Kyle Hotz Interview Reveals Inner Monsters on Dark Horse's Billy the Kid Series

Multiple Eisner Award-winning creator Eric Powell (The Goon) and superstar artist Kyle Hotz (Marvel's Incredible Hulk) return to the chilling days of yesteryear in Dark Horse Comics' Billy the Kid’s Old-Timey Oddities and the Ghastly Fiend of London #1.

Combining spaghetti westerns and Hammer horror flicks, each issue of this four-part series also features a Goon back-up story by Powell.

Picking up where that saga left off (see the Billy the Kid’s Old-Timey Oddities TP), this new rollicking adventure finds one of the Old West's deadliest young guns caught up in a freak show facing off against Jack the Ripper.

In London with Fineas Spoule's carnival of sideshow attractions, gunfighter William Bonney puts his pistols to the test against the “Whitechapel Killer.”

Billy the Kid’s Old-Timey Oddities and the Ghastly Fiend of London #1 (JUL100075) is available in stores September 9th.

Check out what Hotz has to say, and and some never-before-seen promotional artwork accompanying this article. 

PREVIEWSworld (PW): Kyle, you've collaborated many times before with Eric Powell (The Goon, Billy the Kid's Old-Timey Oddities Volume 1, The Incredible Hulk). Now, you're working with him again on two books for Dark Horse: Billy the Kid's Old-Timey Oddities and the Ghastly Fiend of London and Buzzard. WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU? ARE YOU NUTS? Why do you keep subjecting yourself to that kind of punishment?

Kyle Hotz (KH): As far as writers go Eric's one of my favorites to work with. Since he's an artist as well, he has a unique understanding of what can actually fit on a page, and since he's such a good artist and storyteller, he knows how to leave plenty of room for the story to breathe. Every writer thinks they do that type of stuff well, and some of them do it very well (some don't do it at all) but Eric does it great. Add to that the fact that Eric and I share a twisted sensibility toward characters and concepts and it's no wonder we get along so well. His dialogue is fantastic and he cares about the characters. One interesting side note is that Eric obviously leans more towards the humorous and me towards the grim, but on this one Eric was just as dark as me – if not more so!

(PW): Why revisit the Old West freak show of Fineas Sproule? What about those characters and that time period appealed to you? Was it the chance to explore the legend of "Jack the Ripper"?

(KH): It's a given that we love the characters since we created them. Eric and I tailored these guys to suit everything we like and everything I like to draw. If it was up to me, we wouldn't be revisiting these guys, we'd have never stopped doing them. We actually had the bones of this new story set to go right away after the first one. Unfortunately, it took 5 years to get it going. We've got the next three story lines ready to go.

As far as the Ripper goes, Whitechapel fit well as another place to throw Billy and make him the fish out of water again. Ripper stuff is cool, but don't expect us to be slavishly holding to the facts of the Ripper case. The fun of what we're doing with Billy is taking concepts people are familiar with and taking them to entirely new dimensions. We'll have familiar things from ripper lore, but times 10 or 20. Or 100. And besides that, the Ripper's not the only horror icon we're going to be playing with in this series.

(PW): In recent years, Westerns and the supernatural have been frequently "married" together in entertainment (TV, movies, comics). Why do you think cowboys-and-critters go together so well?

(KH):  For me the cowboy thing just goes back to the idea that as a kid what I wanted to be was a cowboy. Also as a kid, I had an intense love of monsters. I don't think I could explain it for anyone else, or as a Joseph Campbell mythological concept or anything. It's just that they're two of the coolest things. Cowboys and monsters.

(PW): What influences did you and Eric draw upon for Old-Timey Oddities? I remember some "great" old bad movies like "Billy the Kid vs. Dracula" and "Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter." Did these cinematic classics serve to inspire you?

(KH): Here's how Billy came together – on one of many phone calls, I suggested to Eric something like “Jesse James versus Frankenstein's Daughter,” but with sideshow freaks. In the course of a couple hours that developed into a story where Billy the Kid worked for Harry Houdini, who was an agent of the US government, and got sent on wacky assignments. Some time later I saw a graphic novel with Houdini as a government agent with a circus team. We almost scrapped Billy right there, but one of us came up with the robbery angle and the most ludicrous mark seemed like Doctor Frankenstein.

The inspirations for these stories are more idea\-oriented than anything else. Like, the idea of Frankenstein, or the idea of the Ripper. Not so much a complete historical accuracy but just using the ideas as springboards and building a story around them. We do make things at least a bit accurate, you know period clothing and buildings and whatever, but if time lines don't match up, who cares?

(PW):  What's next for the team of Powell & Hotz? Do you guys get a cool name, like Brangelina? Potz? Hot Pow? Hotel?

(KH): Ky-El and Pow-Ell, sons of Jor-El. Actually, we'd love to do Superman, or Batman. We'd love to do a Hulk project. But there's definitely more Billy stuff to come.

(PW): What other Dark Horse property would you like to take a stab at?

(KH): Some of my favorite work was with Steve Niles on Criminal Macabre. I'd love to do more of that, like a 150-page graphic novel of Cal's worst day ever.

(PW):  You're well known in the industry for drawing freaks, monsters, creepy creatures and hulking musclemen like The Goon. When will we see Kyle Hotz's "All Ages" title?

(KH): I'd really enjoy that – but it would still have to have freaks monsters and creeps in it.

(PW):  Finally, if you weren't working in comics, what would you be doing? Besides looking for the lost Ark of the Covenant?

(KH): My son and I would be cryptozoologists and travel the world tracking down bizarre and unknown animals (funded by some wealthy benefactor of course).