April 9, 2024

Blood City Rollers: Discover the Special Sauce for Being a Good Team Player in this EXCLUSIVE Minicomic

Can you think of anything more rad than a roller derby team? The camaraderie! The kick-butt nicknames! The empowering rush of a full-contact sport! How about one made up almost exclusively of VAMPIRES? Author V.P. Anderson and artist Tatiana Hill are giving our readers a peek into the fast-paced world of Paranormal Roller Derby in an EXCLUSIVE minicomic inspired by their new graphic novel, Blood City Rollers!

But before they do, we need to back up and give you a little rundown. Because Mina wasn’t always a derby girl, she was actually an ice skater!

At the beginning of the story, we meet Mina, a talented figure skater with her sights set on an Olympic gold medal. She’s been skating since she was three and has the chance to make it to the Olympics before she graduates high school. She sinks her heart and soul into training and competing, and she likes it, but she wishes it didn’t come with so much pressure, especially from her mom.

One day, Mina wipes out during a huge competition, leaving both her arm and her dreams broken. She isn’t sure what she’ll do with all this free time and no goals to chase, but thankfully, she won’t have to worry about that for too long – because she literally gets kidnapped by an undead paranormal roller derby team.

Book cover for Blood City Rollers by V.P. Anderson and Tatiana Hill

Skates on. Fangs out. Let’s roll. This perfectly paranormal graphic novel about a 13-year-old ice skater who embraces the dark side and finds her light when she joins a vampire roller derby team is to die for.

Ice-skater Mina is on a one-track path to Olympic gold and glory—that is, until she totally wipes out at her biggest competition, and is kinda-sorta-kidnapped by undead kids on roller skates. Sucked into the high stakes world of Paranormal Roller Derby, she finds herself “recruited” by a squad of vampires who need a human player to complete their team—just in time to save the league from losing it all.

Between learning to play derby well enough to kick butt on the track, crushing hard on the dreamy team captain, and navigating the spooky rules of the supernatural, how can Mina go from striving to be a ten alone, to becoming one of nine chaotic bodies forming a perfectly-imperfect team? Forget being the best. Will she be enough to help her new friends survive the season?

Blood City Rollers
AUTHOR: V.P. Anderson
ILLUSTRATOR: Tatiana Hill
PUBLISHER: Labyrinth Road
DATE: April 9, 2024

The Vamps are a team of vampires in a paranormal league made up of everything from witches to fairies. The Vamps need a human player to help lead their team to victory and save their roller derby league, and in exchange for both her help and her silence, they’ll heal Mina’s arm. She’ll have to train hard to learn the ropes of this new sport, but she’ll also learn a thing or two about friendship, first crushes, and learning to be a team player along the way. Can she bring this spooky league to victory?

Blood City Rollers is filled with vibrantly colored illustrations, hilarious quips, and a story that packs a punch of heart and friendship!

Since learning to play on a team is one of Mina’s biggest hurdles, she’s here to share a few things she’s learned from her time as a jammer for a supernatural roller derby league in a minicomic created by V.P. Anderson & Tatiana Hill, creators of Blood City Rollers. (Psst: The history of Paranormal Roller Derby is super neat. Want a breakdown of how it came to be and a peek into the rules of roller derby? Check out their website!

Blood City Rollers Minicomic:

Four panel comic featuring the characters from Bat City Rollers, set on a roller derby rink. Comic panel one shows Mina holding up her phone to record a video. She is wearing a helmet and other roller derby gear. A few members of her team are skating past her. Mina's speech bubble reads "Hey there. I'm Mina Murray (she/her) and here's a little something I've learned playing Paranormal Roller Derby with my team, The Vamps, as part of Blood City Roller Derby (BCRD) in Romania, NY."
Below the panel there is a description that reads: "Paranormal Roller Derby (PRD), similar to human flat track roller derby (WFTDA, MRDA, and JRDA), is a fast-paced, full-contact sport played on roller skates, or "quads". For more info on PRD's history and rules, please visit us at http:s//evilonwheels.org
The second panel shows a close-up of the phone screen which is recording, featuring Mina off tho the side and two of her teammates posing making funny faces behind her. Mina's speech bubble reads "Playing as the only human jammer on a team of mostly vampires is a pretty steep learning curve. But, anyone can eventually learn to play. The hardest part (for me) was learning how to play as a team.
The third panel shows a close-up of the phone screen, recording, featuring Mina off to the side and team captain Val Halla standing next to her. Mina's speech bubble reads "Luckily for me, I had the world's best captain (Val Halla) to teach me. And, I've figured out the Secret Sauce. Two ingredients every team needs to succeed. Ready for this? Val Halla's speech bubble reads "Are you ready for practice?"
The fourth panel shows the team in a huddle in the background, with Mina and Val Halla facing each other having a conversation. Mina looks apologetic, and Val Halla looks annoyed. Mina's first speech bubble reads "Almost done, I swear. This is crucial information." Val Halla's speech bubble reads "Sigh. Proceed." Mina's second bubble reads "Anyway, the two things every team needs are TRUST and FUN. I'll be you were expecting words like STRENGTH and STAMINA, huh? But nope! These are even more important because -"

Four panel comic featuring the characters from Bat City Rollers, set on a roller derby rink. Comic panel one shows a close up of Mina's phone screen showing Mina talking into her camera with another player behind her, interrupting. The other character's speech bubble reads "I'm strong! I mean, my gear SMELLS strong!" Mina's speech bubble reads "*ahem* TRUST keeps you safe and FUN sets you free. Without trust, we couldn't skate together safely, or rely on our blockers to protect us, or our refs to watch out for us on the track. Trust means we've got each others' backs no matter what happens."
The second panel zoom's out to show Mina and her teammates hugging and gathered together on the track. Mina's speech bubble reads "Fun is what happens when you forget your fears and insecurities, and just enjoy the ride. It may sound silly, but fun strengthens you as a person, and reminds us all while life is worth living. A side character interrupts, their speech bubble reads "Even if some of us ARE undead." Mina continues, her second speech bubble reads "Exactly. SO tehre we have it: Mina's Derby Lesson of the -"
The third panel shows Mina's teammate Bella skating past quickly, grabbing Mina's phone and looking annoyed. Mina's speech bubble says "Hey!", in surprise. The other character's speech bubble reads "Cute speech. But no WAY are you gonna post that. The human world doesn't know about us, and I for one would like to keep it that way."
The fourth panel shows Mina and a few teammates talking on the track, as well as Bella. Two teammates try to convince Bella to let Mina post the video. Their speech bubble reads "Come on, Bella. Don't you want people to know how AWESOME this team is?" Bella's speech bubble reads "Not if it means talking to them. I prefer hitting as my main form of communication." Mina's speech bubble reads "*sigh* Well, you're NO fun at all.."
There is text below the final panel that reads "Preorder your copy of BLOOD CITY ROLLERS today, and find out what the fun is all about! (Trust us, you don't wanna miss out!) — *(Minicomic written and illustrated by V.P. Anderson and Tatiana Hill for YAYOMG!)*

📚EVEN MORE MINICOMICS: For even more minicomics inspired by your favorite reads, CLICK HERE !

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