Lady Death returns to Kickstater for ‘Damnation Game’

The armies of Lady Death are gathering once again. A wickedly cool creation of Long Branch native and comic book writer Brian Pulido, Lady Death has been dominating comic book pages for nearly a quarter century. And now, she’s turning to her fans to fund her return.

Lady Death is set to star in the graphic novel “Damnation Game” through Pulido’s own Coffin Comics, and the endeavor is being supported by a campaign on the crowd-funding website Kickstater. The effort met its initial $15,000 goal in just six minutes back on Aug. 5 and pledges are being accepted through Sept. 4.

Co-written by Pulido and Mike Maclean, “Damnation Game” features work by the art team of Dheeraj Verma on pencils and color art by Sabine Rich. Cover artists include Mike Debalfo, Richard Ortiz, Paolo Pantalena, Sabine Rich and others to be announced. The “Damnation Game” campaign — with incentives shipping in October that range from a digital copy of the 48-page book for $5 to bundles of rewards and merchandise costing upwards of $500 — is the follow-up to February’s highly successful “Chaos Rules” project, Pulido and Lady Death’s first foray into the world of crowdfunding.

That effort raised more than $76,000. “On the day of the (‘Chaos Rules’) launch, I was super-nervous because I really didn’t know how it would be received,” said Pulido. “And the idea that we got funded in an hour and eight minutes, and the fact that it just picked up that amazing momentum and just kept going totally blew us out of the water.”

That first Kickstarter campaign, Pulido said, “was a rebirth. The people spoke. They wanted more Lady Death ...”

The curvaceous anti-hero was featured in Pulido’s first published work, the December 1991 debut issue of “Evil Ernie,” set in Long Branch. She has since appeared in over 100 comics in eight languages and sold over 20 million copies.

Pulido, now based in Arizona, said the aesthetic, world and tone of the Lady Death universe owes plenty of his life-long love of heavy metal. Living in Hoboken circa 1987 and ’88, he listened to Megadeth’s “So Far, So Good ... So What!” along with Testament, Overkill, Metallica and Anthrax, as well as Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Saxon.

“I knew I wanted to make a teenage Frankenstein for the time, and hence came the birth of Evil Ernie, who basically just looked like everyone else at the concert, everyone else at the show,” Pulido said. “I looked at myself in the mirror. I had hair down to my belt at the time. I’d look around at the show and here was us, and I thought that would strike fear in the people who wouldn’t get it and it would excite the people who would.”

LADY DEATH: DAMNATION GAME

WHAT: The latest graphic novel created and co-written by Long Branch native Brian Pulido

WHEN/WHERE: Crowd-funding campaign runs on Kickstarter through 10 p.m. Sept. 4, with the 48-page book expected to ship in October.

ON THE WEB: For more information, visit http://coffincomics.com.