by Alex Deuben
“People thought we had some political agenda…”
-Elaine Lee
Fans have been yearning for years for a hardcover volume of Starstruck. However their long wait is over, since an IDW published collection will hit stores in April. Writer Elaine Lee has lived with these characters for longer than anyone though, and she isn’t finished with them. Starstruck debuted as a play, and was then published as a comic in the early 1980s. The science fiction story is told in a nonlinear fashion with a vast cast of characters, including multiple female heroines. Starstruck was ahead of its time when it first came out, so reading the book today, it feels very contemporary.
In comics, Starstruck remains Lee’s best known creation, but it’s far from her only one. She collaborated with her Starstruck artist, the great Michael William Kaluta, on short stories for The Rocketeer Adventure Magazine. There was Vamps – a mini-series she did for Vertigo about a group of female vampires who take to the road on motorcycles after killing their male master – which spawned two sequels, Vamps: Hollywood & Vein and Vamps: Pumpkin Time. There was Saint Sinner, a book she collaborated on with Clive Barker for Marvel, BrainBanx, a great mini-series from DC’s short-lived science fiction imprint Helix, and Steeltown Rockers, a rare slice of life mini-series from Marvel comics about a group of teenagers forming a band. And the aforementioned are just a few of her many post-Starstruck projects.
It’s been far too long since there was a brand new Elaine Lee-written comic book on the stands, but in addition to the hardcover collection of Starstruck, there’s also a new Honey West comic, which Lee is writing for Moonstone Press. She took time out to talk with us over e-mail.
Read our exclusive interview with Elaine Lee on SuicideGirls.com.
