September 5, 2025 • 28 mins
Tonight we’re chatting with Drew Edwards. Drew is the writer/creator of Halloween Man, a new trade paperback collection out later this month from Red 5 Comics distributed by Simon & Schuster. He is a Best Writer Ringo nominee, Austin Chronicle "Best of Austin" award winner, and a member of the Pen America Fellowship.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Castle Talker. We talk to writers
and creators of today's genre worlds. I'm your host, Jason Henderson,
publisher at Castle Breach Media, home of the Castle of
Horror anthology series. Tonight we're chatting with Drew Edwards. Now.
Drew is the writer creator of Halloween Man, which is
a new trade paperback out later this month from Red
(00:29):
five Comics, distributed by Simon and Schuster. He is a
Best Writer Ringo nominee, Austin Chronicle Best of Austin Award winner,
and a member of the Penn America Fellowship and so
many more things. And I've hello, Drew, Howdy, howdy. Okay,
that was an introduction that I have done for you
really many times, except for this changed a little bit.
(00:50):
Halloween Man. You have been the master of Halloween Man
for a while, but this is the first time for
a mass market release. It's just this month, September thirtieth,
I think it comes Outtember.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Thirtieth is the release day.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yeah, right before Halloween. You can go to Simon and
Schuster dot com and there it is, which I was.
I was so proud because you and I have known
one another a long time. I was so proud to
see that on Simon and Schuster dot com. I was like, yes,
this is this is a real You just got back
from Comic Con where there was a big panel just
about Halloween Man with a good fill in the room.
So I feel like things are coming up drow.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
You know, it does seem that way.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
I feel like I am still very gobsmacked about the
whole thing. So like I have a I'm dealing with
lots of imposter syndrome, Like a lot of this stuff
is happening to somebody else because like my day to
day is very much the same, even that being on
(01:49):
like the Simon and Schuster you know, distribution system and everything.
Like I'm still having to you know, just today, like
I was going around to bookstores in Austin and dropping
off posters and stickers, and then I went to the
post office and I was dropping I was sending posters
out to comic bookshops across the country. So I'm still
(02:11):
doing all the you know, promotional stuff, just like if
it was an indie you know still but you know,
obviously there's a much bigger machine around it, and you
know that is.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
That is you know, it's a great joy.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
But it also is like, man, I you know this
is really you know, I'm I'm up to the plate now,
you know, like I better I better hit a homer
or I might get sent back to the farm leagues.
And you know which is weird. I keep making sports
analogies even though I don't really watch sports.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
No, but that that actually sounded I found that completely believable,
that understandable. All right, let's talk about Halloween Man. So
what's interesting to me is you've you're a Texan or yeah, no,
you're you're from Texas, right, You're from Poster. You've been
doing you set Halloween Man in Texas, And it's so
(03:09):
interesting to me how people have this vision of Halloween
and it's always sort of a New englandy kind of thing,
and yet in your comic you completely capture the spirit
of Halloween and it's Texas set. So first of all,
tell let's just give it from the top. What is
Halloween Man? What is it? Who is it? And then
if you don't nail it in this question, I'm going
(03:30):
to come back and talk about the Texas set. Well.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
So, Halloween Man, this is the elevator pitch that I
give it conventions. Halloween Man is the weird adventures of
a zombie superhero and a sexy mad scientist's girlfriend. They
battle everything from Nazi vampires, the Headless Horseman, the Lucknus Monster,
creatures from the Black Lagoon, varitable ghosts and goblins, and
(03:59):
it's it's it's it's a graveyard smash. What can I say?
And that is a very you know, as I'm saying this,
it is an elevator pitch. So it's boiled down to
its most simplistic elements. If I were to get more
complex and sort of take a step back from it,
because Halloween Man has meant a lot of things personally
(04:21):
to me over the years, I would say Halloween Man
is it's a love story. It's a Beauty and the
Beast story. Halloween Man is about self acceptance. Halloween Man
is about monstrosity as humanism. So there is both the simplistic, pulpy,
(04:43):
campy way of looking at it, and then there's the
psychological journey that both me and these characters have been
on for for over two decades now.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
So how do you how do you think? Like, I've
read so many of these stories, and what first strikes
me is that that they are. They first of all
show a great awareness and fondness for like like the
classic eras of like Marvel comics, there's a lot of
there's a lot of you know, stan Lee and Jack
Kirby kind of infused in here. But at the same time, uh,
(05:20):
they're just they're very particularly yours because Halloween Man as
a hero is always dealing with just all kinds of
different demimons, you know, you know, people of different different underworlds,
different kinds of monsters, different outcasts. And but having said
all that, that makes it sound like it's a downer,
but it's actually It's the reason I mentioned Lean Kirby
(05:40):
is there's always this adventurous feeling of of of even
hope to them and I I it's difficult to ask
an artist to explain how they developed their style. But
but can you talk a little bit about where that
where that gulash comes from?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Geographic isolation.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
So, as you mentioned, I grew up in rural Texas
in an area called Possum Kingdom, which is a lake.
There is lots of little towns littered around the lake.
I grew up in one of the towns, and so
there wasn't a whole heck of a lot to do.
So one of the things, and this is how I
fell in love with comics, is I would I would
(06:23):
hang out at the local library until, you know, sometimes
all day and until the librarians would have to ask
me to leave, and I would read they had they
had taken all these old comic books and taken them
out of their binding and then had them hardbound, so
you could just go in there and read a bunch
of Lee Kirby Fantastic Four. You could go in there
(06:45):
and read a bunch of you know, old Batman from
like the nineteen thirties, and it was the coolest thing.
