Tag: screamandmisty

The most spooktacular time of the year is nearly upon us again, which means it’s time for the Halloween Horrors of two of Britain’s best-loved comics of the ’80s to return to haunt us – it’s the SCREAM! & MISTY SPECIAL 2018!

Featuring a petrifyingly perfect cover by Kyle Hotz and a 2000 AD webshop exclusive creeptacular cover by Lenka Šimecková, the comic is out now in print and digiral!

Inside you’ll find tales to terrify and stories to scare you stiff, including the return of The Thirteenth Floor by Guy Adams, John Stokes, and Frazer Irving, undead WWI pilot Black Max by Kek-W and Simon Coleby, Black Beth by Alec Worley and DaNi, and Best Friends Forever by Lizzie Boyle and Yishan Li.

Decomposition Jones is a new horrific mash-up of zombie/vampire DNA by Richard McAuliffe and Steve Mannion. But what’s it all about? Richard Bruton braves the horrors to save you the scares!

So far, all I’ve heard of this one is that Decomposition Jones is a horror mash-up of zombie and vampire DNA…

Richard McAuliffe: I know! How awesome is that? What more do you want out of a comic? Sex and violence? We got that too.

Steve Mannion: Yep… A Zombie Vampire!!

Ok then, aside from the whole zombie vampire thing, what’s Decomposition Jones all about?

RM: Well as I mentioned earlier, this six-pager is basically the character’s secret origin showing how he went from being a smooth talking, ass kicking ’70s cop to something even more badass and, as you’d expect from this comic, horrific. It’s a fun character and the whole ’70s movie world was an awesome playground so I for one would love the chance to tell at least one of his adventures now we’ve established who and what he is. I already know who I’d like to have him take down first so fingers crossed we get the chance at some point down the line. Failing that I’ll just be the first person to ever sit at home writing fan fiction for one of his own stories.

SM: Basically, it’s Decomposition Jones’ origin story real quick-like. It’s got a great ’70s vibe with all the cop show influences that I grew up with.

What brought the pair of you together to work on this one?

RM: I’m guessing in a previous life I did something really, really good! (It wasn’t in this life that’s for sure). This was all written and locked down before Mr Mannion was brought onboard by the all-powerful Ghastly McNasty and for me it was just a kickass bonus when I found out he’d be drawing this. Actually it was probably for the best I was unaware he’d be involved as I’m a HUGE fan of Steve’s Fearless Dawn comic. If I’d known he was gonna do it I probably would have crumbled under performance anxiety pressure.

The editor, Ghastly, apparently read and enjoyed story I’d done for a recent Zarjaz. Off the back of that he told me about a character he had in mind for the Scream! & Misty Special and gave me a shot at writing an origin story. I sent in a submission expecting to get a “nice try but we’re gonna go with something else” reply but somehow what I sent seemed to match what they were looking for and here we are. Most of the stuff I’ve done before has either been full on horror or comedy so this and my love of VHS era B-movies worked out as a good fit as they wanted something a bit different.

SM: [Editor] Keith [Richardson] just got a hold of me and sent over the script after I said…”Heck Yeah! I’ll draw this thing!!!. I didn’t know it was Richard who wrote it. Just started drawing it, you know?

Do either of you have any memories of either Scream! or Misty from the first time around?

RM: I had the entire Scream! run back in the day but as this was prior to my discovery of alcohol my memory of it is more than a little fuzzy. I remember being a big fan and being gutted that it ended so quickly and, from memory, without any notice. I was and still am a big 2000 AD fan but to be honest I’ve always been more horror than sci-fi so this felt more like it was being made just for me.

