Halloween In July: Flipside of Horror Interviews

It’s Trick or Treat Month in the July PREVIEWS! As we jump the gun and celebrate All Hallow’s Eve some four months before that special night in late, late October, we called upon some of today’s top creators and new voices to tell us about themselves, and the horrifying work they’ve been conjuring, all in the name of horror and the supernatural!

CULLEN BUNN

Please tell us a bit about yourself?

I am the writer of a number of comic books such as Harrow County, Death Follows, The Sixth Gun, The Damned, Uncanny X-Men, and Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe. Much of my work veers into horror territory, probably because I’m just messed up on some level. I’m a horror junkie who cut his teeth on the genre by sneaking out of my room to watch vampire flicks on the late-late show, listening to a recording of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow on a 45rpm record, and reading way too many issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland and Fangoria!

What are your favorite horror comics you’ve contributed to over the past decade?

If we’re talking about straight horror (rather than, say, dark fantasy) I’d have to go with Harrow County (v1/AUG150030) and Death Follows (JAN160137). I love the back-woodsy nature of these stories. They’re also very different representations of horror, with Harrow County being lighter and more hopeful, and Death Follows being one of the darkest stories I’ve ever written. I’m also pretty proud of Wolf Moon (JUL150342) and Blood Feud (FEB161685), both of which presented new spins on the werewolf and vampire myths respectively. 

What new horror title are you currently working on?

I’m continuing to work on Harrow County, but I also have five other horror titles that are either in the process of being written or have been completed and are awaiting publication. Stay tuned for these books!

What is the scariest horror title that you have read from any publisher?

When I was a kid, I read a short story in a horror anthology comic in which a kid was chased by the smoke that billowed from his grandfather’s pipe. I don’t know what book that was in, but I credit that story with scaring me so bad that I never took up smoking. I’d love to find that book again! But the scariest comics I think I’ve read would have to be Junji Ito’s Uzumaki (AUG131498) Those stories are so unsettling and strange. Great stuff!

TY TEMPLETON

Please tell us a bit about yourself?

I've been writing and drawing comics for more than thirty years, and I'm known mostly for various versions of Batman [Batman Advs. Vol 1/AUG140337], Superman, Spider-Man [Big Time Vol 3/NOV140890], and Justice League [JL Intl. Vol. 4/DEC090212]. I'm quite proud of the comedy stuff I do on projects like MAD Magazine, Howard the Duck, The Simpsons, Mad Dog and Hoverboy. I'm very happily married with four very tall kids, and three fairly short cats.

What are your favorite horror comics you’ve contributed to over the past decade?

My favourite horror comic I've ever worked on was an issue of Vampirella I did with Bruce Timm some years back. It gets reprinted every year in some new format or Vampirella collection, and I'm always seeing versions of it I've never seen before. It includes an adorable image of Vampi bathing in a waterfall of blood that I'm quite fond of, and some lovely Timm artwork on every naughty page! And being honest, I'm having a ball working on the Evil Dead 2 projects I'm doing right now. The splashy Grand Guignol dark comedy in the Evil Dead II world is right up my evil comic book alley.

What new horror title are you currently working on?

Well, my graceless sense of timing revealed the answer to this one in the last question. I'm currently working on an Evil Dead 2 one-shot for Space Goat Publishing called Revenge of the Martians (See Page 430!), featuring Ash fighting off the Martians from the War of the Worlds. I'm writing and laying out the art, as well as doing a cover for the book. The Evil Dead stuff has been on continuous loop on my TV for the last couple of weeks… and it's scaring the hell out of my cat, and my wife doesn't like how often I cover myself in blood and teeth marks "just to get into the mood"!

What is the scariest horror title that you have read from any publisher?

The scariest title from a publisher is a hard one to pin down. But if I had to pick my favorite title that was "kind of" horror, it would have to be DC's Wasteland, but it was far more "weird" than it was "horror", and I worked on the book a little bit, so I can't be unbiased.  I'll settle on Vertigo's Hellblazer (Vol. 1: Original Sins/DEC100302), which includes some of the best horror fiction ever done in comics, in more than one story, too.

DAN MENDOZA

Please tell us a bit about yourself?