But the way I fell in love with comics was
actually reading old comics, which is which is strange because
I'm you know, I grew up in the nineteen eighties,
so you know, you you would think, you know, my
(07:05):
entry way to these characters would be sort of the
gym shooter era of Marvel, but instead I came in
as sort of a late blooming Silver age kid. And
you know, so when you talk about Lee and Kirby,
you know, the Lee Kirby Fantastic four in particular is
a huge just a huge influence on me, like I
(07:27):
can't even you know, like just you know, because I
was also, you know, like always fascinated by monsters. You know,
I was always renting with the old monster movies from
from the local video store, you know, my dad, and
you know, it was often taking me to the drive in,
and you know, I saw a lot of the you know,
(07:47):
eighties era because you know, the eighties had just a
glut of horror cinema as as most people listening to
this No, So I had this fascination with monsters, and
here was the souper hero team that were kind of
you know, not only did they fight giant monsters, you know,
like you had a character like the Mollman where you
(08:08):
know they're fighting basically Kaiju out of a Godzilla movie,
but you know, the characters were kind of weird in
the way their power their powers, it wasn't straightforward seeming,
the way Superman's powers were like there was kind of
like an uncomfortable level of body horror. Particularly I wouldn't
have phrased it like that as a child, obviously, but
(08:30):
you know, particularly with the Thing who he was the
only one whose powers couldn't turn off you know, he
wasn't the halt. There was never a point where Ben
Grimm turns back to to you know, you know, he's
he's always the Thing. And I loved that, you know,
like the Thing was just this character that I immediately.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Gravitated to.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
So when I came around to formulating my own superhero,
I kind of I wanted to take these different elements
of you know, first of all, like watching all these
old monster movies like Creature from the Black Lagoon and
King Kong and all that, where the monster always had
the die at the end. You know, that is the thing, like,
no matter what, and usually in the universal monsters, I mean,
(09:16):
with the exception of like Dracula, a monster was kind
of sympathetic. So you know, I just felt bad. So
I wanted a story where the monster was the hero,
the monster got the girl. But then also you know,
I wanted to take the thing to a more logical extreme,
like whereas the Thing looks like a monster, but you
know he's not exactly a monster, right, you know, so
(09:39):
you know with Halloween man, you know, he not only
does he look like a monster, he does monstrous things
and you know which is he He he eats other monsters.
So it's this also this idea of sort of you know,
because you watch a lot of horror movies, and you know,
sometimes I would watch them and I would feel bad,
Like as much as I love the mo I'd feel
(10:00):
bad for the people getting killed. So I was like, well,
you know, like, for example, you know, when I watched
the original It and and you know the mini series
of course, and you know, Georgie gets pulled into the
sewer by Tim Curry. You know, I'm thinking, well, you know,
that's terrible that this this clown is about to eat
this little boy. Well what if something came along and
(10:21):
ate him and put fear in him? So there was
all these different you know, you called it a goulash,
but that's that's perfectly apt, because it was all these
different sort of desires of you know, I wanted the
monster that get the girl, but I also wanted somebody
to defend the you know, to maybe put fear into
(10:41):
the monsters. And and then you know, you know, I
can't talk about this without talking about you know, the
car accident. But I was in a car accident that
killed you know, my twin, and so you know, there
was all this post traumatic stress in there as well.
So like it's it's kind of funny in a way
that you know, I have this character whose primary ability
(11:05):
is that it is resilience, Like no matter what you
do to him, he just pops back up like a
like a pro social Jason Vorhees. And you know, I
start that is kind of a perfect metaphor for you know,
how this comic book helped me survive, helped me get
through trauma, you know, by giving me something to focus
(11:26):
you know, my own feelings of otherness and my own
feelings of monstrosity into.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
You mentioned otherness. And you know, like I said, and
it just seems like such a big, such a big
theme to keep hitting because this monster who is also
a hero and is this loving relation in this loving
relationship in so many of the stories, he is called
upon to help people in a particular group, you know,
(11:52):
and I I the funny thing is, you know, you
live in Austin. I spend I spent about ten or
twelve years in Austin, and I remember all the different
all the different groups, all the different sort of you know,
the little worlds that you can enter in. You have
a great story. I don't know if it's in this
trade paperback, but that's in the whole leather movement, you know,
(12:13):
and there's the there's uh. I just I really love
his ability to be like a dark Philip Marlowe, to
just sort of move from from underworld to underworld ends
and be able to you know, to help to help
different people. It's cool. It's a it's a really neat
I mean. The funny thing is there's by by picking
(12:34):
a simple thing, he is a zombie superhero. You can
you could just grow and grow and grow into all
these different all these different stories. What do you think?
How how has your telling of the Halloween Man stories
changed over over the years, I mean, or has it?
