[dramatic music] ♪ [dramatic music continues] ♪ - Hello and welcome to "Comic Culture."

I'm Terence Dollard, a professor in the Department of Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

My guest today is writer Drew Edwards.

Drew, welcome to "Comic Culture."

- Howdy, good to be here.

- Now, Drew, we met at the closing, I guess, the day after the Baltimore Comic-Con ended.

We were both in the same hotel.

I'm just wondering, as a writer of independent comics, you know, how important are those cons for you to, you know, get to meet fans, get to make connections professionally, and get the word out about books like "Halloween Man"?

- I tell you, they're extremely important.

You know, shows like Baltimore, especially, where they really put the emphasis on comics, because, I mean, not to sound like too sour grapes, but a lot of conventions these days, you know, they're more about getting autographs from celebrities.

And, you know, I, I think that's fine.

I think we should have access to our passions.

But, you know, being able to go out, meet other creators, network, meet your fans, which is really, really important to a guy like me.

Because, you know, a lot of the times, you know, these conventions, like that's the first time I am meeting some people, that I have previously connected with online, face to face.

And it's nice to sort of get that time in with the comic book community like that.

Baltimore is something really, really special.

You know, we have something similar here in Austin.

It was actually just this last weekend, called STAPLE!

And it's exclusively independent media and independent comics.

And it's that same thing, you know; it's getting to meet other creators, and it's also getting to meet, you know, my fan base, you know, up close and personal.

And it's just one of the things I love about doing comic books, is that there is this intense connection between creator and your fan base.

- It was my first time at Baltimore, and I normally go to HeroesCon in North Carolina, which is where we're based out of, And I saw a lot of the same faces, and not necessarily the creators, but fans.

And I'm imagining, you know, as you go to different cons here and there, especially the ones that are comic-centric, I'm assuming you see a lot of those same faces.

So, you know, as you are not only a creative coming up with, you know, comics and scripts and working with artists to make these visions come to life, but you're also part business person, where you have to sort of maybe get the word out via social media.

So, you know, in dealing with that same group of fans, whether you meet them in a convention or whether you are dealing with them online, how do you sort of tweak a little bit here and there to make sure that they're doing a little bit of work on your behalf to get the word out about your comics?

- I myself am actually a terrible business person.

I am very lucky that I married a woman that has first of all a business degree, but, you know, just a real good head on her shoulders.

My wife, Jamie, figures a lot of that stuff out.

Like, I'm good at promoting, and that's really where my beginning and ends of my business acumen.

As far as, you know, getting fans to sort of be those boots on the ground, I think it's just being honest with them.

You know, what I always tell people as a, you know, small press comic book creator, you know, we don't have access to the millions of dollars that Marvel and DC have, as things that are, you know, they're the comic book arms of much larger corporations: you know, Marvel with Disney and DC at Warner Bros. You know, so I do have to be frank with my fan base sometime and go, "You and your word of mouth, that's really, really important.

If you enjoy this comic and you want to see it continue and you wanna see it grow, tell your friends about it.

Tell them you should check out this book."

Because, you know, I have, you know, a little bit of an advertising budget, but not much.

So it really is, you know, word of mouth that makes and breaks it.

- And, you know, you mentioned your wife, and I did get a chance to meet her at Baltimore as well, but I believe a lot of your readers are familiar with her, even if they don't know her in real life.

Can you talk about how you sort of incorporated her into your work?

- Jamie is my muse.

And the way that that has sort of come out within the comic is Halloween Man has a girlfriend, Dr. Lucy Chaplin, who is a sort of combination of a, you know, buxom, you know, almost burlesque dancer archetype, but combined with like a Reed Richards-style super genius.

And, you know, when I met Jamie, Jamie's a musician, and I met her, you know, when she was touring with her old band, Punk Blues Review.

And, you know, on meeting her, because the character of Lucy actually already existed, but like, on on getting to know her, I was like, "This is the smartest, most capable, most beautiful woman I've ever met.

This is Lucy."

Even my editor on the comic, Russell Hillman, when he met her, he was like," Oh my God.

It's like you're meeting Lucy as a real person."

I always envisioned Lucy as a plus-size woman, but for some reason I had a dickens of a time getting people to draw her that way.

My buddy Terry Parr and I, you know, we teamed up, and we sort of reenvisioned Lucy from the ground up in Jamie's image.

You know, the fan response was huge.

Like, she's easily the most popular character in the comic.

But also, I think there's a large, you know, you look at most female characters in comics, and, you know, they're built like your typical Hollywood actress.

