Cap’n Fred Van Lente of the new series Vampyrates! sails through… By FRED VAN LENTE On Wednesday, July 8, my latest creator-owned comic comes out from Boom! Studios, Vampyrates! Created with my Weapon X compadre Luca Pizzari, who did both the interiors and main covers, this series is a bloodsucking, swashbuckling adventure set among the pirates of the Night Isles, a world ruled entirely vampires beneath a thousand-year eclipse. I am extremely proud of it and encourage everybody to pick it up; but don’t take my word for it, check out the amazing book trailer Boom! made for it: In honor of  Vampyrates! #1’s arrival, I’m ranking my favorite comics pirates here at 13th Dimension. Maybe I’ll have to do a Top 13 Comics Vampires when the trade comes out? — 13. Empress Nira de Winter (1st app. Vampyrates! #1, Boom!). My incredible modesty prevents me from ranking my own creation higher on the list, but the hope of course is that you all pick up the first issue of Vampyrates! and prove me right. When Nira, Empress of the Vampyrium, is overthrown in a violent coup by her own cousin, she (accidentally) stows away on a pirate ship to escape, and has to work her way up from lowly swab under the mysterious Captain Akeyo to a command of her own while staying one league ahead of execution. Oh, and did I mention the vampire sharks? There are vampire sharks. Enjoy! — 12. Blackbeard (1st app. IRL c. 1680-1718). Edward Teach is the most famous pirate in history, and therefore the most oft-used IRL pirate in fiction, because even as an early 18th century nautical psycho he understood the importance of branding. He has a cool nickname, which he underscored by putting gunpowder in said beard and lighting the freakin’ thing on fire. You’re gonna remember a guy like that! And, more importantly, you’re going to tell other people about a guy like that. Blackbeard went viral in the Caribbean in 1716. Of course, he was killed by the British Navy in 1718, so, you know, there’s a downside to that level of infamy. In a span of those two short years he managed to menace Batman in The Return of Bruce Wayne, and battle the Eternal Warrior on behalf of the zero-cult The Null in the pages...