Vault gets spicy with Corin Howell’s Lilith and Threshold

Vault Comics is adding a mature readers imprint to its line-up: Threshold will present spicy stories for adults, while staying within Vault’s established focus on SF, fantasy and Horror. It’s been a while since a publisher called out the racier elements of comics, maybe the time is right.

The line launches in August with Lilith by Corin Howell, with colors by Warnia Sahadewa, letters by Jim Campbell, and design by Tim Daniel. The series spins out of Howell’s popular illustrations of Lilith, a sexy vampire who has collected millions of likes on social media.

Lilith is an immortal who’s been banished from her home, a dimensional plane suspiciously similar to mankind’s idea of hell. She’s been posing as a model on Earth while secretly preying on humans. That is, until she runs into Penelope, a sweet bookstore owner with a tome that might hold the secret to returning Lilith to her home dimension. If the mismatched pair doesn’t end up falling in love first! 

Howell released a lengthy statement on Lilith’s origins:

“I work primarily in horror, I love monsters and creature features, and drawing it used to give me some semblance of calm, but the ease was always short-lived. Until one night, when watching YouTube videos and doodling on my iPad. I decided to stray away from the usual monster and creature prompts and dive into drawing a beautiful woman with black hair, an appetite for blood, and piercing red eyes. I found myself at ease, more so when drawing her in red, her outfit blending with the background similar to the style of Rene Grau, and the only thing indicating her shape was the splatter of black ‘blood’ that soaked her figure. It was a ‘screw it,’ moment when I threw her out onto social media, thinking, ‘Whatever, no one’s gonna like this.’

“I completely and utterly underestimated the internet.

“The positive feedback kind of motivated me to try another piece, and again I was met with ease in my mind when setting down more lines of her devilish figure. Adding a severed head was a cherry on top, something funny to indicate that perhaps she killed an unfaithful lover or maybe he just pissed her off that day. With every new illustration, I found myself having fun drawing this little lady and started pondering whether or not she needed a name. One night, when talking to my friend Sasha online, she shared her thoughts, ‘She looks like a ‘Lilith’.’ And since then, it stuck. Simultaneously, Lilith’s story developed into this journey of how a cold, distant monster finds companionship, and along the way learns to move on from her past.”

Lilith #1 will hit store shelves in August 2024 with variant covers by Jae Lee, Tula Lotay, Zoe Thorogood, Angela Wu, and more.

And here’s some spicy preview pages!