I think there's a lot of women out there that, you know, they're able to see themself in this character.

And that's really appealing to them, especially since, you know, we don't portray her as like your typical, you know, like most plus-size women in comics, you know, I think of Amanda Waller from Suicide Squad.

And that character's fine, but there's a certain level, the character's been almost desexualized in a way.

Lucy is empowered, but she's also still like a pin-up character.

She's still very attractive and she's portrayed as attractive.

So you have this one level who is this woman that is like strong and brilliant and the most capable person on the planet, but she's also stylish and, you know, and happy in her own skin.

And I think that that is something that a lot of people have responded to.

And Jamie is definitely that; that would not have happened without Jamie.

You know, she's everything to me.

I adore her.

And, you know, I think when people are reading that character, you know, the love I have for her is coming through in those comic book pages.

- When I saw her at the convention, she has that look; I mean, you can't not notice her.

And it's interesting too, when you're talking about a character in sort of this sci-fi horror kind of book, you know, the character comes off to me as kind of this Cormanesque character with this nod to the audience, that little bit of sense of humor.

So I'm wondering, you know, as you're writing, you're looking at horror with a little bit of humor thrown in.

And I'm wondering, what about humor and horror go so well together?

- Well, I think they are both audience-participation genres.

You look at, you know, comedy, and obviously the end result is wanting to have a laugh, you know, whereas horror, the end result is wanting to have a scream.

Those things are sort of interrelated.

And a lot of the really, particularly when I was a kid, you know, I'm gonna date myself here, but, you know, I was a kid back in the '80s, and there was a lot of horror comedies back then.

You had "Re-Animator," you had "Ghostbusters," you know, "Evil Dead II," even stuff like "Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2."

They had strong elements of comedy to them.

And I think a lot of filmmakers have realized that that's like a good release valve.

Because if a horror film is almost too relentless, it ceases to be, you know, fun for the audience.

You know, you almost want to take a shower after watching it.

And comedy is something that, you know, comic books do really well.

Like, you're right now wearing a Justice League International shirt: that's one of the most celebrated runs on any mainstream book.

And I think it's because they figured out comedy is extremely humanizing.

You know, like, I always tell people, real life doesn't have a genre, but it's certainly more comedic than people give it credit to.

If you watch a genre movie, I think that, you know, a so-called dramedy is probably closer to the way real people behave.

So, you know, within the context of Halloween Man, you know, that's just kind of my way of humanizing the characters a little bit, because Lucy is a bit over the top, Solomon's a bit over the top.

But if you ground them in something that people can relate to, which is, you know, humor, it allows people maybe to see more dimension than if I was perhaps playing it completely, you know, tongue out of cheek, completely straight.

You know, I want people to relate to these characters when they read it.

- You mentioned that human reaction.

I think there are two reactions that we can't fake in life.

One is if something's funny, we're going to laugh, and if something's frightening, we're going to react to that.

So it seems that putting those two uncontrollable reactions together in one genre is a perfect way to, you know, not only scare the pants outta you, but give you that chance to breathe a little bit.

- Certainly.

- And, you know, I did wanna talk about the origins of Halloween Man, because, you know, it looks like you've done a number of books, a number of different series, and I'm wondering how you got started to, you know, you talked about having an editor before you met with the artist who helped you with the concept; so how do you go from that stage to getting it published, and then, you know, the various books that have come from that time since.

- I grew up in a very rural part of Texas called Possum Kingdom.

Look it up, it's a real place.

It's a lake.

There's lots of little towns littered around this lake.

I grew up in a town called Graham.

There was not a hell of a lot to do in Graham, Texas.

So I would spend a lot of time at the local library.

And they had these hardbound books going all the way back to the 1930s, but up until like the '70s, where they had just taken issue upon issue of old comic books and they had bound them together.

So like, my first comic books were, the ones that I really gravitated to were like the Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Fantastic Four, like the Silver Age stuff.

And that's still a really big influence on me.

Like, as a kid that loved monsters, I thought The Thing was the greatest character ever, because he was a superhero that was also a monster.

At the same time, you know, I'm growing up, I'm watching, you know, lots of monster movies with my dad, you know, with my family.

And the one thing that I started to notice, particularly in like the classic monster stories, the monster always gets killed at the end of it.

King Kong always gets killed.

The creature from the Black Lagoon always gets killed.

And as somebody that loved monsters, that just made me sad.

So I wanted to tell a story where the monster got the girl and the monster was the good guy.

And that's really the large roots of Halloween Man.

I'm gonna bum everybody out for a second, and I apologize for that in advance, but there is a sadder side to this.

