A creepy mad scientist and a talented slacker team up to accomplish... something impressive and potentially terrifying, in Blood Stain volume 1, Top Cow's print collection of Linda Sejic's webcomic, due out in March.

The comic is set on the Mediterranean coast, and it's set in the same world as Sunstone, a comic by Linda's husband Stjepan Sejic about a BDSM relationship between two women. It's hard to tell if that means there might be kinky elements in Blood Stain too. The preview neither includes that nor rules it out, although you'd think Top Cow would be advertising that aspect (or warning skittish readers about it) if that stuff was as much a part of this story as it is that one.

At 24 pages, the preview of Blood Stain is longer than most monthly comics, although it ends before the two main characters meet face to face. It focuses on Elliot Torres, a young woman with a chemistry degree who just can't seem to get on her feet in the job market. She's living with her sister's family, and has had a string of short-lived attempts at employment in a variety of fields, which are amusingly recounted in the preview.

There are only hints at what's going on with her eventual employer, an infamously creepy scientist with the portentous name of Dr. Vlad Stein. We see that he's not bad looking, that he seems to work in the dark, and that his lab coat justifies the book's title. We learn that he's been trying to find an assistant for a long time, but scares away everyone who comes into contact with him. It's clear that Elliot's desperation will overcome Vlad's offputting nature, and lead to, at the very least, a working relationship. Consider us officially intrigued.