Who is Dancy Flammarion (Alabaster)? by CaitlÃ­n R. Kiernan

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Who is Dancy Flammarion (Alabaster)? by Caitlín R. Kiernan

03/27/2012 1:45pm

Dancy Flammarion is a character I originally created for my second novel, Threshold, which was published in 1998. Over the years, my opinion of the novel hasn’t fared so well, but my love of this character has remained strong. She was, I think, by far the best thing about the book. And I was reluctant to let go of her. I began writing short stories about Dancy, and eventually these were collected into Alabaster in 2006. In a way, I thought I was finished with Dancy, but then, in 2010, Dark Horse approached me about working with them. After we’d discussed various possible projects, Dancy emerged as a character with a lot of potential, someone I still wanted to write and someone I thought could successfully make the jump from prose to comics. So, we agreed, I’d do a Dancy comic.

I knew from the very beginning that I didn’t want to merely return to the character from the novel, or the one from the short stories. I wanted an older, more world-weary Dancy. And so I suggested a “reboot.” I aged her from fourteen to almost seventeen. A lot of finding this new Dancy Flammarion was Steve Lieber sketching possible incarnations of her, and he hit upon one I liked almost immediately. It was a bit like casting a film. He asked, “If this were a film, and you could have any actress to play the role?” and I didn’t hesitate to say Elle Fanning.

But who is Dancy Flammarion? What is Dancy Flammarion? She’s an albino girl who wanders southern back roads on a quest to kill monsters, for she lives in a world where monsters are very much real, even if only she can see them. She may—or may not—be guided by a seraph. She may be waging a holy war, or she may only be a deluded girl and another sort of monster. Through the novel and the short stories, she did as the angel told her, but going into Alabaster: Wolves, I wanted the doubt she’d always had to immediately come to the surface. I wanted her reluctant obedience and the regret at all she’s lost during this crusade to be a catalyst for a great change in her, and that’s very much what drives the new story. She’s not Buffy and she’s not Hellboy. She’s another sort of slayer, one who’s pretty much on her own, and who’s decided she’s tired of taking orders.

Caitlín R. Kiernan

Don't forget to join us for the #AlabasterComics Chat on TWITTER with special guests Caitlín R. Kiernan (@auntbeast) and Artist Steve Lieber (@Steve_Lieber) Wednesday, March 28th at 4pm Pacific Time.

Find out more about Alabaster: Wolves here!

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Who is Dancy Flammarion (Alabaster)? by Caitlín R. Kiernan

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