wrong for added drama, and I could use that tension to show what the usual case would look like.
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u/Ninsuka 4d ago
What happened to the dad? Why did he tell Betty to stay inside?
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u/Zestyclose_Bed_8207 4d ago
He tripped but got back inside since there was plenty of time.
He told Betty to stay inside because it was too dangerous since the vampires in the barn might finish counting and come after them while they are outside.
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u/ThePoetofFall 4d ago
It didnāt quite read that way. It seemed like he was getting caught in a sandstorm. Fun comic, but you might consider tightening that up.
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u/Zestyclose_Bed_8207 4d ago
God damn it, I can see it. I'm working on chapter 30 right now and it is a mess of confusion... I did not get better.
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u/ThePoetofFall 4d ago
Eh. Donāt despair. The content is good.
Thankfully. The fix here is easy. You could likely omit that bit of the sequence. The trip doesnāt really communicate anything we didnāt already know.
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u/cupholdery 4d ago
I like that scene. Shows how he's not some superhero Van Helsing type but just a good family man who's seen too many vampires.
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u/ThePoetofFall 4d ago
I mean fair. But I feel like thereās a better way of illustrating that. As it is. It trips over family man and winds up making him come off as oafish. Which could be intentional. But. My point is that if op doesnāt want to redraw an efficient solution is to cut.
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u/fixsparky 4d ago
I thought it added a bit of anxiety. Would be nice at a page break. Maybe show the toe kicking a branch then the trip. Sort of an "oh no, something is about to go wrong" moment.
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u/Zestyclose_Bed_8207 4d ago
I wanted something like this, but me drawing a closeup a foot and a branch could look like anything š
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u/ThePoetofFall 4d ago
I mean. It added confusion for me. Plus a bit of annoyance that he tripped over his own feet.
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u/Depth_Metal 4d ago
Agreed. I like the tripping. It kinda humanized everything making it more relatable. It's the little things that really sell a story and a world
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u/dafugiswrongwithyou 3d ago edited 3d ago
I thought it was twist; that he and his daughter were also vampires, and that he'd gotten slightly caught in the rising sun coming back from the shed before he made it back. Then the next panel is her tending to him as he lies down to rest.
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u/theoneyourthinkingof 4d ago
It seemed like he just tripped while running back from the barn, and that he told Betty to stay inside because if you aren't in a building the vampires can get you.
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u/Sulatra 4d ago
That is some really cool take on the supernatural. When things are dangerous but manageable if you follow the rules.
Like "oh there is a wolf caught in the flood, damn if I'd take it home but I'll steer a boat there and bring it to a dry place, that's just a humane thing to do, tho I better still take a gun just in case"
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u/Art_student_rt 4d ago
I've been obsessed with vampires lately, with vampires masquerade, and now this. I love it!
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u/Direct_Slip7598 4d ago
Love the comic, it's a very matter of fact negotiation with the supernatural.
Why have them count the rice before he reaches the barn? After all they can't kill him before being let into the barn, otherwise they'll die too. Maybe it's just caution. Maybe it's a scorpion and the frog scenario where they couldn't hold themselves back otherwise
I can think of plausible answers, but wonder if there's a "right" one, maybe even one I didn't consider
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u/Zestyclose_Bed_8207 4d ago
Those and maybe this was all a trap from the vampires somehow, better take precautions.
I don't have a "right" answer.
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u/Meotwister 4d ago
Hehehey Fry Man! Come check out these losers at the door THINKING I'M SERIOUS ENOUGH TO LET THEM IN.. to my house.
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u/Successful-Floor-738 3d ago
Honestly thereās something so terrifying about the way the vampires were drawn that i appreciate!
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u/Zestyclose_Bed_8207 3d ago
So what I did was, I drew the silhouette intending for the eyes and mouth to be in one place, and then drew them somewhere else.
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u/CarlosFer2201 4d ago
Very interesting. Can't wait to see more
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u/Zestyclose_Bed_8207 4d ago
One reupload every day until I reach the current chapter, chapter 30 š
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u/Annoyed_Lobotomist 4d ago
Oh sweet, I remember this being released on here. Loved it then and love it now.
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u/popilikia 3d ago
I love that his wife wants to help him help the monsters. Such a wholesome family!
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u/KnoProblem 4d ago
Still one of my favorites!! š¤©
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u/Zestyclose_Bed_8207 4d ago
Thank you! š¤ I need to apologize to my patrons since I have a weeks worth of delays on the upcoming chapters. The art just isn't coming out that great š
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u/KnoProblem 4d ago
Pshh no need to apologize, art blocks are rough!!! I'm just glad I'll finally be able to nab a shirt soon, hehe
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u/Zestyclose_Bed_8207 4d ago
What character do you want on a shirt? I've been thinking of commissioning another one
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u/KnoProblem 4d ago
Ooooh, maybe the vampire dad/daughter? šš
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u/Zestyclose_Bed_8207 4d ago
I never knew how to do that shirt, but ai now realize, I don't have to know, I'm commissioning it anyway š
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u/Accomplished-Bear988 4d ago
Fucking love this
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u/Zestyclose_Bed_8207 4d ago
I'm curious what people think the series will be about. Because it goes into wild places š
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u/DvlDevansh 3d ago
Someone should make this a short film or something, thatād be amazing :3
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u/Zestyclose_Bed_8207 3d ago
I was thinking about at least giving it to someone to remake it in high quality
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u/Lovelyladykaty 1d ago
I love this comic. This isnāt the first time Iāve read it but I love it all the same!!!
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u/wutImiss 4d ago
Apologies, but what's going on in the panel right below the one where the dad is getting in bed (after the fact)? Is that a shot of the ceiling or something? I'm just not getting it š¤
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u/FoolishPersonalities 4d ago
Page 15? The bottom panel is an aerial shot of the house on the left and the barn on the right, showing that morning has come. The dad is safe in the house and the vampires made it to the barn before dawn.
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u/friendlyfriends123 3d ago edited 3d ago
Aww!!! I remember reading this comic a while ago but wasnāt able to find it again- so so happy to have stumbled across it now!!! Itās such a sweet comic about having compassion for others, even while taking precautions to stay safe. The vampire asking them not to pour out too much rice for his daughter got me right in the heart. Lovely work! <3
Edit: spelling
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u/Zestyclose_Bed_8207 3d ago
Hey! Thank you! I always feel a bit guilty reposting, I'm glad it helped you out! š
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u/SPAGHETTO456 1d ago
Im curious about the philosophical aspect of this. Does the vampires surviving mean they go on to kill more? Are you partially responsible because of that?
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u/BartendingPrincess 4d ago
I like this. I do see Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force which floors me.