Kodansha USA has spent years bringing some great manga series to American readers. Now, they’re unveiling some manga of their own.

Announced at San Diego Comic-Con yesterday, Kodansha USA will release their original manga series BLOOD BLADE digitally this fall. The series, which is created by Oma Sei, will run weekly with free chapters being available to Kodansha Reader Portal account holders. The chapters will remain free for account holders until the release of the physical collected edition, which will arrive next spring with distribution from Penguin Random House.

Alvin Lu, Kodansha USA Publishing President & CEO said this about the new title:

“BLOOD BLADE is an all-new kind of manga publishing effort, in which Kodansha premieres the works of an outstanding Japanese talent like Oma Sei to a worldwide English-reading audience first. And we are inviting anyone to jump right into this manga series by offering each exciting new episode of BLOOD BLADE free for a limited time at the new Kodansha Reader Portal.”

Sei also said:

“BLOOD BLADE was heavily inspired by classic horror films and dramas. Though it is filled with vampires, golems, and mummies, many of these monsters have waned in popularity since their heyday on the silver screen. Monsters that once inspired terror in humans have been left behind by the passage of time, to the point that one might call them an endangered species. In writing this series, I aim to bring the spotlight back onto these monsters of yore.”

A synopsis for BLOOD BLADE reads:

In the world of BLOOD BLADE, Count Dracula is reborn as a katana-wielding young vampiress in a new, never-before-seen action manga set in a gritty, alternate-history Europe. Fans of cinematic, gory, supernatural alternate histories, like Vampire Hunter D, Hellsing, and Vampire in the Garden, will want to sink their fangs into BLOOD BLADE.

After the reincarnated Dracula rescues a girl named Clara from a mysterious stranger, Clara explains that she is the creation of a certain Victor Frankenstein. She also reveals that she is fleeing from an organization called Cerberus, which seeks to capture and study “monsters” such as herself in order to create an army of human-monster hybrids. Clara begs the vampiress to flee with her to an island of monsters.

Free registration for the Kodansha Reader Portal can be made here.