Some among the undead feel that now is the time, in the midst of human complacency, to strike against the mortals, in a coup that would leave humanity at the mercy of the "dark creatures." Of course, it is at a time of human complacency that dogmatic agents in the Catholic Church also feel ready to strike against "evil," with just as little regard for the cost to human life. The power to stave this ultimate, destructive conflict between evil and righteousness rests in two wise and powerful undead brothers. But the only problem is they haven't spoken to each other in a hundred and fifty years.

Ein DeLaLune
An undead creature also known as a Strigoi, Ein is a vampire-like living corpse who is destined to roam the Earth for eternity. He died at childbirth, but awoke the next night afflicted with the "darkness." Raised by religious reformees, Ein and his younger brother Leroux—also afflicted with the mark of darkness, though Leroux's is of the variety lupin, a brother of the wolf—were ade orphans during an attack by Catholic Knights against a burgeoning Huguenot church. As a means of survival, Ein used his natural charisma and grace to allow himself and his deeply religious, more powerful younger brother to enter other Huguenot groups. Over over the next several centuries, the two become figureheads of the Huguenot cause as well as secret leaders of the undead protection movement, bringing disenfranchised "dark ones" into a community where they can live without the burden of being feared or hunted. However, his first love has been and probably always will be music. Now, centuries later, Ein has exploded onto the underground music scene, re-inventing himself as a heavy metal songster with the potential to become an idol for the dejected, the defeated and the disenfranchised.

Leroux DeLaLune
Leroux was made a lycanthrope lupin at birth, from the same mystical energy that afflicted his older brother. However, Leroux's transformation from human to creature was complete, a synthesis of the undead and the lycanthropy. Though powerful, Leroux is spiritually lost, lacking the charisma of his older brother and yearning for an emotional core to his being. When the two become entwined with the Huguenot movement, Leroux finds comfort in the new religious doctrine, able to establish a direct connection with God rather than corruptible priests. As the years pass, Leroux finds himself more and more enamored of strict discipline and spiritual focus.

Elizabeth Bathory
Daughter of pagan witches of noble status, Elizabeth escapes an attack by Catholic Knights on her home and hides out in the nearby woods, only to run into Ein, Leroux and a whole clan of Réformée warriors intent on defending all against persecution. Losing her family in the attack, she joins Ein and Leroux. But she often wonders why, if the dark creatures are more powerful, they must subjugate themselves to the inferior mortals. She has always had more affection for Leroux, drawn mainly to his tremendous power but also to their shared sense of superiority. After Ein flees the movement, Elizabeth uses the sorrow that consumes Leroux to wrest control away from him, and over many years, she build herself legions of undead warriors, who are now poised to dominate mankind once and for all.

Dahlia Whyte
A sassy Scottish lass who has won Ein DeLaLune's heart, a heart that he believed forever destroyed. Against her better judgment, she has allowed herself to fall in love with him, knowing there is something yet dark and unexplored about him. She'll find that she should have paid attention more to her intuition.

Hector
Ein's trusted helper. Hector works at a hosptial where it is easy for him to aid the undead.

The Head Knight of the Order
A man so driven to exterminate the undead from this world that he becomes the very thing he most hates so as to continue his mission into eternity.

Victor Frankenstein
Right hand man to Elizabeth, he is the de facto whip for the living dead. He gets close to Ein as the doorman for Ein's European tour.

Hans Steinbach

Born in Damascus, Syria to a German father and a Syrian mother, Hans was raised around the world, residing for long stretches of his youth in Marseille, France; Bonn, Germany; Beirut, Lebanon; Ankara, Turkey; Montreal, Quebec; and most recently Beverly Hills, California. Though Hans has had no formal art training, he has been doodling ever since he was ten and in the last eleven years has forged a unique style from his innate talent, worldly experiences and a passion for music. He is particularly drawn to Heavy Metal and Goth, his idol being guitar legend Yngwie Malmsteen. Hans' art sensibilities have been strongly influenced by Japanese artists, especially Go Nagai (Devilman) and Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball). A Midnight Opera is his first published work.

I have always been a fan of the goth aesthetic, and not just black lipstick and fishnets (though that stuff does help), but the richly emotional, dark-themed, highly Romantic transcendence of mind and mortal flesh that makes up the tapestry of Gothic fiction. And finally here, teamed up with artist Hans "Hanzo" Steinbach, I get to work on something drenched in such an aesthetic. Here is a story of complex emotional themes that penetrates the surface of that which is "goth" and plumbs its darkest and, perhaps ironically, its most human depths.

What attracted me to Hanzo's initial pitch was his premise that perhaps the undead, in the midst of the reformation of the 16th century, found ways to integrate with and help the Protestant causes, therefore weakening the power of the Catholic Church, hell-bent on exterminating the undead from the world. To me, this sounded like a brilliant playground to explore Gothic angst and the legends surrounding vampires and werewolves in new and innovative ways. The result: Hans Steinbach's A Midnight Opera, a tale of immortality, redemption and bittersweet love.

~Luis Reyes, Editor