Dan Mendoza: creator, writer and artist of hit monthly series, Zombie Tramp, published by Action Lab Entertainment. With a background in animation and a love for comic books, Dan Mendoza set out to make his own title using the elements that influenced him most: Grindhouse movies, Russ Meyer films, Tokyo Shock cinema, horror, and anime. These 5 ingredients combined together to make Zombie Tramp! With the first seven books done completely on his own, with guidance from comic editor and friend Jason Martin, the book was eventually picked up by Action Lab for their “Danger Zone” Mature Readers line.The company stayed alert to Dan's "cult" following and offered to put together a creative team to tackle making Zombie Tramp a regular ongoing series and is now on its third year as a monthly series!

What are your favorite horror comics you’ve contributed to over the past decade?

Every issue of Zombie Tramp is a Horror comic. But if I were to choose which storyline I liked the best, I'd say the "Bitch Craft" story arc from Zombie Tramp Vol. 7 (JAN161019) in which Janey/Zombie Tramp goes undercover at a high school to take out a couple of witch bullies that are using their newfound powers to heckle and even murder some of the geeky and less popular students.

What new horror title are you currently working on?

Currently we are putting together the Zombie Tramp jumbo sized special issue spectacular. The book will contain three short Halloween-themed storylines. We’re also expanding the Zombie Tramp universe with a new title that will debut for Halloween Comic Fest this year. Get set for the bizarre tale of DOLL-FACE, the story of a ball-jointed sex doll come to life to exterminate a band of witches from the 17^th century, living in today's society!

What is the scariest horror title that you have read from any publisher?

I've always been a big fan of the Hellboy series, but I remember in the ’90s I was really into the first runs of the Hellraiser series.

CHRISTOPHE BEC

Please tell us a bit about yourself?

I was born in Rodez, a small village in the south of France in 1969. Fascinated by comics since I was a kid, I studied at the European School of Visual Arts at Angoulême. In 1991, some friends and I published a comic on the “Beast of Gevaudan”, a famous story about a beast who killed more than 100 people in France in the 18^th century. It may be this fascination for cryptozoology that brought me to write Carthago (See Page 390!)! Before this book, I drew Sanctum (MAR151401), written by Xavier Dorison and published by Humanoids in 2014.

What are your favorite horror comics you’ve contributed to over the past decade?

For many readers, Pandemonium (DEC111110) is one of my best stories and I’d say it is the one that I am most proud of. But Sanctum is also a major part of my bibliography. I loved working with Xavier Dorison! Initially the story was very action-oriented. I suggested to Xavier that he should push the writing to a more horror related genre, and take a Lovecraftian approach. Xavier delivered by completely capturing H.P. Lovecraft’s signature mood and atmosphere and adapting it to Sanctum. The more he wrote, the more he got into it! He even upped the ante by challenging me to draw the scariest scenes ever.

What new horror title are you currently working on?

Currently, I write a lot of fiction for the “Flesh and Bones” collection (Glénat), most recently: Bikini Atoll. I’m also working on three new horror stories, one of which, for the first time of my life, allows me to tell a zombie story!

What is the scariest horror title that you have read from any publisher?

In comics, it’s hard to say because it’s not the medium where Horror is the easiest thing to create. But I would say Kraken. When I was a teenager, this comic by Jordi Bernet and Antonio Segura, left a deep mark on me. In literature, I would cite the works of H.P. Lovecraft, the grand master of the genre.

PETER MILLIGAN

Please tell us a bit about yourself?

I sleep upside down in the cellar of my house in London, the city where I was born.  When I haven't been haunting the dreams of innocents by foul means I have been haunting the dreams of less than innocent comic book readers through my stories in 2000 AD, Marvel Comics (the cultish X-Statix!) and perhaps most notably Vertigo, where I gave shrieking life to titles like Enigma, the currently being published New Romancer (Vol. 1/MAY160343), and Shade the Changing Man. My work has also included the controversial Skin, about a thalidomide affected Skinhead.

What are your favorite horror comics you’ve contributed to over the past decade?

That would have to be Hellblazer. My run saw John Constantine face all manner of scary situations, including getting married! A lot of my work veers towards the dark or the weird — see The Discipline (MAR168335) from Image — but I don't consider myself a horror writer per se.

What new horror title are you currently working on?

I'm not. Who told you I was? Has someone been telling lies about me? Suddenly I feel I'm trapped in a Kafkaesque paranoid nightmare. Oh no, I'm turning into a giant insect!

What is the scariest horror title that you have read from any publisher?

My Little Pony.

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If you want to read more interviews about what scary tales rank among the favorites for comic creators abroad, check out the "Flipside" feature in the July PREVIEWS catalog!