Frank Forte and Jason Paulos Talk EEEK!

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JASON PAULOS exploded onto the Australian comics scene in 1989 with the first self published issue of ‘Hairbutt The Hippo’, the story of a hard boiled anthropomorphic private eye roaming the seedy underbelly of a future city. Over the years Jason has regularly contributed to Australian MAD magazine (over 100 pages of Hairbutt strips), DC comics (5 page Green Lantern story for Bizarro Comics book 2), Judge Dredd Megazine (wrote and drew 16 page horror story called ‘Easy Prey’) and published a dozen Hairbutt comics. He also drew for the Australian MAD Magazine. 

Asylum publisher Frank Forte and Jason Paulos catch up on publishing EEEK! Read the full interview below.

EEEK! is available through Diamond Book Distributors and all book wholesalers.

Book Solicitation:

This retro-style anthology of all-new horror tales is guaranteed to give you the eeries and the creepies! Taking a pinch of black humour from EC comics and mixing it with the art stylings of House of Mystery and Warren comics, EEEK! blends a heady broth that hits you like a burning incense stick to the retina. Jason Paulos delivers the goods with over 15 tales of revenge, zombies, vampires, ghouls and monsters. Each tale drawn in a different style reminiscent of the B&W horror mags of the 70’s and 80’s. In ‘Deadline of Death’ we witness rival comic artists dabbling with malevolent forces that arrive in the form of a chain smoking goatee wearing Satan. In Lights! Camera! Murder!, A lovesick starlet and a ruthless film director embark on a doomed love affair that ends in pieces! In “Easy Prey” A helpless girl, lost in the wilderness … but is she all that she seems? In “Head Trip” a hippie’s love for music goes horribly wrong. A must for fans of horror comics!

For those who aren’t familiar, can you tell us what readers can expect from EEEK?

JASON PAULOS: 5 to 8 page black and white horror tales in the style of ‘Joe Orlando era’ House of Mystery.

FRANK FORTE: When I saw the single issues of EEEK! I thought they’d make a great collection.  I’m a huge fan of vintage horror comics and Jason captured the 70s and 80s era of movement better than anyone.

How did this project come about? What inspired this graphic novel?

JP: The comics of my childhood.

What was the process for creating a horror anthology like this?

JP: The first batch of stories were created at work at my boring office job, literally winging it with nothing but a splash page and a catchy title.

FF: I thought EEEK! Was a great title for the comic and TPB. There have been many titles, tributes and copycats over the years, Eerie, Creepy, Haunts, Haunted Horror, The Creeps, Web Of Horror…but there’s only one EEEK!

In terms of audience, who is EEEK for?

JP: Anybody with a soft spot for old school horror comics anthologies and the comics artists of the 1970’s.

FF: yeah, we’re targeting fans of the old Eerie and Creepy collections, but a lot of the stories really have the vive of the DC Horror comics; House of Mystery, House of Secrets and Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion. So we hope to grab those fans. But there’s also a new generation of horror readers that maybe have already seen and read the old comics and reprints, and now want something new. This book is for them.

What are you hoping readers will take away from this title?

JP: A renewed sense of how comics are supposed to fun and not to be taken too seriously.

FF: We hope readers can have a good time delving into some creepy terrorific comics made to chill and eeek you. These tales have some great characters and unseen twisted ending that are both shocking and entertaining. The collection has some amazing art, all of which is done by Jason Paulos who has the amazing ability to change styles, so the art look a little different from story to story.  This gives the book the look and feel of an anthology collection drawn by a variety of artists, but it’s all Jason. EEEK! has a lighthearted razor’s edge but still reveals it’s horror roots as it cuts to the bone.

Ashley Kronsberg
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