Life as a corporate drone couldn’t kill Miki – but this might…
- Bitemark
- Written by Michael Stinson
- Illustrated by Devan Muse
- Now live on Kickstarter
Following in the tradition of classic horror tales like An American Werewolf in London, Ginger Snaps, and The Howling, Bitemark is our take on werewolf lore. Although treated like a curse by some, lycanthropy is a superpower—a means to reinvent the identity of our protagonist through bestial strength and instilling fear at just a glance of the furry mutated form. This blood-shedding power is tempting to a timid office drone like the protagonist, Miki, who is trampled upon by her A-Type coworkers.
Miki must stand up for herself when she has withstood enough of her malicious coworkers taking advantage of her. A healing retreat with her best friend, Ana, instead brings Miki more trouble when Ana reveals a monstrous path to revenge that involves a particular carnivorous diet that she’s not sure she’ll be able to stomach.
The initial concept of Bitemark was conceived in 2017, in between naps on a Greyhound bus to and or from New York City. I was attending film school in Manhattan at the time and was religiously reading Sui Ishida’s manga Tokyo Ghoul. I also saw Julia Ducournau’s Raw, which shed a different light on cannibalism. Instead of a crime akin to serial killing, it was genetic—a hereditary tendency that was passed down and despite its inhuman practices, was something they could not help. Both projects mixed daily coping with human emotions and realistic issues with the practice of eating human flesh, and although a gruesome concept, this inspiration fused with my interest in werewolf lore.
(from author, Michael Stinson)