Despite being a girls comic so therefore “icky” and to be avoided as a young boy in the ’70s I do actually have a vivid Misty memory. I was staying with an aunt and uncle who had daughters and out of boredom I pulled a Misty annual off the bookshelf and read it. I remember being surprised it had cool ghost stories and wasn’t just about ballerinas and ponies and immediately grabbed another annual off the shelf. Sadly this one was about ponies and ballerinas and crushing depression (seriously, read some ’70s girls comics, they’re brutal) so my childhood flirtation with girls comics came to a sudden end. Did read the recent Misty reprints though and loved them.

SM: I’m an old yank. I didn’t hear nothing!

What is it about both comics that fills both readers and creators with both nostalgia and a desire to see both new versions of the classic strips from the comics and new strips with a Misty/Scream! vibe?

RM: I can’t really speak for Misty but with Scream! the fact it was a proper horror comic when nobody else was doing one made it seem very cool and almost like you were getting away with something by reading it. It only had a short run but now looking back that kinda makes it even cooler as it’s nice to imagine it was SO awesome and horrific they had to take it off the shelves. I like to think Mary Whitehouse hated it and parents were outraged their kids were being exposed to such horrors. For me at least if a comic isn’t slightly offending the old farts, of which I’m now sadly one, then it’s doing something wrong so I was really happy to see the Scream! & Misty Special appear last year and am, as you’d expect, even more excited about this one. I don’t know what it is about nostalgia that gives you such a warm and fuzzy but as I’m typing this with Kings of the Wild Frontier playing in the background I will say it works.

SM: I wasn’t familiar with Scream! and Misty but I can say that I googled it when I found out I got the drawing job. It seems as though folks are psyched to see Scream! and Misty again… and that’s cool!

What is it that makes something a Scream! or Misty strip, as opposed to, say, a 2000 AD Terror Tale? And would you say Decomposition Jones is more Scream! or Misty?

RM: Terror Tales tend to have a bit of sci-fi to them and would work in any modern comic anthology. For me, Scream! and Misty stories have to feel a bit like you should adjust the video tracking to read them properly and I thought last year’s edition really managed to capture that ’70s/’80s feel brilliantly. I’d say Decomposition Jones is definitely more Scream! than Misty with a bit of ’70s Marvel Comics horror and a dash of grindhouse cinema thrown in for good measure. Misty stories seem to me to be a bit more subtle and this is anything but subtle!

With Rebellion now having access to the entire Egmont and IPC archive, are there any strips, whether Scream!, Misty, or anything else in the archives that you’d absolutely love to have a go at in future?

RM: My first comic love as a kid was Monster Fun so I’d absolutely love the chance to play with some of those characters either as straight kids’ stories or to take the premise of a something like Creature Teacher or Martha’s Monster Makeup and go really dark and nasty with them. Make a Monster Fun comic aimed at the age the original readers are now as if the original stories were the watered down fairy tale versions for kids. Can you imagine what an artist like Leigh Gallagher could do with that type of story?

For both of you, this is your first 2000 AD related work. What does that mean to you?

SM: Yes, Decomposition Jones was my first work with 2000 AD. Honestly, it was a joy to get the call because years ago, probably 1996, I had sent some stuff in and got rejected. It was a nice rejection though! Anytime this type of thing happens to an artist, you know…it feels good. Got accepted!

RM: I was a ’70s kid who grew up on this stuff. As such it’s a total bucket list situation and being paired up with one of my favourite comic creators has been an absolute dream come true. If this does turn out to be my only mainstream comic work I couldn’t have asked for anything cooler. It’s the type of fun story I love in the actual, official Scream! comic with Steve Mannion! This is my first go in the big leagues. Prior to this I did an original graphic novel of horror stories for Markosia called Damaged Goods and a load of small press stuff.

The 2018 Scream! & Misty Special is out now!

The most spooktacular time of the year is nearly upon us again, which means it’s time for the Halloween Horrors of two of Britain’s best-loved comics of the ’80s to return to haunt us – it’s the SCREAM! & MISTY SPECIAL 2018!

Featuring a petrifyingly perfect cover by Kyle Hotz and a 2000 AD webshop exclusive creeptacular cover by Lenka Šimecková, the comic is out now in print and digital!

