Simmons and Haspiel bring horror home
21. Their goal is to reveal a ”small town’s twisted canada goose uk shop secrets” in a way you won’t soon forget.
Creepy is a comic anthology with a long and significant history since it first hit the newsstands in 1964 in magazine format to avoid the Comics Code restrictions that governed smaller sized comic books. Its ethos was heavily inspired by the EC line of horror comics and the late great Archie Goodwin was one of its most seminal editors, drawing in artists like Neal Adams, Steve Ditko, and Wally Wood to contribute to its inventively disturbing tales.
By 1985, however, the anthology had become defunct only to be resurrected, first in cheap canada goose archival reprints, canada goose outlet and then in a new magazine format by Dark Horse between 2008 and 2009. Since then, Creepy has been attracting top notch contributors from a wide range of comic traditions who all canada goose outlet nyc have one thing in common: they were Creepy fans in the past and they have a powerful drive to be part of the bone chilling tradition.
Connecticut native Simmons has made his name in comics by writing and drawing increasingly canada goose outlet jackets twisted indie tales like the experimental ”Jessica Farm,” a psychological horror version of Alice in Wonderland, and canada goose outlet parka most recently, his critically acclaimed anthology ”The Furry Trap,” which takes on horror, satire, and dark humor in a series of modern short comic stories.
Brooklyn based Haspiel is the Emmy Award winning illustrator on the HBO series ”Bored to Death,” best known for his indie anti hero Billy Dogma. He’s also feverishly at work on The Fox with Mark Waid for Archie’s Red Circle Comics.
Simmons canada goose outlet uk sale and Haspiel talked to Parallel Worlds about horror comics in their life and working on Creepy 13.
When did you start working with horror in comics? Did you try other genres, or was that always your goal?
Simmons: canada goose clearance sale I loved horror as a kid. Fangoria magazine, Stephen King and Freddy Krueger were my favorites in the 1980s. However, when I started making comics as a teenager, they tended more toward underground, (Robert) Crumb and (Daniel) Clowes influenced, black humor leanings (although they usually had some aspect of horror or fantasy to them). It wasn until around 2004 that I got the idea to do my own take on full on horror, though. I started work on ”House,” a short, wordless graphic novel that is a somewhat surrealist take on haunted house stories.
How does telling a disturbing story in comics differ from telling one in prose or another medium for you?
Simmons: Horror works well in any medium, but the strengths of horror in comics are the strengths of comics in general the artist has complete control over the content, pacing, design, and every other conceivable element of the story. Horror as a genre is the fact that we all going to die and we all have anuses, and the terror and hilarity in exploring those ideas in an honest and lyrical manner. This can be done as well in comics as in movies, prose, paintings, etc.
Simmons: I usually do everything in my comics. But lately I have been collaborating with other cartoonists and artists a good deal. The benefits of working with a talented and hyper skilled cartoonist such as Dean is seeing cheap canada goose uk my words and ideas interpreted through a different lens and often enhanced. As long as there appreciation and trust in the other artist, the results are always interesting. Further, it a good way to keep the process exciting, as working alone on comics for long stretches of time can be a slog.
Can you tell us a little about some of your current or upcoming projects?
Simmons: The best available horror comics projects of mine are my two Fantagraphics published books ”House” and ”The Furry Trap.” For newer pamphlet comics work featuring a variety of stories and collaborations, there are the pamphlets put out by Oily Comics: Flayed Corpse, Training, and Habit canada goose outlet online uk 1. Fantagraphics also put out the first volume of ”Jessica Farm,” which is a book I creating over the course of 50 years by drawing one page a month, beginning in January of 2000 and going on until 2050. The second volume will https://www.thebookstop.biz be out in 2016.
”The White Rhinoceros” is a psychedelic/racial/fantasy/adventure comic written by The Partridge in the Pear Tree and drawn by me and is up free to read here. In the future: More horror stories, more White Rhinoceros, more Jessica Farm. canada goose outlet toronto factory Hopefully more comics with Oily, books with Fantagraphics, and stories with Dark Horse and others what’s appealing to you about drawing a horror story? What do you find scary in comics?
Haspiel: Horror might be my favorite genre but it the uk canada goose canada goose black friday sale hardest to make work in any medium. Where people like comedy because they like to laugh, I like horror because I like to be scared. Unfortunately, most horror is funny to me or, perhaps, I laugh as a coping mechanism? I don know. Bottom line, the feeling of fear thrills me and that something I want to sometimes convey in my work.
When I first approached the editors of Creepy about doing a story, I pitched several ideas and none of them made muster. I think they were too high concept and there something raw about good horror that works on a base level. Sometimes all you need is a boogey man who never says a word like Michael Myers in or a psycho who makes mannequins out of real people in Trap to get your mind teetering on the brink of madness.
There are only two comic books that ever scared canada goose outlet online the hell out of me. One was a manga called ”Uzumaki” by Junji Ito, a horror that didn really make sense but it didn have to because it was so damned wrong on a visual and emotional level. The other was a collection of disturbing tales called ”The Furry Trap” by Josh. It was during a Trip City podcast interview with my old pal Josh that I really connected with him about horror and, soon after, asked if he would collaborate with me on our eventual Creepy story, Scales. you tell us about your process constructing this story from concept to finished page?
Haspiel: Since Josh is such a master cartoonist, arguably one of the best, most original auteurs working today, I parked my ego at the door and decided to learn from him. We discussed story ideas and what I wanted to draw and what he wanted to write and we went back and forth like that a few canada goose store times until he nailed a first draft of the story plot.
Once we tightened up the narrative details, we pitched it to the editor at Dark Horse and she bought it. Josh also helped me realize the tale by canada goose drawing some character designs and provided me with layouts so I would understand exactly what he was looking for while veering off into my own storytelling solutions. Canada Goose online Conjuring Scales was a true collaboration.
Do you have any personal strategies for rendering a story unsettling for the reader?
Haspiel: Narrative pacing is canada goose outlet in usa what makes or breaks horror (or any story, for that matter). It rare that a single image can spook me. Sure, Leatherface wielding a chainsaw in ”The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is all you need to run the other way but a good horror staggers fear and consumes you until you held hostage like a deer in headlights and can look away.
The only cartoonist who drew something that conveyed sheer terror to me is Jorge Zaffino, who illustrated the scariest Batman I ever seen and draws a hell of a Punisher breaking a bad guys neck. It all in the eyes.
So, yeah, a single illustration can fill you with adrenaline but narrative engagement is what takes you down Canada Goose Online the hole with no looking back. True fear is about seeding and anchoring the mind with things that unsettle you, making you confront the stuff that scares you the most.
What comic genres will you be working on in the future? Can we expect more creepiness from you?
Haspiel: I best known for drawing semi autobiographical and super romance comics but I currently working on The Fox mini series for Red Circle, a pulp hero comic. I would like to try my hand at more horror.
You can find out more about Josh Simmons’ work at Fantagraphics and also through his canada goose outlet canada goose factory outlet blogspot and Tumblr accounts. Dean Haspiel’s projects are discussed on his website as well and many of his digital comics and essays are available on the site he co curates Trip City.
