The 2000AD rejection that gave me a huge hit

Requiem Vampire Knight started out as a story entitled THE RESURRECTIONIST, which I submitted to 2OOOAD

As I’ve related in the past, especially in Kiss My Axe! The Secret History of Sláine, Requiem Vampire Knight started out as a story entitled THE RESURRECTIONIST. It was about time running backwards and I submitted it to Dave Bishop, then editor of 2000AD. Although initially showing enthusiasm for the story (hence my different versions), he finally lost interest, using the dubious excuse that sci-fi text novels have already featured time running backwards. 

And I’m so glad he did lose interest, because the Resurrectionist went on to become the international best-seller Requiem Vampire Knight illustrated by Olivier Ledroit, and, at this time of writing, with new exciting plans for its future development. 

All the core ideas of Requiem are in my story treatments from 1997 and 1998, featuring  a world where time runs backwards.

A world which is a negative image of ours: where there is sea on Earth, there is land on Resurrection. And where there is land on Earth, on Resurrection there is sea.

There is a Romeo and Juliet scenario with Rebecca and Heinrich: the Nazi in love with the Jew, with the inciting incident that separates them in Berlin in World War Two. Heinrich’s best friend Otto, who is ultimately his deadly enemy, is pivotal in their final confrontation. The opening sequence of my story treatment is identical to how Requiem opens. There are also the Killing Fields, the infrastructure of the world and the future cops known as Resurrectionists. Plus the Zombies that Heinrich first encounters on the Hell World.

All these story elements remain and are central to Requiem Vampire Knight.

And remarkably, there is the complex idea of a Knight of Darkness and a dark code of chivalry, which was actually explained to me in a dream that was so profound and detailed I woke up and scribbled it down in the middle of the night!

This dream was especially prophetic because it fits the character of Thurim exactly. He is the alter-ego of Requiem, but I never dreamed Thurim up. Olivier did.

All these concepts are ultimately played out through the series or by Requiem Volume 12, which we just published a few weeks ago.

Many of my original lines of dialogue from 1997/8 were actually used, especially in key scenes like Requiem’s confrontation with Otto.

I’d had the idea of an inside out world with sea and land reversed ever since I was a kid. To me it was symbolic that everything I was experiencing in life  was inside out. I soon realised that supposedly good and holy people – Catholic priests – were actually creatures of evil. All of them. No exceptions. Things that were supposedly bad for you were actually good and so on. In all this I was influenced by Samuel Butler’s Erewhon and other satires I read as a boy. I never wrote my inside out story, but it stayed in my mind my entire life .

Then in the 1990s  I had strange, unexplained and persistent dreams which became the inciting incident in Berlin between Requiem and Rebecca.

And finally I had that odd dream about the true nature of Knights of  Darkness.

I sent my storyline to Olivier, and we met up in Paris and at his home in Brittany. He liked my story and added a whole new strata of ideas: Resurrectionists became Vampire Knights. Ghouls and Werewolves joined my Zombies. And, if everything is ‘back to front’ then Archeologists bury scientific artefacts because progress is seen as bad. And so on. 

Olivier adding these inspired ideas to the story gave it a great, strong fantasy edge.

So here is the chronology of how it all began, and unusually for me, I can show you some scanned original pages that I kept hold of.

September 1997, first version

Thirteen pages. The emphasis initially is on the planet called SEA (Earth 2). The USA becomes the United States of the Atlantic. Later the relationship between Heinrich and Rebecca (called Rachel here) is explored with some chilling insights. 

Undated, second version

Two pages, because Bishop wanted my synopsis to be briefer. This version is important as it describes the negative effects of Earth 2. How ‘good’ is actually evil on Earth 2. So someone is awarded the Nobel War Prize on Earth 2. (As they are on Earth 1, of course. See Obama). Two pages of hand-written notes are also attached. 

February 1998, third version

Four pages. New story emphasis because Bishop didn’t like the previous one, although he seemed incapable of articulating why. Otto and Rebecca feature strongly known as Werner and Rachel in this version. 

August 1998

The dream about the Dark Knights that features closely in Requiem, especially in the latter volumes. It’s a two-page, coffee-stained document, written on the back of an old Sláine script! I actually wrote it while I was at the Big Green Gathering, where my girlfriend at the time was performing. And no – no magic mushrooms played a role in the dream. 

October 1998, fourth version

Nine pages. This is almost certainly the version I sent to Olivier because it runs very similar to Requiem Book One. 

So thanks to Dave Bishop for helping make Requiem happen by his questionable decisions. If it had run in 2000AD this great saga would probably have gone to the wrong artist, and constrained by tight budgets, deadlines and the weekly episodic structure, it would have died the death.

I have further thoughts and advice for writers dealing with editors of his ilk in my book Pageturners, so if you find yourself swimming in these waters you may find it useful!

Requiem Vampire Knight is available on my Gumroad store (PDF and CBZ) and on Amazon Kindle.