First-Look: 'Day Men' Issue 3 (Exclusive)

ritten by Matt Gagnon and with art by Brian Stelfreeze, the third installment of the comic book series tells the One of the hotter independent comics out there is Boom! Studios' Day Men.

The book, written by Matt Gagnon with art by Brian Stelfreeze, is a unique take on the seemingly undying vampire genre: It tells the story of the men who handle the affairs of vampires while the sun is out and the bloodsuckers are napping.

The first issue sold out of its initial 12,000-copy first printing and generated Hollywood interest, with Universal picking up the movie rights. The second issue also went to a second printing; Wednesday sees the arrival of the third issue.

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Gagnon came up with the idea for Day Men about four years ago when he wanted to tell a vampire story from a human point of view. When he crossed the concept with another genre he liked, crime, and the idea of vampire clans being like Mafia families, it clicked.

"I started thinking, 'Who cleans up for them during the day?' and 'What kind of person do you have to be to take on this position?' " says Gagnon.

The hardest part of the process was the actual writing: Gagnon also is Boom!'s editor-in-chief and his busy day job forces him to write on weekends or early in the morning.

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Day Men is part of the creator-owned renaissance that is invigorating the comics industry, a renaissance that is seeing a lot of books with fresh ideas and original concepts being not only published but thriving, with some books' buzz rivaling that of the titles coming out of the Big Two, DC and Marvel.

You can thank Image -- with titles like Saga, Pretty Deadly and perennial best-seller The Walking Dead -- for much of the buzz, but Boom! has been no slouch, thanks to books like Six-Gun Gorilla and Day Men.

"There’s a real hunger right now for things that are new," says Gagnon.