Bitemark

Or read on to learn more first…

Michael Stinson

Michael Stinson is a
filmmaker and author of
Horror Stories for
Those Coming of Age.
BITEMARK is his debut work. He resides in
Philadelphia, PA. You can keep in touch with Michael via twitter:
@STINSON_PRIME

Devan Muse

Devan Muse is an artist from the Boston Area. He has nurtured a love of art, comics, and anime his entire life, and wants to tell stories as powerful as those he
loved.
You can find Devan
on twitter:
@DEVANMUSEDESIGN

What inspired the creative team to write the story?

(from author, Michael Stinson)

The initial concept of Bitemark was conceived in 2017, in between naps on a Greyhound bus to and or from New York City. I was attending film school in Manhattan at the time and was religiously reading Sui Ishida’s manga Tokyo Ghoul. I also saw Julia Ducournau’s Raw, which shed a different light on cannibalism. Instead of a crime akin to serial killing, it was genetic—a hereditary tendency that was passed down and despite its inhuman practices, was something they could not help. Both projects mixed daily coping with human emotions and realistic issues with the practice of eating human flesh, and although a gruesome concept, this inspiration fused with my interest in werewolf lore.

For me, werewolves represent a sense of freedom. Although a painful, monthly transformation sounds like torture and an unwanted curse, upon transforming these beings are unbound—no longer restricted by physical and social expectations or required to answer to someone. There grows a sense of being at peace with yourself, despite what is perceived as a curse and disruption to normal life. They are free to embrace their true interiorities and run a little wild.

We decided to make our two central characters, Miki and Ana, young Black women. Not because of our personal identities but because strong, young Black women are grievously underrepresented in the media as central characters. There are too few comics and films with women of color as the lead, especially in the horror genre. It was important to me to feature young Black women as the leads in a narrative that does not focus on race as a major plot point or source of character development. I wanted to show them living outside of the singular narratives that we are so often limited to, especially in North American media.

Why you’ll love this story:

Sure, there’s a bit of gore and murder, but at its center, Bitemark really is a fun manga full of struggle, betrayal, revenge and redemption. We’ve worked very hard on this book, and we can’t wait to share it with you.