Has it? As it?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
No?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
It definitely has because when we started putting together this omnibus,
you know, the first thing I had to do is
go back and look at all the original older stuff,
which in some ways was very hard for me because
it was sort of looking at my shortcomings as a
as a writer. And I would say the at least
(13:17):
the stories in this volume, and I'm not this isn't
necessarily me being critical, but you know, more the stories
in this volume are much more sort of a cull
Chack the night Stalker kind of Monster of the Week
kind of situation, whereas you know, there's a threat that's
(13:38):
set up and he goes in and he kind of
ghost busts the threat, and you know, because that's that's
for better or for worse. That's the kind of thing
it was because when it started out, it was a
web comic, and adventure web comics were rare, so like
that format was kind of the easiest thing to to follow.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
You know.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Definitely, as i've I look at what I've done more recently,
I mean, I'm quite proud of all of it, and
I'm quite proud that I've been able to keep it
alive this long. But I've definitely become more complicated as
a writer, as one does, and I think early on
I was not as conscious of the themes. I was
(14:24):
sort of being more instinctive because of my emotional state
at the time. Because when I wrote all these stories,
even though, as you said rightly so, these are fun stories,
it's not a drag to read. But when I wrote
through wrote most of the stories that are in this collection,
I was going through like a decade long depression. And
(14:47):
I mean, I'm not trying to sound melodramatic. I literally,
from nineteen ninety nine to probably about twenty ten, I
was either there was two modes of me. I was
either depressed or angry. And so that was probably the
other thing that was difficult about looking at these is
you know, that was such a you know in the
(15:08):
back of my mind of like, gosh, you know, I
was really hurting when I wrote this, and it would
bring it, it would bring it back up. But you know,
so now honestly, like I feel like when I hit
hopeful notes, it's it's more honest because when I was younger,
I was hoping for hope, but I didn't actually have any,
(15:28):
Like I didn't know that I was even going to
live to be thirty, you know, so you know, now,
you know it's weird. You know, I did an interview
last week where, you know, because I just had my
first child, and I literally did an interview last week
and somebody was asking, well, so are you going to
put a baby into the comic, And I was at
a point where I'm like, yeah, I could actually consider
(15:50):
doing that. And you know, just the act of having
a child in this world is kind of a hopeful
act because you're saying I think there might be a
world left for for whatever comes after me.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Does that change how you does it? Does having children?
A child? Does it change how you approach stories? By
which I mean you know, I know that that there
are ways that you approach, for instance, the end of
the world or something like torture or something like starvation
that might change after you have kids, because all of
(16:24):
a sudden it disturbs you more. You might want to
stay away from it, or if you're Stephen King, you
might want to lean into it more. Because King believes
that he superstitiously believes that if you say something terrible
that maybe it's less likely to happen.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I think I lend lean almost more towards the way
King views it, that you can sort of depower something.
But I mean the nature of a superhero comic is
to confront catastrophe. So like it's like as much as
this is a monster comic, and you know, by by
extension of horror comic, like these care characters, they're not
(17:01):
running away from trouble. They're running towards it, and they're
they're trying to make the world better than than what
they you know, how they found.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
It and by the way they're running towards it, they're
typically flying in an awesome coffin car. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
I love that thing, and that's literally a rip off
of the Stanley Jack Kirby fantastic that is like, yeah,
like I if you're going to steal, if you're going
to still from people, still from Jack Kirby, because like
you know, the given credit.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
I I I am.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
So I guess like I still I don't have a
problem writing violence, And in fact, some of the most
violent things I've ever written.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
I wrote after our little girl was born, you know.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Like so like it's I definitely haven't become more squeamish
since becoming a father. I think in terms of the
character of Halloween Man, you know, who is in a
lot of ways an extension of how he's not a
self ansert, like everybody always assumes he's a self insert
and he's more complicated than that. I think he's almost
(18:11):
me voicing my low self esteem. And I think when
I see that little girl looking up at me, and
she looks up at me and thinks, well, you know,
I can tell for right now she thinks I'm the
best man that ever lived, And so that makes me
feel like maybe because up until recently, I think every
(18:32):
future I ever imagined for Solomon was was sort of
days of future past. You know, something something bad, And
I think when I look at my daughter and I
see how she sees me in her eyes and she
doesn't see all the damage that because in all the
bad things that have happened to me, maybe I can
(18:55):
imagine a better world for my characters.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
So that in that way that I've changed. But I don't.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
I don't know that I will ever be squeamish about
bleak or violent material, because I think that's just too
like at the end of the day, I'm still the
fifteen year old, you know, splatterpunk kid who likes watching
Jason Vorhees murder Campers. So sure you know like you
(19:22):
know that, and that's too deeply ingrained into who into
who I am as well. So you know, I guess
the convoluted way around asking you this is I'm just
gonna have to find a way to oscillate all the
moods of Drew as a creative.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Well, I mean, what the funny thing is suddenly seeing
yourself through the eyes of somebody who's looking up at you.
You that in a way is the death of ego,
because suddenly, even though you're the artist and it's your
art that you're creating, you suddenly realize that you can
hate yourself as much as you want, but there are
other people who value you. It is you are obligated
(20:02):
to honor that value, which is a shocking and heavy
weight to suddenly have to carry.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
It absolutely is, and it's different than you know, because
I always known that my my wife values me. But
it's a different kind of thing because there's the innocence
of a child behind it, and you know, I it's weird,
you know, all the way, all of this is lined
up like Fatherhood in the twenty fifth anniversary of Halloween Man,
(20:31):
because it's almost perfect, because like it also keeps me
honest because like over you know, you talked about San
Diego Comic Con and going to San Diego Comic Con
in for four days. Everybody treats me like I'm a
rock star, but you know, I still have to come
home and change.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Diapers and you know, live a regular life.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
And regular life, and I don't know that I would
have it any other way, because I.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
You know, I've always prided myself on being kind of
a monster of the people. I guess, like I I
you know I I have you know, I was a
butcher for a long long time, you know I have.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
I have blue.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Collar working roots in a lot of ways, and I
try to look at my art kind of the same
way and that, you know, like I I, I don't
have this even though like I think, you know I
I I definitely have a rock and roll aspect of
the meat of me. I try not to look at
myself as like a rock star like creator like how
(21:34):
we might see, you know, like a Frank Miller or
a Grant Morrison. And I'm not saying that they have
big egos necessarily, I've never met either of them, but
you know that's their status in this field.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
I guess.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Yeah. Wow, Okay, I want to pivot before before we leave,
because uh so, ok, all right, Halloween Man, which which
you've been hearing about at least about the spirit and
about the work itself, very very cool comic and this
trade paperback is coming out September thirtieth, so this month.