Inside you’ll find tales to terrify and stories to scare you stiff, including the return of The Thirteenth Floor by Guy Adams, John Stokes, and Frazer Irving, Black Beth by Alec Worley and DaNi, Best Friends Forever by Lizzie Boyle and Yishan Li, and Decomposition Jones, a brand-new horrific mash-up of zombie/vampire DNA by Richard McAuliffe and Steve Mannion.

Today, we chat quickly to artist Simon Coleby about Black Max as well as his love of all things batty and biplaney!

This is your second outing for Black Max, the German World War One fighter pilot descended from a race of bat-people. It’s one of those strips that so many readers remember fondly, all biplanes and giant bats. With the Scream & Misty Special last year you showed us Black Max in limbo, with a young girl dreaming of the sound of giant, beating wings who has the chance to free Max. What is it about the character and the set-up that brought you back to it this year, and would you fancy bringing Black Max back for more than just this annual appearance? Is there a series you have in mind?

Simon Coleby: Black Max is such a gloriously gothic character, he’s a joy to draw! Kek’s script, last time, was wonderful, so I was delighted to have the opportunity to take the story a little further. I feel there’s a nice balance and contrast between the contemporary, dismissive, fiery attitude of Maxine and the fierceness and anger of Max himself. Kek is superb at telling a story while subtly opening up the potential for future tales, so I’d be hugely keen to do more with the story if the opportunity arises. I feel I’m just getting to know the characters, and I’d love to know them a lot better. We’ll see…

The original stories had superb art, and evoked a wonderful, gritty atmosphere. It’s a creative challenge and a lot of fun to try and retain the essence of that work while taking it a little further and pushing the fundamentals of that story in a more current direction. The stories in Thunder and Lion were a superb foundation and I’d like to hope that Kek and I have begun to build something enjoyable and worthwhile upon that.

Have any of you got any strips from Scream! or Misty that you’d absolutely love to have a go at in future if we get another special? Or more generally, given that Rebellion have access to the entire Egmont and IPC archive, If you could bring back something (strip, character, comic) what would it be and why?

SC: Clearly the archive of work, newly available to Rebellion, is vast! In all honesty, I haven’t fully got to grips with all the characters and stories which are now part of their catalogue, but the potential for new stories appears to be enormous. There are obvious stories which would be fun to explore, such as The Steel Claw. I’ve always wanted to draw a real horror story, as I feel that’s something which would suit my art style very well. I wonder if there’s something in the new catalogue which might suit that ambition. I don’t know if it’s viable, but it’s something I’d like to explore.

What do you have coming up next?

SC: I’m currently drawing the next instalment of a story for 2000 AD but it hasn’t been announced yet, so I probably shouldn’t say what it is. (Stak!)

The 2018 Scream! & Misty Special is out now!

The most spooktacular time of the year is nearly upon us again, which means it’s time for the Halloween Horrors of two of Britain’s best-loved comics of the ’80s to return to haunt us – it’s the SCREAM! & MISTY SPECIAL 2018!

Featuring a petrifyingly perfect cover by Kyle Hotz and a 2000 AD webshop exclusive creeptacular cover by Lenka Šimecková, the comic is out now in print and digiral!

Inside you’ll find tales to terrify and stories to scare you stiff, including the return of The Thirteenth Floor by Guy Adams, John Stokes, and Frazer Irving, undead WWI pilot Black Max by Kek-W and Simon Coleby, Black Beth by Alec Worley and DaNi, Best Friends Forever by Lizzie Boyle and Yishan Li, and Decomposition Jones, a brand-new horrific mash-up of zombie/vampire DNA by Richard McAuliffe and Steve Mannion.

Amongst the tales to terrify, you’ll find a new strip, Black Beth, by the returning writer and artist team of Alec Worley and DaNi. Richard Bruton caught up with Alec Worley to talk terror…!

