Josh “Captain Nostalgia” Burkey: For those who may not know, can you describe the story of Lovesick for our readers?
Luana Vecchio: Lovesick is the story of Domino, a woman who works as a dominatrix on the dark web. Domino and her girls entertain their clients with live-streaming shows, snuff movies, and live events called Redrooms. The peculiarity of the Lovesick club, the site where they work, is that the victims are not random people taken from the street but their customers who volunteer to be tortured and killed during these shows by them. What drives these young boys to apply and put themselves forward is the love and obsession they feel toward Domino.
But Domino is not only surrounded by simps obsessed with her, but also by haters who see her as the Mother Demon, a succubus who oppresses males and therefore must be annihilated. In the midst of this disproportionate hate and love is Domino, the true mystery of the whole tale. A ruthless woman when she works, but fragile when the cameras are off, Lovesick in my opinion is simply her story.
CN: The series originally started out as a three issue limited, self-published series that you crowdfunded and later was picked up by Image Comics. This originally was intended to be three issues but is now seven. Can you talk about the expansion of this world and the character of Domino?
LV: Actually Lovesick started out on Comixology Submit, where at the time you could upload your self-published comics for free, it was a simpler and cheaper solution than Crowdfunding as it was only available as a digital format.
I had planned three issues because at the time Lovesick was just an experiment, it was the first time I wrote something with the intention of publishing it and I wanted to convey my interest in the urban legends of the dark web through the medium of comics, so I can say it was born as a project made to test myself and not to satisfy a large audience; but after completing the three scheduled issues I continued to write new ones, up to the seventh issue, and at the same time I started working on the miniseries Bolero published by Image Comics; and a few months later Eric Stephenson, the publisher of Image, saw Lovesick on Comixology and asked me if I wanted to print it through them. I explained that I had written a new arc and extended the series to seven issues, and once Bolero was finished I immediately moved on to work on the new Lovesick story arc.
Creating the second arc was so simple since with only three issues I had already built the world of Lovesick; the third issue ends with the reveal of the cannibals, and a friend of mine who really loved the project told me she wanted to know more about it, and I myself also really wanted to go into that part of the story, because a lot of my research for writing Lovesick was based on people with cannibalistic fantasies and I had collected so much material about it that I could explore it in the series. Also, the character of Domino was ready to open up more to the reader since in issue three, she seems to break and finally shows her fragility.
Image Comics
CN: The original three issues paint Domino as a fierce and confident woman, while the final four issues depict a more vulnerable side to her. Why did you decide to pursue the character in this way between the arcs, instead of blending them together?
LV: As mentioned, Domino cracks in issue #3, but in #1 and #2 we already get a hint of her vulnerability, but it's only by introducing the character of Jack that I was able to show who Domino really is when she's not working; we all show our vulnerabilities to only a few people in our lives, and it's the same for her. Jack is her creator but also much more, and every time he reappears in her life he reopens old wounds, and it didn't make a lot of sense to show this in previous issues, I had to introduce it at the right time. Like any work of literature, the introduction of a new character can turn everything upside down, and that's what happens to Domino when Jack comes back into her life. Also, when I wrote the first arc, Jack was already introduced but their relationship wasn't clear to me either, I just thought there was bad blood between them, the rest came later.
CN: In one of the issues you described American Psycho, both film and book, as an influence in writing Domino’s story. What are some of the other influences for the story of Lovesick?
LV: Definitely Exploitation cinema, films like Thriller - A Cruel Picture or Ms .45, my interest in crime stories like Armin Meiwes or Sharon Lopatka, and how the concept of consent in these two stories has been used to kill someone and divide public opinion, stories like this divide public opinion in the same way that Domino's actions divided readers' opinions. The very concept of victim and perpetrator is corroded when we are faced with stories like this, and when situations reveal themselves to be less clear than initially thought, human beings tend to go haywire. But mainly, my experience as a viewer of shock sites was particularly crucial, and it was the reason I wrote this story. Morbidity is certainly one of the reasons that prompted the most skeptical readers to continue reading this story to the end, the same morbidity that drives people to watch shocking videos or listen to crime stories, this is what I wanted to give to Lovesick but I wanted to do it while always balancing on a thin gray line.
CN: Your big break into comics was Bolero, a fellow Image title, where you provided the art for that series. Was it intimidating to step into the writer’s chair for Lovesick? Or did it feel natural?
LV: When I started working on Bolero in February 2021, Lovesick had already been on Comixology for about a year and the script for the second story arc was already done, so Bolero and Image Comics happened over a year later. Before Lovesick, I always drew scripts by other writers, and for me it was a great training ground because this way I learned to write my own scripts as a comic writer would, since I never studied writing like I did illustration, to which I have devoted many years of study. But going from Bolero artist to Lovesick writer/artist was a bit tough, I had the feeling that some readers were a bit skeptical of my abilities. I felt the pressure of having to show that I had something to say and that I wasn't just offering a work based on sex and violence. I don't know if this skepticism was due to the themes seen in Lovesick or the fact that it was the first series I had written, but now that all seven issues have been published, I'm happy with how my first comic series has been received by the public.
