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Demon Hunter Kain World: New Babylon

Blogging is new to me, so thanks for coming along for the ride and reading this. The next thing I want to talk about I want to talk about pertaining to my Demon Hunter Kain comic is the world where the story takes place: New Babylon.

New Babylon is situated on the east coast of the USA. Don’t ask me to point out exactly where, it’s a fictional state. Growing up on horror movies and TV shows like Scooby Doo and Clue Club I noticed that different locales added an air of suspense and eeriness to the film. So I had to create a world where all types of horrific events can take place among various backdrops: the small town that hides a dark secret from outsiders, The condemned building that sits silently on the city block during day but has weird events surrounding it at night, that lone stretch of highway where you drive down and are never heard from again, Werewolves prowl the valleys under a full moon, and winged creatures take flight under the cover of darkness. This is New Babylon, a place that anything that can happen, will happen.

Watching all those “mystery” cartoons I also gained respect for the back story of the villains and how they came to be. In fact I started to wonder how horror movie villains got their origins like: Why does Jason Vorhees stalk Camp Crystal Lake, unable to die? We know why he kills, but how did he come back from the dead with a big hulking body? Questions like these always puzzled me and no one tends to answer them. That’s why in my world all villains have to have some sort of history. Whether they were assholes or good people in life turned bad in death I will try to have an answer.

The majority of Kain’s investigations and battles take place in New Babylon. From its inception as a small town in the colonial days to its status as a state, New Babylon has been a place of dark deeds, mysterious disappearances, paranormal and supernatural activity. However these frightening events have gone unnoticed over the centuries due to various secret groups, organizations and cults covering up the truth. New Babylon is separated into eleven counties:

Fenton
Essex
Wakefield
Haven Port
Hillford
Caldwell
Lauren
Forest Hill
Jacob Hills
Prospect
Norman Ridge

These counties are all connected by various roads, highways and forms of public transportation. Each county has its own disturbing and checkered past; conspiracies, serial murders, human sacrifices, devil worship, ghost sightings and other noteworthy activities.

Demon Hunter Kain Characters: Zandalee “Zee” Joseph

Zandalee “Zee” Joseph, is the first individual that Kain befriends at the beginning of the series. Zee has the ability to see and communicate with spiritual entities, although she doesn’t believe that what she sees are ghosts. Later on she gains other abilities. Kain meets Zee under unusual circumstances and reluctantly takes her under his wing and teaches her how to control her abilities.

I first envisioned Zee (The one in pink) as the plain girl next door. But later on I felt that she wouldn’t fit in with the other characters. I mean this is a young woman that’s been harassed by spirits for the better part of her life. Anyone in that situation would be antsy and antisocial, especially when said spirits tend to appear out of thin air and scare you, cause you to trip and fall and make a total fool of yourself in front of others. Having created these circumstances for the character, I conceived the design for the second Zee. She looks tired, her hair and clothing are a bit unkempt, she’s pale, and she has circles under her eyes. She’s the type of girl most people ignore or gossip about.

As with the Kain designs these are not etched in stone.

Demon Hunter Kain Characters: Kain Smith

Kain Smith is not your average 15 year-old. He comes from a long line of Demon Hunters and he’s taken on the duties of his predecessors to protect the weak and atone for a past sin. These are preliminary designs for Kain.

The first design (Kain in blue), was and early design done back in 2001! Yeah people this character has been with me that long, hell, longer than that

The second design was done back in 2005, I liked it so I didn’t mess with it until recently when the problem of how Kain is supposed to protect his identity arose.

In order to help conceal his identity, I came up with the third design. I gave him clothing that had distortion enchantments woven into the material. The enchantment has a field of influence (A radius of one mile). When standing outside this field an onlooker will see a man in a mask dressed all in black running around. However when within the enchantment’s field of influence onlookers will see different things, some might see just a man, others a child, it varies by individual and how the enchantment affects them.

Just so you know these designs are not set in stone and I am still revising them to this day. Hopefully sometime real soon I’ll have a Kain design that I’ll be truly happy with.

You know, it recently dawned on me that I’ve never explained what Demon Hunter Kain is. This gives me a chance to keep uploading and blogging.

Demon Hunter Kain is a comic book I’ve been working on and off since college. It was inspired by films and TV shows such as The Goonies, Monster Squad, Friday the 13th, Hell Raiser, Night Breed, Dark Shadows and various other horror movies and television shows I grew up on. I’ve recently begun to get a feel for the characters and their world again, especially since I’ve decided to make the book a web comic instead. By making it a web comic it saves me trying to find a publisher and I get to work at my own pace to make sure the stories are just how I want them to be.

Demon Hunter Kain revolves around a 15 year-old demon hunter named Kain. He resides in Caldwell county in the state of New Babylon, reputed by ghost hunters as being the most haunted state in all of North America. Kain secretly helps protect the people of New Babylon from the evil things that lurk in the shadows. He goes through the day as a normal teen although he shuns the friendship of others. At night we wages war on the supernatural risking his life to make a difference while secretly trying to make up for a harrowing event from his past. His world, however, takes an unexpected flip when he reaches out to and befriends Zandalee Joseph.

NY Comic Con: Tomorrow Last Day for Mailed Tickets

Just a reminder to folks who haven't yet purchased their tickets for the New York Comic Con. March 13th, Thursday is the last day to have your tickets mailed to you. After that you have to pick them up yourself.

Click link below to register:
NY Comic-Con registration