You did ‘Fate of the Fairy Hunter’ in last year’s Scream! & Misty Special and here you’re writing Black Beth. Is it a new character or something from Scream! or Misty?

ALEC WORLEY: Black Beth’s actually an old strip, albeit an obscure one… She first appeared in the 1988 Scream! Holiday Special! Oddly for a Scream! strip, Black Beth wasn’t horror, more a sword opera with occult overtones. She’s this self-made knight on a quest to punish evildoers with the aid of her blind hunchback sidekick Quido. Think The Punisher meets Red Sonja meets MacBeth!

I picked up that Holiday Special at an age when I was beginning to fall so very deeply in love with Warhammer, Fighting Fantasy, Conan, Hawk the Slayer, etc. and would obsess over any scrap of sword and sorcery I could get my hands on. When I heard there was to be a second Scream!/Misty book, I begged Keith Richardson to let me pitch him a Black Beth story with Dani…

The original strip’s actually got a cool bit of back story: it was created in the early 1970s for another IPC title (also called ‘Scream’). The identity of the writer appears to have been lost, but the artist was Spanish illustrator Blas Gallego, who was working on movie adaptations for House of Hammer at the time (and to whom I reached out while researching the pitch; an absolute gentleman!) But the comic got canned before issue one saw print and so Black Beth ended up in a drawer for over ten years! She eventually got exhumed by the Scream! editors looking for material to fill up the specials.

How do you go about creating something that has that perfectly nostalgic feel of former Scream! or Misty strips?

AW: Nostalgia is its own special poison, I think. But we did want to tap into that vintage Scream! magic – and further back to things like Warren’s Creepy and Eerie, and Marvel’s Savage Sword of Conan books. Break down what made those things work and play those same techniques but for a modern readership. Those stories are not self-aware like so many strips today. They’re not tied down by any kind of dialogue with the readership beyond telling a thrilling adventure story. So we dared to be unhip! We didn’t have much room on this one, but we really wanted to tell the kind of story that just transports you, the way fantasy comics, books, and movies do when you’re eight years old. And you simply can’t engage a reader in that way if you’re constantly cracking jokes about how dumb it all is, or having the characters rolling their eyes at the tropes of their own adventures.

We tweaked the original concept in a few ways. The Scream!/Misty specials are for a YA audience (or so I’m told), so we made Quido more of a hunk and Beth slightly younger (we based her on a young Barbara Steele). Dani wanted to do an original design for Moldred the witch, and came up with something more original and feral with all these gorgeous textures. I’ve worked with Dani twice now and hope to do so again. She’s a consummate pro, and a badass to boot!

Do you have any fond memories of either Scream! or Misty the first time around?

AW: Misty was a little before my time, but Scream! was my 2000 AD! I was at that age when I loved horror, but was too young to watch anything scarier than Boris Karloff. But Scream! was inventive enough to deliver the scares you were after without resorting to gore. Re-reading the back issues, it’s amazing just how clever and inventive many of those stories are.

What is it about both comics that fills both readers and creators with both nostalgia and a desire to see both new versions of the classic strips from the comics and new strips with a Misty/Scream! vibe?

AW: For me, this Black Beth had to be new and forward-looking, a fresh take on an old concept. This had to be primarily for new readers. The core concepts are what make these old stories work and to get the best out of those concepts they need to be plugged into a modern context by creators with a grasp of modern storytelling and keen to communicate with a modern readership.

I’ll be honest, I’m sick to death of nostalgia. Sick. Sick. Sick. From Stranger Things to Ready Player One. I’m bored out of my freaking skull by all of it. “B-b-but, what about my childhood?” Your childhood’s gone! It’s over! Let it go! Grow up! Move on. Develop. Progress. Crave and champion the new, the innovative – with the same imaginative hunger you had as a kid! That doesn’t mean you can’t revisit the past, but do it to say something new about the present! Stories have to be about more than just an exercise in spot-the-reference fan service! You’re supposed to be telling a story, not posting a bunch of memes!

