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A new graphic novel From the Darkness by Alexandrea Callaghan takes women-based monsters from folklore and turns them into superheroes. A Kickstarter campaign for the comic begins on October 1st.Â
“From The Darkness”
From the Darkness is a new comic book that follows four teenage girls learning how to control their hormones, relationships, and their newfound powers. In a world that condemns teenage girls for existing Babs, Kia, Lupa and Lilith use their powers to fight monsters and stereotypes.Â
The story takes inspiration from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Paper Girls and hopes to contribute to coming-of-age media for young women. The story is set in a modern-day small town that occasionally experiences weird and disturbing occurrences. As the young heroines come into their powers and have the means to stop these occurrences, they feel compelled to help.
Turning teenage girls into superheroes
Writer and creator Alexandrea Callaghan told us about her inspiration for the comic book. “So it’s called From the Darkness, and it follows four teenage girls that with puberty and growing up, are also getting full glory and base powers that they have to learn how to manage and deal with. And eventually, you know, they’re all thrown together and they end up fighting monsters and everything. So it’s very Buffy the Vampire Slayer-esq. It mostly just focuses on challenging stereotypes and figuring out who you are as a person and how you fit into the world. I feel like specifically in film and TV, but a little bit in comic books, too. There aren’t that many stories that are coming-of-age stories for young girls. And so that’s something that I really wanted to contribute.”
She goes on to say “The thing that excites me the most about writing this book is I think teenage girls are villainized for just about everything they do. They can’t like anything without it being called into question or being called stupid or, you know. They get reduced no matter what they do. There’s no winning being a teenage girl. So I think within teenage girls’ powers to fight monsters, all of their powers are based in folklore, monsters that are based on women like their women monsters. And I think that helps kind of fight back a little bit. And it’s very much coming from like the internal high school angst that high school Alex felt a little more, you know, I’m fighting previous Alex’s depression for myself through this story.”
Creator Alexandrea Callaghan
Alexandrea Callaghan has been a contributor at Temple of Geek for over a year so we might be a little biased when it comes to our excitement for her work. But it comes from a place of having spent a year getting to know the type of creator she is. Alexandrea is a photographer, writer, podcaster, and comic book historian based in Los Angeles. She is also an aspiring screenwriter and passionate about analyzing stories. Who also serves as a staff writer for Temple of Geek and Sartorial Geek.
When asked what it is about storytelling that compels her to want to put things to paper, she stated “I’ve kind of always been like that. I actually started writing song lyrics in high school that were not good then. They’re better now, but I’ve always just felt the need to like, get my emotions out. I have big feelings all the time and I feel like if I don’t write them down, then then I get really in my head.”
She went on to say “Because of that, I am officially diagnosed with depression, and escaping into stories like Doctor Who and Supernatural is something that really helped me deal with it. And so I decided that I wanted to write something that really connected with somebody the way that those stories connected with me. And I will do it in whatever medium the world will let me do it in.”
Kickstarter Campaign
You can support the Kickstarter campaign starting October 1st at https://www.kickstarter.com.
You can also follow Alexandrea on social media:
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