By Jane Mai

THE YEAR IS 199X

Laura Leiha Deng befriends a mysterious and beautiful girl with sharp teeth named Carmilla, and slowly, something soft, delicate and rotten like white mold blooms between them. A retelling of Carmilla, one of the the earliest pieces vampire literature ever written.

The director’s cut has an extended runtime of 114 pages (almost 30 more pages than the original book), with new art, previously deleted scenes, and refreshed dialogue. The first printing of soft was one of our final few Risograph books, and had the highest page count for a single book. It really pushed the limits of what we were able to bind, and would have been an extremely difficult book to reprint. Because of those production reasons, the book was not reprinted for many years, despite many people asking for it, and that is one of the authors favorites among their works. Now, 10-ish years later, we are very happy to have the chance to bring it back. We hope you like it too!

116 p / 130 x 180 mm / Softcover w/ dust jacket / 1 spot color interiors

MINI INTERVIEW WITH J by Taylor F.

T: What initially sparked your interest in Carmilla, and what inspired you to make your own version?

J: decades ago there was a period of time when i read a lot of anne rice, because one of my favorite movies is interview with the vampire. after i went through all of the vampire chronicles novels the library had available, i went backwards and read folklore and older vampire stories including dracula and carmilla, and i really liked carmilla. i remember enjoying the dynamic between the two main female characters and how overly dramatic carmilla acted. i also liked how it was written from laura's perspective but i felt it was kind of restricted by the author having been a straight man. there were thoughts laura had about her situation that i felt were dumb as hell. no disrespect to le fanu, rip king

You mentioned Soft is one of your favorite comics you’ve made. What makes this comic sentimental?

while it is a retelling of an existing work, there are a few points in soft that are things that happened in my own life. carmilla as a story just has a special place in my heart, as both a vampire story and a toxically romantic one.

What changes from the original did you make to the director’s cut?

there weren't too many changes from the riso version, because I wanted to keep the original "charming wonkiness" as much as possible. a bunch of hands, eyes and ears were adjusted but there weren't really parts that were completely redrawn. there were several pages that were added that i thought would help fill out the world. it was kind of difficult to not redraw the entire thing actually, but in a way it was also fascinating to look back at this entire little book and wonder how i made it at all. all the pages were drawn in a small muji graph paper notebook within about a week, and a lot of them were drawn with a mechanical pencil, in purple, because for whatever reason at the time i thought that was very important. i say i wonder how i made it all but i know now it was a manic episode.

And what kinda changes does Soft have from Carmilla?

most obviously, the setting and the girls' ethnicity are entirely different. in the original, laura is lonely physically because she lives in a austrian castle miles away from anyone else, but in soft, laura is lonely despite living in a city (hong kong) filled with millions of people, because of her uncertainty about her sexuality. secondly, i wanted to distill everything down to the relationship between the two girls, because that was what i was most interested in. so stuff like 'millarca' was removed because that doesn't matter to laura. i just decided Right Now Feelings superseded everything.

“SOFT’s diary format creates an immediate intimacy -- perfectly paced with everyday sketches and relatable notes about friends, I felt helpless pangs in my chest watching Laura slowly sink into the blood soaked quicksand that is her relationship with Carmilla.

Mai’s art and writing is as charming (and disarming) as Carmilla herself, creating a sickly and sad portrait of young obsession, loathing, and the often isolating experience of being a gay teenager in love.”

- E.M. Carroll, Through the Woods and When I Arrived At the Castle

Soft: Director's Cut

SPECS

ISBN: 978-91-87325-64-9
Printing. China
Page ct. 114
Color. 1C P7447"Soft Purple"
Weight. 0.157 kg
Trim size. 180 x 134 mm
Cover. 4C + Spot Gloss Dust jacket over 1c cover
There is a free talk section and notes page at the end of the book

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