With this second volume of Scream! & Misty there are fewer strips returning from the classic comics and more all-new series. For those of you who’ve delivered new strips, what is it that makes something a Scream or Misty strip, as opposed to, say, a 2000 AD Terror Tale?

AW: With a Terror Tale for 2000 AD, you can afford to be more adult and graphic (certainly today), whereas Scream! and Misty were first and foremost books for children (or young adults in Misty’s case). But that age restriction ended up becoming a creative constraint for the editors and creators, forcing them to be more inventive and find more engaging strategies to spook the readers, rather than just going for the gore or nasty twists.

Maybe it was all that spidery black and white art by geniuses like José Ortiz, but Scream! always struck me as distinctly gnarly. Like so much British horror and fantasy, it was full of grotesquery, unlike the American stuff, which always felt more slick. Misty, on the other hand, felt more refined, eloquent and dreamy, like a big sister who was really into Kate Bush!

Have any of you got any strips from Scream! or Misty that you’d absolutely love to have a go at in future if we get another special? Or more generally, given that Rebellion have access to the entire Egmont and IPC archive, If you could bring back something (strip, character, comic) what would it be and why?

AW: There’s plenty of Scream! tales I’d like to take a crack at, but Black Beth was my favourite. So I’ve already hit the jackpot in writing her, as well as working with Dani again. We’d love to bring the character back for a longer adventure sometime soon…

The 2018 Scream! & Misty Special is out now!

Well, the most spooktacular time of the year is nearly upon us again, which means it’s time for the Halloween Horrors of two of Britain’s best-loved comics of the ’80s to return to haunt us – it’s the SCREAM! & MISTY SPECIAL 2018!

Featuring a petrifyingly perfect cover by Kyle Hotz and a 2000 AD webshop exclusive creeptacular cover by Lenka Šimecková, the comic is out now in print and digital!

Inside you’ll find tales to terrify and stories to scare you stiff, including the return of undead WWI pilot Black Max by Kek-W and Simon Coleby, Black Beth by Alec Worley and DaNi, Best Friends Forever by Lizzie Boyle and Yishan Li, and Decomposition Jones, a brand-new horrific mash-up of zombie/vampire DNA by Richard McAuliffe and Steve Mannion.

Today, Richard Bruton talks to two-thirds of the amazing team behind the return of the computer who cares far too much as we journey back to Maxwell Tower with The Thirteenth Floor, somewhere you really don’t want to end up…!

The Thirteenth Floor led 2017’s Scream! & Misty Special with a new tale of the tower block controlled by Max the computer, sending vile visitors and repugnant residents off to the nightmarish thirteenth floor, where they’ll find their comeuppance waiting for them. We’ve also seen the publication of the classic The Thirteenth Floor series written by John Wagner and Alan Grant, drawn by Jose Ortiz.

In the revamp, we saw a damaged Maxwell Tower with a dormant Max just waiting for the right moment to bring back his thirteenth floor judgment. That came when a young resident seeks sanctuary, running from a local gang of nasties, and accidentally reactivates Max, who does the thing he does so well and sends the gang off to the thirteenth floor to learn the error of their ways!

What do we have to look forward to on The Thirteenth Floor this year?

GUY ADAMS: The story continues, though hopefully in a manner that won’t completely throw any new readers. We introduce someone who may get in the way of Sam and Max, because it’s actually rather hard to pick people off and not have the law notice.

(COUGHS AWKWARDLY)

Or so I’m lead to believe.

FRAZER IRVING: Cops and choppers!

You could say that the premise for The Thirteenth Floor, like so many of the strips of the time, is incredibly limited but would you like the chance to run The Thirteenth Floor for longer, maybe reintroducing it in the pages of the Megazine, or, who knows, some future new comic featuring these classic strips? And, if so, have you already thought of the way forward for yourselves, for Max, and for the residents of Maxwell Tower?

