Kurda Smahlt in my Cirque Du Freak series has proven to be a rather divisive character over the years, as I always intended him to be. Clearcut heroes and villains are all well and good, and a vital element of most of my stories, but what I truly love getting my teeth into are the more ambiguous characters, people like Jebel Rum in The Thin Executioner, B Smith and Rage in my Zom-B books, Capac Raimi in Procession of the Dead... characters who are cast as heroes, but who have a dark, sometimes tormented side. You WANT to cheer them on, but you're not quite sure if you should, because at times they're not that different to the bad guys.

SPOILERS ahead, folks!!! If you haven't read my Vampire Mountain trilogy, skip the next paragraph!!!

Kurda was one of my most conflicted and fascinating characters to write. He's both a hero and a monster... a man who commits a terrible crime in order to do good... and even though I imagine most readers cheered his ultimate downfall, I hope they were left with the uneasy feeling that if he'd succeeded, many lives would have been saved, and the future of the vampire clan would have been secured. That's not to say he was RIGHT to do what he did... but sometimes in life it's hard to judge, and people don't fall into a simple black or white category, but fall somewhere in the middle of the murky seas of gray...

SPOILERS end!!!!

Anyway, quite a few of you have been moved to draw pictures of Kurda recently, and I thought it would be nice to gather four of them together to serve as a monument to Kurda Smahlt, this fine, fiery Saturday. But whether it's a monument to a noble or ignoble vampire... I'll leave that to YOU to decide.

The first drawing, featuring Kurda as a tarot character, was drawn by a fan with the user name of Donkey. I'm not sure if Donkey was inspired by a piece of artwork from last year, by a fan called Molly Marie who also cast Kurda as the Hanged Man, or if it's just coincidence (or DesTiny...) but it's a stunning piece of art either way.

The second drawing is by Karako and captures Kurda as his learned best -- this would have served well as a campaign poster image, if vampires went in for such things!

The third drawing is by Toki, and I love this light-of-heart image of the would-be Vampire Prince. Kurda was quite serious and quiet, but he was also a loyal friend, with a good heart, and Darren and he shared quite a few alughs in their short time together.

The final drawing is by Nanigashi, and features both Kurda and Harkat Mulds. I'm not sure why Nanigashi chose to pair these two guys together (heh heh!!!) but they make a nice match, don't they?!? :-) :-) :-)

Check out the July issue of the Darren Shan newsletter for the latest news about my recent and upcoming releases: https://darrenshan.com/news/shanville-monthly

And to subscribe to the newsletter, click here: https://darrenshan.com/news/subscribe