But I wanted to ask you before we go about
(22:09):
the Matron. So the Matron also Texas set, so h
we actually talked about this in a conversation a couple
of months ago. But what's the status of the Matron
and and what are we going to see?
Speaker 3 (22:20):
So we are going to be launching our second kick
starter for volume two in in in November. So basically
the moment I'm done promoting Halloween Man, I'm going to
be gearing up the promote round two of The Matron. Thankfully,
with that, I have a whole team behind me. Like
(22:41):
it doesn't it does, Like like I have David and
you know, Monica and all that. But it's it's, you know,
it's it's kind of exciting to me to take this
into it because David and I have now planned this
out until it's all you know.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
It's it's it's very different because it's straight horror.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
It's not you know, it's not you know, it doesn't
have the super hero element at all.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Like it's it's it's just you know, for for people
who are horror.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Purists, I think The Matron is probably out of everything
I've done, it's it's probably going to be more their
cup of tea. Not that they shouldn't try Halloween man,
but you know, but it is, yeah, it is, it
is just straight horror. It's it's it's it's axe murder
for crying out loud. But I you know, the Texas
of it all, Like you mentioned that, and you mentioned
(23:28):
the Texas ties of Halloween Man. You know, I think
there is just something particularly spooky about Texas. Like I
I think Texas might be in running for the weirdest
state in the Union, if not the weirdest. Like I'm
sure you know there's like Florida or Ohio or Alaska
that could could could maybe get in there and compete
(23:49):
with us. But I mean, it's it's it's not the
Idaho Chainsaw massacre. You know, Like there's there's a particular
vibe about Texas that lends it self to creepiness.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
And you know.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
That's kind of what I was chasing in Halloween Man,
And that's definitely what we've leaned heavily in because you know, David,
as a co writer, is also deeply fascinated about Texas.
Although we're we're from different walks of life, you know, David,
you know is you know LATINX and you know he
brings that perspective to the table. And I'm more you
know rural hillbilly. You know that kind of thing. But
(24:28):
you know, we somehow come together and we make it,
you know, a particular cannibal stew that I think makes
it very interesting. So you know, I'm I've and we're
working on like a prequel. We're working on sequels, you know,
like the Matron could could if it continues to be successful,
and the first Kickstarter was successful. But if it continues
(24:50):
to be successful, you know, certainly the plan is to
spin it out until people are sick of it, because
you know, I mean, what's a good slasher without sequels?
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Yeah? No, ca wow, Okay, Yeah. I think I grew
up in the Texas hill country and I remember, even
though so much so much of Halloween took place in
New England, there was something wonderful about the fall in Texas,
and you know it it fit perfectly, you know, the
so much so that when when you get to like
(25:21):
Halloween four by the Way, which opens up and it
looks a lot like Texas because it's out in the countryside,
I was like, yeah, yeah, that's that's that's it. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
I have very vivid memories of driving through my hometown
and driving past farmland and suddenly they've taken their big
bail of hay and and spray painted a jackal interface
on it.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
So I love it.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Yeah, So like there is a particular flavor of sort
of southern Gothic Halloween that you do have in Texas
that is different than the New England Texas or the
New England Halloween, but it's still there. And you know,
I like, there's a phrase I've said a lot about writing.
(26:06):
I think the more specific you make something to a place, the.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
More relatable it actually is.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Because I think when you really zero in on you know,
what speaks to you about you know, where you grew up,
where you where you live, where what you know, I
think people will find the aspects of that that are
true about where they live. And you know, I really think,
I really think that's true. I mean, you know, like
(26:36):
one of my favorite bits of pop culture this is
a genre related, mind you, but my one of my
favorite bits of pop culture from like the last decade
is Letterkinny, which is a Canadian sitcom but it's set
in a small town. And even though it's set in Canada,
like the uniqueness of the small town really does make
me think on the small town that I grew up in.
(26:59):
So you know and that so again I go back
to that like, the more specific you make it, the
more related.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Absolutely absolutely, the more specific, the more people relate to it,
even if it's different than themselves. The person might not
be I'm just going to pick the first job that
jumps to mind, which is weird, but it may might
not be a school administrator. But if you if your
character is school administrator, and you get specific about that
person's pains on their job, the person everybody in the
(27:27):
audience will identify with it so much more than if
you're just generic. And and that's that's just that is
a secret to writing it is it is, it is
super important. So yes, I am so happy about the
Texas specificity of your horror and your heroes. So all right,
uh we should wrap up, but you know, look full
(27:48):
disclosure to the audience. You and I talked like once
a week anyway, at least, because not that's.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Not counting text chat like probably bump up.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
All the time. So you and I are actually constantly
in one another's conversations. But I am so delighted to
give a chance to shine a spotlight on on your work,
and I'm so thrilled. So it has been my honor
to know you and and to see you all continue.
Thank you, all right, so say good evening to Jamie
(28:19):
and that baby, and.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I will I will.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
I will do both of that, and we'll we're probably
gonna watch K Pop Demon Hunters like everybody else on
the planet now.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
So man, I'm going to watch Jaws.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
So yeah, that's that's always a good use.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
I'm telling you. When that one leg just sort of
flitters towards the the bottom of the ocean, everybody will cheer.