So when I first started creating Halloween Man, the person that I collaborated with was my twin.

And when I was not even 21 years old, I was in a car accident and my twin was killed.

And, you know, I needed something to give me focus, you know, to get me out of bed every morning.

And the comic book became that, you know.

And it's funny, like, people read it and they see like the funny, quirky, you know, vibes to it.

And they don't realize that, you know, a lot of that was me just trying to stave off depression and mental illness, and like have some sort of control in my life.

Because if I hadn't been doing this comic book, I would not be talking to you today.

I would've not made it, you know.

It really did give me the focus I needed to survive.

- So first off, I'm sorry for your loss, but it is interesting as well how art can save us, and how art is what we turn to when things go bad; whether it's we're going to watch that comfort show, we're gonna listen to that song over and over again, or we're going to grab a piece of paper and a pencil and either write or draw.

So as somebody who's using art almost as therapy, you know, you kind of find things out about yourself.

So as you look back at Halloween Man, are you noticing things that maybe you realized in hindsight you were working through, and, you know, you're glad that it was on that page, because now you're in a much better place.

- Through exploring the character, you know, I did really get a handle on my survivor's guilt.

But also, visually, you know, you look at Halloween Man as a character, and half of his body looks like a zombie and half of his body looks like a normal person.

What I didn't realize is that I was really internalizing.

I'm somebody who lives with dissociative identity disorder, you know, multiple personality disorder.

And what I came to realize is that I was, without realizing it fully, putting a visual representation of how that felt, you know.

'Cause like for several years, I had blackouts.

And it wasn't really until I moved in with my now ex-wife that, you know, I had somebody to say, "Hey, you were acting out as this other persona for like an hour or so."

And, you know, I just knew that, you know, I would have blackouts.

Like, Solomon, Halloween Man, you know, really, you know, the journey of that character is, you know, accepting what it's like to be a little different.

You know, you're not like everybody else.

And, you know, you might be the other to most people.

And, you know, his acceptance became my acceptance.

And it's still something naturally I struggle with a lot, but if he can find peace, maybe I can too [laughs].

- It's just fascinating, the way that we work through things with our mind, even when we're not thinking about it.

Again, when you're collaborating with an artistic partner, and you have these ideas and you're putting them on paper for them to read and interpret, how trusting are you that they're just going to do what they do?

And how precious are you, where you're going to say, "No, you're doing this wrong: do it this way."

- You know, there's definitely been times where I've had to tell an artist that, you know, I want something more in line with my vision.

But, you know, if I wasn't down to collaborate, I would just be a novelist.

You know, like the fun of making comics is that you get to work with other people and you get the joy of seeing, you know, your ideas come to life through pictures.

And, you know, for the most part, you know, when I hand off a script to an artist, my main thing is I just want to make sure that they're having something that's fun to draw.

Any differences of artistic opinion, you know, usually, that stuff can be worked out.

I mean, naturally, I've been doing this for 24 years.

So there's been occasional bouts of drama, I tell you what, but like, it's, you know, for the most part been a lovely experience.

And I've made so many friends.

Like, when I married Jamie, like a lot of the people who were my groomsmen were people that I met through working on the comic.

Nicola Scott, who drew some of the initial Halloween Man web comics, you know, despite the fact that she lives in Australia and I live in Texas, you know, we've had a communication now that's lasted decades.

And, you know, that's, again, one of the things that's so great about comics is the community.

- And when that community sort of finds you and gives you that, I guess, that support, I'm assuming beyond the rewarding from the commercial point of view, but artistic acceptance, when you're going out on that limb and you have a collaborator who is seeing exactly what you want, or at least finding their own interpretation of it.

And I kind of put it in terms of the band.

You know, when a group of strangers come together and they can play a song, that's one thing; but when a group of people come together and everything feels right, it's a whole other matter.

When you are working with folks, you know, is there that adjustment period where you're kind of feeling each other out?

Or is it something where when you feel it click, it just kind of goes and you can trust them to take something that might be sensitive or might be a little out there and do it justice.

- I mean, there's both.

You know, Nicola was somebody I connected with almost immediately.

Like, she just got it.

But, you know, again, I've been doing this so long that I've had, you know, people that I've worked with multiple times, but they don't always get the universe.

You know, maybe it's their second story where they finally like click with the material.

But the thing is, is, you know, you find your ways to work through that, because it's just part of the process of making comics.

And, you know, the band analogy, that's a really apt one, and one that I've made myself a few times.