Image Comics
CN: The art of this book is stunning. It’s a darkened world where several of the issues literally have blood on nearly every page but also embraces some neon colors as well. As an artist, can you talk about the juxtaposition of the bright lights and blood soaked adventures of this world?
LV: Thank you! Coloring is the most fun phase for me and I choose the colors based on the sensations and relationships between the characters. I try to vary but sometimes red must be the dominant color because so much red almost suffocates and imprisons. Jack's party in issue four or the redroom events come to mind, they are pages in which I tried to make the reader feel almost in danger, with their back against the wall, while the erotic scenes are almost always blue, cold colors. As engaging as they are, I didn't want them to have a romantic atmosphere like in Bolero where I used many warm colors, I still wanted to remind the reader that we are in a horror story where love and sex are distorted. We can see some yellow, a small color variation, only in the final issue. Those pages are the only ones where I show Domino in an airy and bright background, it's almost like we're finally seeing her face, she's vulnerable but just beautiful because of this.
CN: One of the things that I found so fascinating was how your book explored both the positive and negative aspects of sex and mental health. You show the empowered side of Domino but the pushback from some of the more conservative people within the world around her. Why was it important to show both sides of this?
LV: Lovesick is heavily inspired by reality and by real interpersonal dynamics, so while the whole comic is definitely exaggerated, many dynamics can feel very familiar, and to make them that way I had to show it without filters. After all, yes, Domino may be powerful and loved but she is also hated. She is a sex worker and for this reason she is often belittled and objectified, these are the consequences that anyone bears when choosing a certain life and I could not leave this out. But at the same time I wanted to twist a lot of other things, when I created this story and its dynamics I still wanted to stay on a gray line. We don't have bad guys in Lovesick, but we don't have any good guys either. I like to unite the opposites, mix concepts and create gray areas. For example, many readers think that Domino is a manipulated woman while others say that she has her own will, but why not both? I was interested in showing all aspects: vulnerability and power, control and submission, resentment and love, all in one character.
CN: How much of “The Lovesick Club” is modeled after a platform like OnlyFans?
LV: Lovesick has been compared to Onlyfans a lot but when I wrote issue one at the end of 2019, I didn't know about the platform. It started gaining notoriety, at least in Italy where I live, during Covid, so there are no correlations between the two. From the point of view of the sex worker/client relationship, I was inspired by the Dominatrix/slave (dominant/submissive) relationship that we find in BDSM. It's a very fascinating relationship that I find almost pure, because it's built on the basis of consent and respect for one's limits, I really like how a slave has a relationship of adoration with their mistress but at the same time, despite the dominatrix being in command, moves to try to satisfy the requests of their submissive, it is a relationship that is built in a healthy and honest way and is truly equal even though externally they seem like two opposite poles, but for me both have the power. I very much believe that knowing one's limits and your preferences, even if you are a sub bottom, a slave, or a pet, you are 100% in control, there is nothing more powerful than knowing yourself and knowing your limits or exploring them with someone even just by talking about them. Therefore my inspiration for building the Lovesick club was this, not Onlyfans, which sometimes seems to me a bit of a cold platform based on money. I was looking for something more related to human relationships, consent and its limits, and based on these two things I tried to take them to extremes and bring them to the level of "no boundaries". I really care a lot about these themes and I realize that I have never talked about them before.
Image Comics
CN: The community and the world around Domino in this book is often misunderstood. What were some of the challenges in bringing it to life in a way that would be respected?
LV: Actually, every reader felt differently about it, some were outraged both by the story itself, and also by my research, and others totally understood what drove me to write a comic like this and to do that research... it's impossible to create a comic like Lovesick and not be misunderstood, or remain totally respectful to a community, so I've tried to take everything and mix it so you don't understand where the fiction ends and the reality begins, even if for me Lovesick remains a very real work...if tomorrow someone were to tell me that a place like Lovesick exists on the dark web where young men go to be voluntarily killed by a dominatrix, well, it wouldn't surprise me, I remember that once I had heard this story about a girl who said she did BDSM with the hope that something would go wrong and she would die during a session… I just took stories, feelings and human relationships and put them into this dirty world where whoever wants to disappear forever can do it. Many times while writing Lovesick I thought "ok but where are the police in all this crap?" and my answer was always that so many people disappear in this world, and for them there is no justice, so in an unfair world like ours where the value of a person is given by their status and by how many people love them, if you're poor and lonely, a misfit, who would ever care about you, who would ever bother to care about a bunch of incels who believe they're in love with a woman on the dark web who kills willing men? Nobody, nobody cares. Let's say that in addition to my research, just like American Psycho, I wanted to show a world where life has no value and justice always loses, a vision that is very much linked to how I see the world. Lovesick is very personal even if it is slightly based on some real cases, if you dig into the end the dominant part remains my very pessimistic view.