So okay, have a have a wonderful leaving. I'll talk
to you soon, to you later. Bye bye,
Hello, and welcome to Castle Talker. We talk to writers
and creators of today's genre worlds. I'm your host, Jason Henderson,
publisher at Castle Breach Media, home of the Castle of
Horror anthology series. Tonight we're chatting with Drew Edwards. Now.
Drew is the writer creator of Halloween Man, which is
a new trade paperback out later this month from Red
(00:29):
five Comics, distributed by Simon and Schuster. He is a
Best Writer Ringo nominee, Austin Chronicle Best of Austin Award winner,
and a member of the Penn America Fellowship and so
many more things. And I've hello, Drew, Howdy, howdy. Okay,
that was an introduction that I have done for you
really many times, except for this changed a little bit.
(00:50):
Halloween Man. You have been the master of Halloween Man
for a while, but this is the first time for
a mass market release. It's just this month, September thirtieth,
I think it comes Outtember.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Thirtieth is the release day.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yeah, right before Halloween. You can go to Simon and
Schuster dot com and there it is, which I was.
I was so proud because you and I have known
one another a long time. I was so proud to
see that on Simon and Schuster dot com. I was like, yes,
this is this is a real You just got back
from Comic Con where there was a big panel just
about Halloween Man with a good fill in the room.
So I feel like things are coming up drow.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
You know, it does seem that way.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
I feel like I am still very gobsmacked about the
whole thing. So like I have a I'm dealing with
lots of imposter syndrome, Like a lot of this stuff
is happening to somebody else because like my day to
day is very much the same, even that being on
(01:49):
like the Simon and Schuster you know, distribution system and everything.
Like I'm still having to you know, just today, like
I was going around to bookstores in Austin and dropping
off posters and stickers, and then I went to the
post office and I was dropping I was sending posters
out to comic bookshops across the country. So I'm still
(02:11):
doing all the you know, promotional stuff, just like if
it was an indie you know still but you know,
obviously there's a much bigger machine around it, and you
know that is.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
That is you know, it's a great joy.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
But it also is like, man, I you know this
is really you know, I'm I'm up to the plate now,
you know, like I better I better hit a homer
or I might get sent back to the farm leagues.
And you know which is weird. I keep making sports
analogies even though I don't really watch sports.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
No, but that that actually sounded I found that completely believable,
that understandable. All right, let's talk about Halloween Man. So
what's interesting to me is you've you're a Texan or yeah, no,
you're you're from Texas, right, You're from Poster. You've been
doing you set Halloween Man in Texas, And it's so
(03:09):
interesting to me how people have this vision of Halloween
and it's always sort of a New englandy kind of thing,
and yet in your comic you completely capture the spirit
of Halloween and it's Texas set. So first of all,
tell let's just give it from the top. What is
Halloween Man? What is it? Who is it? And then
if you don't nail it in this question, I'm going
(03:30):
to come back and talk about the Texas set. Well.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
So, Halloween Man, this is the elevator pitch that I
give it conventions. Halloween Man is the weird adventures of
a zombie superhero and a sexy mad scientist's girlfriend. They
battle everything from Nazi vampires, the Headless Horseman, the Lucknus Monster,
creatures from the Black Lagoon, varitable ghosts and goblins, and
(03:59):
it's it's it's it's a graveyard smash. What can I say?
And that is a very you know, as I'm saying this,
it is an elevator pitch. So it's boiled down to
its most simplistic elements. If I were to get more
complex and sort of take a step back from it,
because Halloween Man has meant a lot of things personally
(04:21):
to me over the years, I would say Halloween Man
is it's a love story. It's a Beauty and the
Beast story. Halloween Man is about self acceptance. Halloween Man
is about monstrosity as humanism. So there is both the simplistic, pulpy,
(04:43):
campy way of looking at it, and then there's the
psychological journey that both me and these characters have been
on for for over two decades now.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
So how do you how do you think? Like, I've
read so many of these stories, and what first strikes
me is that that they are. They first of all
show a great awareness and fondness for like like the
classic eras of like Marvel comics, there's a lot of
there's a lot of you know, stan Lee and Jack
Kirby kind of infused in here. But at the same time, uh,
(05:20):
they're just they're very particularly yours because Halloween Man as
a hero is always dealing with just all kinds of
different demimons, you know, you know, people of different different underworlds,
different kinds of monsters, different outcasts. And but having said
all that, that makes it sound like it's a downer,
but it's actually It's the reason I mentioned Lean Kirby
(05:40):
is there's always this adventurous feeling of of of even
hope to them and I I it's difficult to ask
an artist to explain how they developed their style. But
but can you talk a little bit about where that
where that gulash comes from?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Geographic isolation.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
So, as you mentioned, I grew up in rural Texas
in an area called Possum Kingdom, which is a lake.
There is lots of little towns littered around the lake.
I grew up in one of the towns, and so
there wasn't a whole heck of a lot to do.
So one of the things, and this is how I
fell in love with comics, is I would I would
(06:23):
hang out at the local library until, you know, sometimes
all day and until the librarians would have to ask
me to leave, and I would read they had they
had taken all these old comic books and taken them
out of their binding and then had them hardbound, so
you could just go in there and read a bunch
of Lee Kirby Fantastic Four. You could go in there
(06:45):
and read a bunch of you know, old Batman from
like the nineteen thirties, and it was the coolest thing.