I think, you know, other than musicians coming together to make a band, or perhaps, you know, making a film, You know, in a way, I think comics are probably more like being in a band than filmmaking, because it's a small, tight group of people, you know.

Like, comic books can be made by, you know, one person if, you know, they have all the skill set.

But, you know, most of the time, it's, you know, 4 to 5 people, and you really have to develop trust with one another.

It's just one of the things I love about making comics and why I decided to make them my life.

- When you are nominated for a major award, I know you were nominated for a Ringo and I know that you've won some awards in Austin for your comic work, when you are nominated by your peers for work, you know, that's a different type of validation.

So when other professionals are looking at what you do and saying this is good stuff, how do you sort of balance, you know, that maybe imposter syndrome with not getting too swelled of a head, saying, yes, I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread.

- My imposter syndrome is way too bad for me to ever think I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread.

I think, you know, it's funny, I think people, a lot of people meet me, and sometimes they think that, you know, I think I'm like the Elvis of comics, you know, 'cause I dress flashy, I have a big personality.

But, you know, there's always that nagging thing, even when you've had the validation of your peers, that maybe what you are doing is not so great.

You know, logically, it is easier.

Like, when you've been nominated for a Ringo twice or you've won like a Best of Austin award, it is a little easier to like sort of shoo away those fears.

But I have never met a creative with perfect confidence, you know?

And if they exist, they are rare, rare animal.

Like, I fight depression, I fight low self-esteem.

You know, I questioned my life's choices all the dang time.

You know, just a few days ago, I had one of the best conventions I ever had.

You know, I met with lots and lots of fans.

I know people like, you know, what we're doing.

But at the same time, the day after that I was in bed thinking, "Well, maybe I'm just a big loser."

It's a constant battle.

And, you know, the analogy that I like to use is that it's a mean dog that always needs to be fed.

You know, there is no amount of validation.

You know, you always kind of have to feed the beast to keep those confidence levels up, and keep you, you know, upright and doing it.

- If you meet somebody who believes that they are the greatest at something, chances are they aren't.

But also, they are probably doing work that doesn't motivate them to do better work in the future.

You could do something that everyone thinks is great, but if you've got that one little hair of a doubt there, you're going to try even harder the next time.

So in some ways, having that sense of, ah, I don't know, is better because you do better work.

- Yeah.

Pushes you.

Like, you're constantly trying to challenge yourself.

You know, I think about the only time I don't struggle with self-doubt, strangely enough, is when I do the rough draft of a script.

Like, that tends to be the happiest for me.

You know, 'cause I'm just, at that point, the only person I have to please is myself.

But everything after that, you know, I'm questioning it.

And I think you're right, that the person that doesn't question themselves, like, they're maybe not gonna push themselves to be better.

- You talked about the first draft.

Are you one of these folks where you have an idea and you maybe write a couple of bullet points?

Or is it just something where you sit down, a blank sheet of paper or a blank computer screen, and just type until you get something; and then later on you're just gonna go back and check it and make sure you like it.

- For Halloween Man, I tend to come up with a plot, and I just sit down and I just do it, you know.

Like, I write it out.

However, I'm working on a new project entitled The Matron, and I have a writing partner for that, a gentleman named David Bowles, who is an amazing, talented writer in his own right.

And the process with him is quite different, 'cause I'm working with somebody else.

So, you know, we have to make sure we're communicating.

Like, he's writing certain pages, I'm writing certain pages.

But also, we have all this mythology that we're having to create.

So there's like documents upon documents, just to make sure we're not stumbling over each other's toes.

But I think, I think the important thing to realize is that as long as the end result is a comic book, you've done it right.

You know, it's kind of like baking a cake.

I don't think that there's really any wrong way or do it, it's just all process.

You know, like, every time I do a convention, everybody asks me, like, "Oh, how do you write a good comic book script?"

And it's like, "Well, first, just write a comic book script."

Don't be judgmental about whether it's good or bad.

Just put it out there.

- Well, Drew, they are telling us that we are out of time.

Could you quickly tell the audience where they could find you on the web?

- So most importantly, you should read Halloween Man on GlobalComix: that's comics with an X.

There is an app; you can find the entire series, including the most current issue, on there.

If you wanna follow me on Instagram, I am drew _halloween, all lowercase.

I'm the only Drew Edwards in Austin, Texas.

And you know, obviously, look me up on halloweenman.com.

- Well, Drew, thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule to talk with me today.

- Thank you.

It was a pleasure.

- And thank you everyone at home for watching "Comic Culture."

We will see you again soon.

[heroic music] "Comic Culture" is a production of the Department of Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.