In a world where movie monsters are real, most of them are just looking for work in an industry dominated by 3D, CGI and other scary acronyms. Forced to hustle their past glory on the convention circuit, Wolfman Carl London and "Space Path" star Travis Walters put their scheduled appearances aside to stop the screening of a legendary monster porn film that threatens to ruin the careers of feature creatures everywhere.

We caught up with co-writers, Harold Sipe and Christopher Sebela, along with series artist, Lee Leslie, to talk about Screamland Volume 2.

Horror News Network: How does it feel to be making a return to Screamland?

Harold Sipe: This is going to sound so cliché, but it really feels like coming home. The first book was honestly a really personal work for me. Then in writing it, and seeing it as Hector imagined it, it really grew and took on a life of its own. Like, the scale of what Screamland could be with a cast of thousands, dawned on me as we were working on volume one. I have been pushing to get back to this for years now. Whenever it looked like it wasn’t going to happen I would talk to someone who read it or get an email from someone who read it for the first time and it pushed me on. I am just so happy we’re back and playing with these toys again.

I feel like this book much stronger and a lot funnier than our last go around. So much of that is Chris and Lee joining me on the ride. It’s like all the stars have aligned, we have the right creative team, some great stuff planned and we are relaunching as an ongoing. Screamland is here to stay.

Christopher Sebela: Harold and I started talking about this back when the first volume of Screamland initially came out, so I'm excited that we're finally doing it. Beyond that, I'm chomping at the bit to dig deep into a childhood spent watching every horror movie I could get my hands on. Finally I get to use all those hundreds and thousands of hours watching people die in countless, awful ways and turn them into laughter. It's a much easier and cheaper alternative to therapy.

Lee Leslie: It's really amazing to be working on a series that I read as a fan first. When the first volume came out I remember thinking what a great concept it was, and how much fun it would be to draw. Plus, I'm a huge fan of all these characters. You're talking to a guy that owns "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf-Man" on DVD.

Horror News Network: The first Screamland series featured the four popular characters of Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolf-Man and The Mummy. Will this series be centered around those same characters, or will there be a new main cast?

Harold Sipe: We will be introducing a ton of new characters in the book, thought the original cast shows back up as the book progresses. My favorite so far have been Lady Tempest who is a former horror host from the Midwest who moved to Hollywood to join the monster D-list. She doesn’t SEEM to be a monster but that all comes to light in the first arc. We have Robrian, who simply put is a brain in a robot body. His closet is overflowing with skeletons and dark secrets.

Lee Leslie: I'm really glad to have Wolf-Man Carl London back. He was certainly the break-out star of the first volume as far as I'm concerned. He's so much fun to draw. Everything's right on the surface with him so there's lots of opportunity for great expressions.

Some of the new additions to the cast like The Mass and Invisible Man are either partially or fully transparent respectively, so there's a lot of fun to be had drawing those guys.

Christopher Sebela: As a fan of the first volume, I can definitely say we're not done with the main four monsters. There's still a lot of untold stories between Dracula, Frankenstein and the Mummy. Luckily, in this first arc, we are bringing back the Wolfman, Carl London, whose drunken belligerent charm makes him this book's spirit animal. From there we want to spin out across this world and see the aspects of monsterdom and fame that we haven't seen before. If life is so hard for Frankenstein, who is basically the Johnny Cash of monsters, then what's it like for all those other monsters who made or two movies and then had to find "real" jobs?

Horror News Network: We learned of the highs and lows that these out of work iconic actors faced. Will we see more of the dark side in this follow up series?

Christopher Sebela: Right off the bat we have an overdose, a murder and a monster orgy, so it's safe to say Screamland will remain as light-hearted as ever. Since we're dealing with monsters, and monsters who are used to being famous, they have a totally different code of conduct and standard of living. Their lows are bound to be much lower than ours, and their dark periods would probably look like a sunny day to us. It's a tricky balance, but I think we can mix crippling depression, bloodcurdling terror and belly laughs better than anyone out there.

Lee Leslie: At the end of the day, the monsters in this book are definitely monsters.

Horror News Network: What has impressed you the most with Lee Leslie's work on this series?

Harold Sipe: Lee has a range the like of which I don’t really see in a lot of newer comics guys. He can handle the emotion and the humor. Frankly, Lee takes all the outlandish stuff Chris and I throw at him and makes it believable. Lee creates an environment when he draws these pages and that’s how the overall world of Screamland is realized.

Christopher Sebela: At the end of the day, all three of us are the same wavelength as far as the book goes. We never worry about Lee's pages because he gets the book, he gets the characters and he gets the tone. He's not afraid to make it dark when it needs to be and on the flipside, he'll throw in a visual joke or three of his own if a page calls for it.

Horror News Network: When can we expect issue one?

Christopher Sebela: First issue comes out June 8th from Image comics and comes out monthly thereafter. We really want everyone to buy it, but we think horror enthusiasts will take the most away from it, not just from the characters we use and the storylines we throw them in the middle of, but all the little nods and references we throw out there. All three of us are horror nerds to varying degrees, and we want to mine this mutual history for every bit of greatness we can.

Horror News Network: Where can readers find out more about the new volume of Screamland?

Harold Sipe: We have a tumblr blog that covers both development and all sorts of monster goodies we find across the web. It also has info on volume one and the upcoming book. See it here: http://screamland.tumblr.com/

Horror News Network: In closing, what can fans expect from this next volume of Screamland?

Harold Sipe: We really focused on the top shelf of icons in the first book, this volume shows just how expansive the world of Screamland is and how low it’s residences can fall.

Christopher Sebela: This book is our love letter to monsters and horror and the dirty business of fame. We'll be wandering across the globe in Screamland, exploring what monsterdom looks like in other countries, in secret bars, in the underground where famous is another word for sellout. It's going to have mystery, gore, romance, illicit substances and lots of hair and fangs.

Horror News Network: Thank you for your time, guys. Good luck with Screamland Volume 2! Check out a preview of Screamland here.

Copyright © by Horror Comic Book News - Comic Monsters All Right Reserved.

Published on: 2011-03-28 (824 reads)