The holiday Thanksgiving is getting a one-shot horror comedy comic from writer Mark Russell and artist Mauricet, named, simply enough, Thanksgiving. Russell describes it as a “metaphor for what our nation is in danger of becoming” and it will hit bookshelves on October 22. Meanwhile, Cemetery Dance spoke to Russell about why he chose to write a horror comic about Thanksgiving, its three covers, and what he hopes readers take away.
(Stick around after the interview for a short preview of Thanksgiving.)
(Interview conducted by Danica Davidson)
CEMETERY DANCE: Why did you choose to write a horror comic about Thanksgiving?
MARK RUSSELL: The best horror, in my opinion, isn’t just a collage of jump scares and stabbings, but talks about the things that scare you. It’s less about fear than dread. And, for me, there’s little that I dread more, and nothing that scares me quite like where I think we are going as a society. So that’s what I wanted to write about and Thanksgiving dinner is kind of the perfect arena for an American showdown between the fractured identities and beliefs that have driven us apart.
How do you balance horror and comedy?
I think the key is to not try to balance them at all. Just write what it is you have to say as bluntly as possible and let that be funny when it comes out funny and disturbing when it comes out as horror.
What do you want readers to take away from your comic?
I want them to start accepting that there are consequences for their nostalgia. To stop thinking that everything will turn out okay because they’ve turned out okay before and to stop accepting inhumanity and intolerance just because it comes from someone you love.
What can you tell us about the three covers it’s getting?
Alain Mauricet, the artist on the interior, also designed the covers and they’re all Thanksgiving themed and beautiful, which is quite an accomplishment considering that, being Belgian, he doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving himself.
Can you tell us a bit about your previous work with AHOY Comics?
I’ve done a lot of work with AHOY, most notably Second Coming, about Christ returning to Earth after two thousand years to share an apartment with a superhero, and Billionaire Island, which is about billionaires creating an artificial island on which to escape the end of the world they caused.