GA: Thirteenth Floor is the story of an affable serial killer, really. Dress it up as a morality play all you like, have the reader egg the psychotic nightmares on, but it’s still a nuts computer and — in our, modern version — a disturbed kid breaking people they don’t like (because, yes, fine, they don’t necessarily KILL their victims but that’s not always a blessing if you break someone viciously enough). That grey area of storytelling interests me and I think it’s what would give the story legs as a longer whole.

Honestly? From the word go I came at this assuming it could be something longer. I enjoy playing with form and what I’ve done so far is write two capsule stories that could be read independently, or as one longer piece, or… and this is the really fun bit… as a set up for a continuing story. To do that and still deliver a satisfying experience is the trick and hopefully we’ve pulled that off.

FI: There should be a regular The Thirteenth Floor strip, it’s got way more legs now than it did back in the day.

Artistically, with both John and Frazer on board once more, we’re assuming you’re going for the same brilliant artistic look of the first tale last year. Having John cover the ‘normal’ events in the tower block in b&w, harking back to the look of the original, and then having Frazer go full-colour and over the top, full-blown nightmare vision, of the vistas on the The Thirteenth Floor, was a brilliant touch, something that definitely improves upon the original. Who first came up with the idea to get two very different looks for the strip?

GA: It was the editor of the special, Keith Richardson. When I was commissioned, John was already on board — and I couldn’t have been more thrilled — and Keith asked if I had any preferences for the other artist. I mentioned Frazer as being a depraved genius, Keith agreed. The dance between them is just so beautiful; it’s such a great pleasure to write for both of them in one strip. This artistic polyamory is a delight.

FI: Blame Keith. Leigh Gallagher is still mad that I got the gig instead of him!

Guy, do you find yourself deliberately writing for the two artists to really play to their strengths, or is it simply a case of trusting them to deliver the goods?

GA: A bit of both. I have complete and utter trust in them, of course I do, they’re John Stokes and Frazer Irving! At the same time I’d hardly be doing my job if I didn’t try and offer them things I thought they might like to work with. If only so they don’t hate working on my scripts! John’s character work is always wonderful, his pencils could act Jacobi off the stage, so I try and throw those moments his way as I know he’ll make it look exactly as effortless as it really isn’t. Frazer’s a beast, so I throw him bones. Bones few would easily imagine the flavour of.

What do you remember of both Scream and Misty the first time around?

FI: Scream!: free vampire teeth. Misty: girls!

GA: I don’t remember Misty but Scream! pleased me immensely. A joy of fleshy, Eric Bradbury tombstones and dusty Jose Ortiz cobwebs. It felt, as all good comics should to a kid, illicit.

What is it about both comics that fills both readers and creators with both nostalgia and a desire to see both new versions of the classic strips from the comics and new strips with a Misty/Scream! vibe?

GA: Like any great art it’s about storytelling. Most of us are very visual creatures, certainly when it comes to memory. The comics we read when we were young loom large for a lot of us don’t they? I’m certainly haunted by images held between childhood thumbs. To tap back into that, to live it again, that’s always going to be appealing. Of course, the creators’ job is to ensure it’s not just a familiar dance, that there are a few fresh new moves in there too.

Have you got any strips from Scream! or Misty that you’d absolutely love to have a go at in future if we get another special? Or more generally, given that Rebellion have access to the entire Egmont and IPC archive, If you could bring back something (strip, character, comic) what would it be and why?

GA: I’d love to play with The Steel Claw. The Leopard of Lime Street (what did Billy become when he grew up?), so many characters from Battle… D-Day Dawson, the soldier who fights like he’ll be dead any second, thanks to a bullet lodged near his heart. Lofty’s One-Man Luftwaffe! A British air pilot infiltrates the Luftwaffe and ruins missions from the inside!

The 2018 Scream! & Misty Special is out now.