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Dateline: September 10, 2009 ... San Jose, CA
Contact: Dan Vado
Phone: (408) 971-8929
E-Mail: dvado@slgpubs.com
Web Address: www.slgcomic.com
SAN JOSE, CA - September 10, 2009 - This October SLG Publishing will
release the first issue of Winchester, a comic book series about Sarah
Winchester, heiress of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company fortune
and architect of one of the oddest houses in the United States. Part
historical fiction, part ghost story, Winchester will take the few
facts known about the very private Sarah Winchester and try to provide
a context for her building of the giant Winchester Mansion which is
now an internationally known landmark and historic attraction.
"The place has always fascinated me," said Winchester writer and San
Jose native Dan Vado. "I've lived around the corner from this place my
entire life and it's like the house has been begging me to write about
it." After the death of her husband in 1881, Sarah Winchester took her
twenty-million dollar fortune and ,000 dollar per day tax free
income west to San Jose, CA and bought an eight room Victorian style
farmhouse which she immediately began renovating and adding on to.
Construction on the house continued for 38 years nonstop until the day
Sarah Winchester died. The popular belief was that Sarah Winchester
built the house to appease the spirits of people killed by the
Winchester Rifle.
"It would be easy to write Mrs. Winchester off as crazy, and to be
honest that's the direction we were taking with the comic series,"
added Vado, "but then I thought about the tragedies in her life and
the toll they must have taken on her, so I decided to make the Sarah
Winchester in our series a more sympathetic figure." Vado pointed to
the number of patents Sarah Winchester held and the almost futuristic
labor saving elements in the house as proof that, while odd, Sarah
Winchester was not crazy or stupid. "The house was self-sufficient,
one might call it green, well before there was even a name for it," he
pointed out.
The creative team wasted little time finding a new villain for the
piece, deciding to make the ghost of Harry Houdini the new
protagonist. Houdini had once visited the Winchester Mansion after the
death of it's owner and held a seance there. Later Houdini would spend
his life debunking spiritualism and the supernatural, often debating
the facts with Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. "I
couldn't resist the irony of making Houdini a ghost since he so
clearly did not believe in them," said Vado.
The Winchester Mansion in the series is not a tourist attraction but
an abandoned mansion that locals all know to stay away from, difficult
given it's location right near a freeway and major shopping mall. A
series of ghostly events are set in motion when a police detective
gains access to the grounds to investigate a missing persons case. As
the investigation unfolds bits and pieces of the Sarah Winchester
story are revealed and we meet several famous spirits who have taken
up residence in the old manse.
Winchester #1 is written by SLG Publishing president Dan Vado and
Illustrated by Drew Rausch (Sullengray and SLG's Haunted Mansion). The
first issue will ship in October 2009 and will be available at better
comics shops and the companies own website (www.slgcomic.com). SLG
Publishing will be hosting a release party and showing of the original
art from the series on October 2nd. The party/showing will be held at
SLG's own gallery located at it's offices at 577 S. Market Street San
Jose, CA 95113.
SLG Publishing is a San Jose, CA based publisher of comic books,
graphic novels and related merchandise. Established in 1986 some of
SLG's more notable comics and creators have included Johnny the
Homicidal Maniac by Jhonen Vasquez, The Haunted Mansion based on the
Disney attraction of the same name, Milk & Cheese by Evan Dorkin and
Zombies Calling by Faith Erin Hicks.
For more information contact:
Dan Vado, SLG Publishing
dvado@slgpubs.com
(408) 971-8929
577 S. Market Street
San Jose, CA 95113
www.slgcomic.com
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