But the way I fell in love with comics was
actually reading old comics, which is which is strange because
I'm you know, I grew up in the nineteen eighties,
so you know, you you would think, you know, my
(07:05):
entry way to these characters would be sort of the
gym shooter era of Marvel, but instead I came in
as sort of a late blooming Silver age kid. And
you know, so when you talk about Lee and Kirby,
you know, the Lee Kirby Fantastic four in particular is
a huge just a huge influence on me, like I
(07:27):
can't even you know, like just you know, because I
was also, you know, like always fascinated by monsters. You know,
I was always renting with the old monster movies from
from the local video store, you know, my dad, and
you know, it was often taking me to the drive in,
and you know, I saw a lot of the you know,
(07:47):
eighties era because you know, the eighties had just a
glut of horror cinema as as most people listening to
this No, So I had this fascination with monsters, and
here was the souper hero team that were kind of
you know, not only did they fight giant monsters, you know,
like you had a character like the Mollman where you
(08:08):
know they're fighting basically Kaiju out of a Godzilla movie,
but you know, the characters were kind of weird in
the way their power their powers, it wasn't straightforward seeming,
the way Superman's powers were like there was kind of
like an uncomfortable level of body horror. Particularly I wouldn't
have phrased it like that as a child, obviously, but
(08:30):
you know, particularly with the Thing who he was the
only one whose powers couldn't turn off you know, he
wasn't the halt. There was never a point where Ben
Grimm turns back to to you know, you know, he's
he's always the Thing. And I loved that, you know,
like the Thing was just this character that I immediately.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Gravitated to.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
So when I came around to formulating my own superhero,
I kind of I wanted to take these different elements
of you know, first of all, like watching all these
old monster movies like Creature from the Black Lagoon and
King Kong and all that, where the monster always had
the die at the end. You know, that is the thing, like,
no matter what, and usually in the universal monsters, I mean,
(09:16):
with the exception of like Dracula, a monster was kind
of sympathetic. So you know, I just felt bad. So
I wanted a story where the monster was the hero,
the monster got the girl. But then also you know,
I wanted to take the thing to a more logical extreme,
like whereas the Thing looks like a monster, but you
know he's not exactly a monster, right, you know, so
(09:39):
you know with Halloween man, you know, he not only
does he look like a monster, he does monstrous things
and you know which is he He he eats other monsters.
So it's this also this idea of sort of you know,
because you watch a lot of horror movies, and you know,
sometimes I would watch them and I would feel bad,
Like as much as I love the mo I'd feel
(10:00):
bad for the people getting killed. So I was like, well,
you know, like, for example, you know, when I watched
the original It and and you know the mini series
of course, and you know, Georgie gets pulled into the
sewer by Tim Curry. You know, I'm thinking, well, you know,
that's terrible that this this clown is about to eat
this little boy. Well what if something came along and
(10:21):
ate him and put fear in him? So there was
all these different you know, you called it a goulash,
but that's that's perfectly apt, because it was all these
different sort of desires of you know, I wanted the
monster that get the girl, but I also wanted somebody
to defend the you know, to maybe put fear into
(10:41):
the monsters. And and then you know, you know, I
can't talk about this without talking about you know, the
car accident. But I was in a car accident that
killed you know, my twin, and so you know, there
was all this post traumatic stress in there as well.
So like it's it's kind of funny in a way
that you know, I have this character whose primary ability
(11:05):
is that it is resilience, Like no matter what you
do to him, he just pops back up like a
like a pro social Jason Vorhees. And you know, I
start that is kind of a perfect metaphor for you know,
how this comic book helped me survive, helped me get
through trauma, you know, by giving me something to focus
(11:26):
you know, my own feelings of otherness and my own
feelings of monstrosity into.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
You mentioned otherness. And you know, like I said, and
it just seems like such a big, such a big
theme to keep hitting because this monster who is also
a hero and is this loving relation in this loving
relationship in so many of the stories, he is called
upon to help people in a particular group, you know,
(11:52):
and I I the funny thing is, you know, you
live in Austin. I spend I spent about ten or
twelve years in Austin, and I remember all the different
all the different groups, all the different sort of you know,
the little worlds that you can enter in. You have
a great story. I don't know if it's in this
trade paperback, but that's in the whole leather movement, you know,
(12:13):
and there's the there's uh. I just I really love
his ability to be like a dark Philip Marlowe, to
just sort of move from from underworld to underworld ends
and be able to you know, to help to help
different people. It's cool. It's a it's a really neat
I mean. The funny thing is there's by by picking
(12:34):
a simple thing, he is a zombie superhero. You can
you could just grow and grow and grow into all
these different all these different stories. What do you think?
How how has your telling of the Halloween Man stories
changed over over the years, I mean, or has it?