CN: This book uses a lot of pig imagery. Where did the idea of that come from? Why that specific animal?
LV: In the BDSM community, the Mistresses often call their clients Pigs, so I wanted to do the same in Lovesick. However, Domino's approach is much softer, something between a mother, a girlfriend, and a cult guru, therefore I wanted her to use cute names. Humiliation is marginal in the Lovesick Club, I've always thought the key concept is something close to a cult or a religion. Jesus didn't humiliate his disciples, but made them feel loved and well-liked, and Domino does the same thing. So she doesn't use the word "pigs" or piglets in a disparaging way, but in an affectionate way, she makes them feel part of a community, I really wanted nothing to be misandric, but unfortunately with a project like this it's hard not to be accused of misandry. And this upsets me greatly.
CN: I don’t want to spoil too much of Domino’s story. As previously mentioned, the second story arc portrays her as much more vulnerable. Her mental health has been that of rejection up until she takes on the persona of Domino. When writing this portion of her story how did you step into the mental health of Domino and her past?
LV: Domino's character is strongly governed by her paraphilia, autassassinophilia, many of the things Domino desires are due to it, and we already see this in her flashbacks, especially in her clear desire to be eaten by Jack in a snuff movie. I have never delved into her mental health but I think that what moves and somehow governs Domino's character is her desire to disappear, a desire that becomes sexual and dangerous, but which she has carried with her since she was only a little girl. Domino talks about it in the first pages of issue three, but I think a lot of her story hasn't been explored, especially who Domino was before Jack, her relationship with the world, gore, and her parents, is a very important part of Domino's and I hope to be able to explore it very soon.
Image Comics
CN: Where did the cannibal element come from in this story?
LV: Armin Meiwes' story was particularly crucial in developing the theme of consent in Lovesick. Armin ate a consenting man, the two met after a post Armin made on a dating forum. Among various forums he'd posted on there was Cannibal Cafe, a forum that brought together people with fantasies of eating or being eaten; people would call it a cannibal forum, but outside of Armin, no one in there ever had the guts to go all the way and eat anyone. Starting from this story, I took a look at Cannibal Cafe, it's a closed forum but it's possible to navigate without problems; but in there I found MUCH more disturbing things than Armin's post, there were application forms to become a Dolcett Girl, women who consensually offer themselves to cannibals to be eaten, indicating the specifics through a form; I found it ironic because the name "Dolcett" comes from an anonymous fetish comic artist who drew consenting women who were impaled and barbecued. In the forum, the founder Perro Loco had invented this sort of academy for Dolcett girls in which the volunteers are brainwashed so as to be ready to be cooked and eaten, I remember that there were photos and descriptions of the "cows", the women who applied on the forum to become Dolcetts. Perro said that even his own daughter had put herself forward and been eaten. With all this VERY imaginative material, I wrote Lovesick part two. Perro Loco romanticizes cannibalism a lot and has the idea that eating or being eaten between consenting adults should be legal. Obviously, all this was kind of a forum roleplaying and based on that I wrote the second arc, but I want to put a disclaimer that NOTHING I read on that forum was real, and other than Armin, none of those people ever hurt anyone, people just enjoy roleplaying.
CN: One of the variant covers of Lovesick teased a Spawn crossover. Are there any plans for such a thing? Or was that just one of those cool coincidences that happened?
LV: That was a cover made to celebrate 30 years of Image Comics, I and other creators of Image and DC comics made one to celebrate Spawn. It was requested by Image Comics, I was happy to have made it, and I must admit that it was VERY successful! But I don't think a crossover like that will ever happen!
CN: What drew me to the story of Lovesick was the art of these gorgeous covers and I immediately followed you on all socials. Recently you had a chance to step into the world of DC for Harley Quinn: Black+White+Redder. How does it feel to step into a character so iconic?
LV: It was really fun, I love Harley and being able to draw her was a great opportunity for me, both to prove to my DC editor that he had chosen the right person, and to show readers my skills outside of creator owned projects, and I hope they notice all the effort I put into this project. But above all it was very simple to work on her, the Harley Quinn that I drew both aesthetically and internally, she reminded me a LOT of Domino, I was a little surprised because I don't think the writer Ryan Parrot has read Lovesick, so it was really easy to jump from Domino to her.
CN: From the way you talk about the transition from self-publishing to Image in the creative process, it sounds like there is definitely more of this world left to explore. How likely are we to see more of Domino and the world of Lovesick?
LV: I shouldn't say this because I don't want to give false hopes, but I hope to come back next year with a new story arc. I don't know if that will happen but right now it's the only thing that I really want.
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Victims and Villains is written (and produced) by Josh "Captain Nostalgia" Burkey and others, and edited by Cam Smith. Music by Mallory Johnson and others. We do not own nor claim any rights.
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