<p>Vlad the Impaler was a fringe character at best when Ben and I started talking about this comic. We thought he would be a great one-shot guy who would come in, impale everyone and move on... like a murderous Santa Claus. As Ben and I started coming up with different ideas, Vlad kept popping up as a good foil for the other characters. He would jump in with a sarcastic quip instead of a sharp stick (and sometimes the stick too) and just make the jokes work. Maybe it was the sarcasm or the bloodlust, but Ben and I really latched on to Vlad so we made room for him in this insane badass fictional apartment.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Once we knew he was one of the main characters I started doing some concept sketches, but that hair gave me fucking nightmares. No matter what I did, he looked like the love child of <a href="http://www.kennyg.com/" target="_blank">Kenny G</a> and <a href="http://www.badassoftheweek.com/bassreeves.html" target="_blank">Bass Reeves</a>&nbsp;(see what I did there, Ben). So I looked in my mirror and saw my bald shining head staring back at me. I remembered the day I realized that my hair wasn't gonna come back, and the reactions I got from everyone after I shaved it clean. No matter how nice I actually was, people just automatically assumed I was a mean sumnabitch... and that's exactly what I wanted for Vlad.</p>
<p>I honestly don't know when exactly it happened, but between the bald head and brutal sarcasm Vlad became our favorite character. We look forward to revealing all the crazy things that we love about Vlad the Impaler, and all the creative ways he will impale things.</p>