Kellys Eye Art & Design




		The Youngblood Basic Plot: Set initially in London, England, a good but flawed human named Michael (also an alcoholic) is unintentionally turned into a vampire, but finds he is apparently unique as he has retained his mortal soul and so finds the conflict between his human conscience and now evil desires and urges intolerable.

With the help of his ex-girlfriend, another revenge seeking vampire (Crichton) and a mysterious stranger named only 'Nick', Michael delves deep into vampire society to try and find and destroy the First Vampire, and (he hopes) in doing so free himself from his curse and regain his humanity.

His quest takes him through Europe then on to America during which he uncovers many secrets about human history and more, and in the climactic battle he realizes the real truth to why he was created and just how and why he retained his soul, and the true scale of what he is really fighting for.

Notes; Michael is turned by 'Mary', Crichton's lover. Mary is slain for breaking vampire law by turning Michael, with Crichton being the one forced to carry out the punishment (be-heading). He is also sent to destroy Michael but grief stricken decides to join him instead in hunting down the first.

I don't make any attempt to explain vamp's scientifically. Not that doing that is a bad idea but I've always seen them as 'magical' creations, beyond any scientific laws and that's how I wanted to keep them for this story.

In this story the vamp's cannot survive on 'bottled' blood. It has to come from living humans only, but they can survive on small amounts for a long time with one feed of a few pints a month being sufficient, however their unnatural urges border on addiction and will make some of them feed far more often.
A human will only be turned if they are killed in the attack, but left to live they stay human and they have no memory of ever being attacked (though depending on how much blood is taken they will feel the effects of that).

The Vampires powers are dependent on age, with the older being the more powerful.
Forget Hollywood and folklore, they do not have the traditional weakness' such as crosses, garlic or holy water, and the only way to kill them is through decapitation or major physical trauma (like being blown up).
Sunlight does weaken them considerably though, to a point that is even weaker than the average human, and as such vamps generally hate daylight because it leaves them so vulnerable.
Their main powers are great strength, the ability to virtually disappear into shadows (ala nightcrawler) and a form of hypnosis that renders prey paralyzed (can only work on the one person at a time though). The more ancient vamps have greater powers, including transformation into whatever their imagination desires.

There is an order to vampire society; At the bottom are the 'Youngblood', any vamps under a century since turning. In the middle are the 'Elders', any vamp between a 100 and 1000 years.
At the top and rarely seen are the 'Ancients' (anything over 1000) who rule the vampire society with total authority. They enforce rules on all vampires and anyone breaking them is usually put to death. The main rule that no vamp must break is to indiscriminately turn a human. That has to be authorized and approved. Otherwise, they are free to feed as need be, as long as they don't become excessive and draw unwarranted attention.
A Vampires sole purpose is survival. They know that if the humans ever really knew or believed they exist then they would be hunted down and destroyed.

The origins of the first vamp will be partly revealed in the stories prologue, but it will go back over 30,000 years to the caves of what we now call southern France, where the first will be revealed as an ageing tribe leader, beaten badly in a challenge from a youthful rival and ousted by his tribe, who lying near death makes a pact with an undisclosed figure to ensure his survival.

The details of that pact, just what it really involves and whom it is with won't be fully revealed until later in the story but by the end of the prologue ALL of his former tribe will have been slain by him, with the first of those killed beginning to rise from the dead to join him.

This last picture is not really intended for this story. Though there is some 'shape-shifting' performed by the ancients, I did not originally include a werewolf in it, so this one is really just for fun.

All characters featured in the artwork remain the property & copyright of Marvel Comics, DC Comics and all other relevant sources where applicable.