Yamara™

First published: August, 1995. First posted online: March 20, 2006.

By June of 1995, when this strip fell due, TSR had already agreed to let us to go to a full-page format. But first, following the 15-month-long run of “Hard Fun”, the new editorship, itself unfamiliar with our story, wanted us to recap who everybody was.

Actually, we had sent in a different eight-panel for August, one which focussed mainly on the unresolved plotline of Ralph and the Ovoid From Beyond Thrand, in which the Ovoid pays Ralph a little psychic visit (see below). This seems to have confused everyone at Dragon, so we didn’t mind the do-over, with only a nominal reference to Ralph’s dimensional challenges. After all, having been given a whole new format, we figured we owed them their request for a refresher.

Four months later, Yamara would be gone from the magazine for good.

 

“The Twelve Seasons of Aldebaran“, rejected for August, 1995:

Click to view full size.

 

FAQ

Q. Who are all these vampires, anyway?

A. Most are just scary extras, but most of the recognizable references are in panel three, with the Malkavian from the original splatbook cover, a nosferatu with poor fingernail hygiene, a penanggalan soaking in a nice big vinegar jar (keep an eye out for her), “Ernest” Dracula’s visage is a riff on Gary Oldman’s in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) complete with inappropriate boater, and, of course, the late great Al “Grandpa” Lewis, of Munsters fame. Persey’s dialogue refers to Mae (Near Dark), Collins (Dark Shadows) and Stone Mountain (Georgia; longhome of White Wolf Games). A great place to live, if it weren’t for all the damn vampires.

There’s a tall, muscular Howdy Doody vampire in the background of panel five… I think Chris just started drawing a vampire there, he looked a little like Howdy, so he added freckles and a scarf to make him look more like Howdy. There’s really no further point to it than that.

Back at panel three, there are two female vampires bearing a striking resemblance to Edina Monsoon and Patsy Stone, the characters played by Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley in Absolutely Fabulous. This is spun out from an in-joke of the authors’ own private stash, about what would happen if the AbFab banshees discovered vampirism.

All pretense of a ‘masquerade’ would break down as they tried to capitalize on their eternal youth life and make claim to the fashion world that they had been the ones to “discover undeath”– through Forever Knight‘s LaCroix, sweetie. We had entire plots sketched out about Saffy trying in vain to stop her mother’s idiotic course; the typical discordant screaming match while Eddy levitated drunkenly around, knocking over the garlic and exorcists that happened to be there.

Well. We felt an Eddy vampire wearing a big “LaCroix” necklace was enough of a joke to include it.

 

We’re very odd.