on june 30, 2016, a kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for a five-issue "vampire hunter d" comic book series titled "vampire hunter d: message from mars" was announced. published by stranger comics with supervision from series creator hideyuki kikuchi and support from the creative teams at unified pictures and digital frontier, "message from mars" is an adaptation of the 2005 short story "message from cecile" and acts as a prequel to the then-in-development animated series. the series is written by brandon m. easton and illustrated by michael broussard, with visual development by christopher shy. the campaign's stretch goals also include an official "vampire hunter d pathfinder roleplaying game" supplement written by f. wesley schneider. the campaign reached its $25,000 funding goal on july 1, 2016 and its initial $50,000 stretch goal on july 7, 2016. the campaign concluded on august 9, 2016, with 1,736 backers pledging a total of $107,025, reaching four out of five stretch goals. following the first issue the series was placed on temporary hiatus due to a serious medical emergency in broussard's family, resuming production in early 2018 with new artists ryan benjamin and richard friend.