Has it? As it?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
No?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
It definitely has because when we started putting together this omnibus,
you know, the first thing I had to do is
go back and look at all the original older stuff,
which in some ways was very hard for me because
it was sort of looking at my shortcomings as a
as a writer. And I would say the at least
(13:17):
the stories in this volume, and I'm not this isn't
necessarily me being critical, but you know, more the stories
in this volume are much more sort of a cull
Chack the night Stalker kind of Monster of the Week
kind of situation, whereas you know, there's a threat that's
(13:38):
set up and he goes in and he kind of
ghost busts the threat, and you know, because that's that's
for better or for worse. That's the kind of thing
it was because when it started out, it was a
web comic, and adventure web comics were rare, so like
that format was kind of the easiest thing to to follow.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
You know.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Definitely, as i've I look at what I've done more recently,
I mean, I'm quite proud of all of it, and
I'm quite proud that I've been able to keep it
alive this long. But I've definitely become more complicated as
a writer, as one does, and I think early on
I was not as conscious of the themes. I was
(14:24):
sort of being more instinctive because of my emotional state
at the time. Because when I wrote all these stories,
even though, as you said rightly so, these are fun stories,
it's not a drag to read. But when I wrote
through wrote most of the stories that are in this collection,
I was going through like a decade long depression. And
(14:47):
I mean, I'm not trying to sound melodramatic. I literally,
from nineteen ninety nine to probably about twenty ten, I
was either there was two modes of me. I was
either depressed or angry. And so that was probably the
other thing that was difficult about looking at these is
you know, that was such a you know in the
(15:08):
back of my mind of like, gosh, you know, I
was really hurting when I wrote this, and it would
bring it, it would bring it back up. But you know,
so now honestly, like I feel like when I hit
hopeful notes, it's it's more honest because when I was younger,
I was hoping for hope, but I didn't actually have any,
(15:28):
Like I didn't know that I was even going to
live to be thirty, you know, so you know, now,
you know it's weird. You know, I did an interview
last week where, you know, because I just had my
first child, and I literally did an interview last week
and somebody was asking, well, so are you going to
put a baby into the comic, And I was at
a point where I'm like, yeah, I could actually consider
(15:50):
doing that. And you know, just the act of having
a child in this world is kind of a hopeful
act because you're saying I think there might be a
world left for for whatever comes after me.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Does that change how you does it? Does having children?
A child? Does it change how you approach stories? By
which I mean you know, I know that that there
are ways that you approach, for instance, the end of
the world or something like torture or something like starvation
that might change after you have kids, because all of
(16:24):
a sudden it disturbs you more. You might want to
stay away from it, or if you're Stephen King, you
might want to lean into it more. Because King believes
that he superstitiously believes that if you say something terrible
that maybe it's less likely to happen.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I think I lend lean almost more towards the way
King views it, that you can sort of depower something.
But I mean the nature of a superhero comic is
to confront catastrophe. So like it's like as much as
this is a monster comic, and you know, by by
extension of horror comic, like these care characters, they're not
(17:01):
running away from trouble. They're running towards it, and they're
they're trying to make the world better than than what
they you know, how they found.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
It and by the way they're running towards it, they're
typically flying in an awesome coffin car. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
I love that thing, and that's literally a rip off
of the Stanley Jack Kirby fantastic that is like, yeah,
like I if you're going to steal, if you're going
to still from people, still from Jack Kirby, because like
you know, the given credit.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
I I I am.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
So I guess like I still I don't have a
problem writing violence, And in fact, some of the most
violent things I've ever written.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
I wrote after our little girl was born, you know.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Like so like it's I definitely haven't become more squeamish
since becoming a father. I think in terms of the
character of Halloween Man, you know, who is in a
lot of ways an extension of how he's not a
self ansert, like everybody always assumes he's a self insert
and he's more complicated than that. I think he's almost
(18:11):
me voicing my low self esteem. And I think when
I see that little girl looking up at me, and
she looks up at me and thinks, well, you know,
I can tell for right now she thinks I'm the
best man that ever lived, And so that makes me
feel like maybe because up until recently, I think every
(18:32):
future I ever imagined for Solomon was was sort of
days of future past. You know, something something bad, And
I think when I look at my daughter and I
see how she sees me in her eyes and she
doesn't see all the damage that because in all the
bad things that have happened to me, maybe I can
(18:55):
imagine a better world for my characters.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
So that in that way that I've changed. But I don't.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
I don't know that I will ever be squeamish about
bleak or violent material, because I think that's just too
like at the end of the day, I'm still the
fifteen year old, you know, splatterpunk kid who likes watching
Jason Vorhees murder Campers. So sure you know like you
(19:22):
know that, and that's too deeply ingrained into who into
who I am as well. So you know, I guess
the convoluted way around asking you this is I'm just
gonna have to find a way to oscillate all the
moods of Drew as a creative.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Well, I mean, what the funny thing is suddenly seeing
yourself through the eyes of somebody who's looking up at you.
You that in a way is the death of ego,
because suddenly, even though you're the artist and it's your
art that you're creating, you suddenly realize that you can
hate yourself as much as you want, but there are
other people who value you. It is you are obligated
(20:02):
to honor that value, which is a shocking and heavy
weight to suddenly have to carry.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
It absolutely is, and it's different than you know, because
I always known that my my wife values me. But
it's a different kind of thing because there's the innocence
of a child behind it, and you know, I it's weird,
you know, all the way, all of this is lined
up like Fatherhood in the twenty fifth anniversary of Halloween Man,
(20:31):
because it's almost perfect, because like it also keeps me
honest because like over you know, you talked about San
Diego Comic Con and going to San Diego Comic Con
in for four days. Everybody treats me like I'm a
rock star, but you know, I still have to come
home and change.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Diapers and you know, live a regular life.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
And regular life, and I don't know that I would
have it any other way, because I.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
You know, I've always prided myself on being kind of
a monster of the people. I guess, like I I
you know I I have you know, I was a
butcher for a long long time, you know I have.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
I have blue.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Collar working roots in a lot of ways, and I
try to look at my art kind of the same
way and that, you know, like I I, I don't
have this even though like I think, you know I
I I definitely have a rock and roll aspect of
the meat of me. I try not to look at
myself as like a rock star like creator like how
(21:34):
we might see, you know, like a Frank Miller or
a Grant Morrison. And I'm not saying that they have
big egos necessarily, I've never met either of them, but
you know that's their status in this field.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
I guess.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Yeah. Wow, Okay, I want to pivot before before we leave,
because uh so, ok, all right, Halloween Man, which which
you've been hearing about at least about the spirit and
about the work itself, very very cool comic and this
trade paperback is coming out September thirtieth, so this month.
