New York City, 1999 — On a hot July day in a bustling Manhattan café, journalist Van Daniels interviews Jonathan Hawkins—a dangerous mafia associate and a pop cultural icon called The Vampire. Despite Hawkins' taciturn nature, his face features regularly in tabloids and TV programs, and his deeds are mirrored in works of fiction. He does not speak to the press and has never volunteered any information about himself. All of it based on the rumors that follow him wherever he goes: whispers about the man who melts into shadows and rolls in with the fog—the man who cannot be killed and does not die.
The rumors have followed him since he first came ashore in Long Beach, California, in 1919. He has not aged a day since then.
The reason for Hawkins' unnatural longevity is unknown—equally so, his reasoning for agreeing to this interview at all. But before Hawkins can get up from their table and vanish back into shadow and fog, Daniels intends to get to the bottom of both mysteries.
When No One Knew His Name is an illustrated story within a story: it is the story of Hawkins' long and varied life nested within the story of Daniels' encounter with this unusual man. The text is presented as the in-universe nonfiction book Daniels went on to write based on the transcript of his interview with Hawkins, whose descriptions are intercut with Daniels' outside research to provide greater context or alternate perspectives to the reader.
When No One Knew His Name is a low-fantasy pastiche of Anne Rice's 1976 novel Interview with The Vampire, featuring heavy elements of historical and crime fiction, and themes of alienation and ennui in the face of an uncertain future.
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