But I wanted to ask you before we go about
(22:09):
the Matron. So the Matron also Texas set, so h
we actually talked about this in a conversation a couple
of months ago. But what's the status of the Matron
and and what are we going to see?
Speaker 3 (22:20):
So we are going to be launching our second kick
starter for volume two in in in November. So basically
the moment I'm done promoting Halloween Man, I'm going to
be gearing up the promote round two of The Matron. Thankfully,
with that, I have a whole team behind me. Like
(22:41):
it doesn't it does, Like like I have David and
you know, Monica and all that. But it's it's, you know,
it's it's kind of exciting to me to take this
into it because David and I have now planned this
out until it's all you know.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
It's it's it's very different because it's straight horror.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
It's not you know, it's not you know, it doesn't
have the super hero element at all.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Like it's it's it's just you know, for for people
who are horror.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Purists, I think The Matron is probably out of everything
I've done, it's it's probably going to be more their
cup of tea. Not that they shouldn't try Halloween man,
but you know, but it is, yeah, it is, it
is just straight horror. It's it's it's it's axe murder
for crying out loud. But I you know, the Texas
of it all, Like you mentioned that, and you mentioned
(23:28):
the Texas ties of Halloween Man. You know, I think
there is just something particularly spooky about Texas. Like I
I think Texas might be in running for the weirdest
state in the Union, if not the weirdest. Like I'm
sure you know there's like Florida or Ohio or Alaska
that could could could maybe get in there and compete
(23:49):
with us. But I mean, it's it's it's not the
Idaho Chainsaw massacre. You know, Like there's there's a particular
vibe about Texas that lends it self to creepiness.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
And you know.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
That's kind of what I was chasing in Halloween Man,
And that's definitely what we've leaned heavily in because you know, David,
as a co writer, is also deeply fascinated about Texas.
Although we're we're from different walks of life, you know, David,
you know is you know LATINX and you know he
brings that perspective to the table. And I'm more you
know rural hillbilly. You know that kind of thing. But
(24:28):
you know, we somehow come together and we make it,
you know, a particular cannibal stew that I think makes
it very interesting. So you know, I'm I've and we're
working on like a prequel. We're working on sequels, you know,
like the Matron could could if it continues to be successful,
and the first Kickstarter was successful. But if it continues
(24:50):
to be successful, you know, certainly the plan is to
spin it out until people are sick of it, because
you know, I mean, what's a good slasher without sequels?
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Yeah? No, ca wow, Okay, Yeah. I think I grew
up in the Texas hill country and I remember, even
though so much so much of Halloween took place in
New England, there was something wonderful about the fall in Texas,
and you know it it fit perfectly, you know, the
so much so that when when you get to like
(25:21):
Halloween four by the Way, which opens up and it
looks a lot like Texas because it's out in the countryside,
I was like, yeah, yeah, that's that's that's it. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
I have very vivid memories of driving through my hometown
and driving past farmland and suddenly they've taken their big
bail of hay and and spray painted a jackal interface
on it.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
So I love it.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Yeah, So like there is a particular flavor of sort
of southern Gothic Halloween that you do have in Texas
that is different than the New England Texas or the
New England Halloween, but it's still there. And you know,
I like, there's a phrase I've said a lot about writing.
(26:06):
I think the more specific you make something to a place, the.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
More relatable it actually is.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Because I think when you really zero in on you know,
what speaks to you about you know, where you grew up,
where you where you live, where what you know, I
think people will find the aspects of that that are
true about where they live. And you know, I really think,
I really think that's true. I mean, you know, like
(26:36):
one of my favorite bits of pop culture this is
a genre related, mind you, but my one of my
favorite bits of pop culture from like the last decade
is Letterkinny, which is a Canadian sitcom but it's set
in a small town. And even though it's set in Canada,
like the uniqueness of the small town really does make
me think on the small town that I grew up in.
(26:59):
So you know and that so again I go back
to that like, the more specific you make it, the
more related.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Absolutely absolutely, the more specific, the more people relate to it,
even if it's different than themselves. The person might not
be I'm just going to pick the first job that
jumps to mind, which is weird, but it may might
not be a school administrator. But if you if your
character is school administrator, and you get specific about that
person's pains on their job, the person everybody in the
(27:27):
audience will identify with it so much more than if
you're just generic. And and that's that's just that is
a secret to writing it is it is, it is
super important. So yes, I am so happy about the
Texas specificity of your horror and your heroes. So all right,
uh we should wrap up, but you know, look full
(27:48):
disclosure to the audience. You and I talked like once
a week anyway, at least, because not that's.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Not counting text chat like probably bump up.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
All the time. So you and I are actually constantly
in one another's conversations. But I am so delighted to
give a chance to shine a spotlight on on your work,
and I'm so thrilled. So it has been my honor
to know you and and to see you all continue.
Thank you, all right, so say good evening to Jamie
(28:19):
and that baby, and.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I will I will.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
I will do both of that, and we'll we're probably
gonna watch K Pop Demon Hunters like everybody else on
the planet now.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
So man, I'm going to watch Jaws.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
So yeah, that's that's always a good use.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
I'm telling you. When that one leg just sort of
flitters towards the the bottom of the ocean, everybody will cheer.
So okay, have a have a wonderful leaving. I'll talk
to you soon, to you later. Bye bye,
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.