On January 8th, Kyle Starks and Patrick Piazzalunga’s new serial killer horror series, Those Not Afraid, launches in comic shops, so we sat down with Kyle to learn more about the inspiration behind the series, his thoughts on horror and its subgenres, his work with Patrick, and more! And if you like what you read, don’t forget to preorder Those Not Afraid from your local comic shop!

1. Before I Hate This Place came out, you were pretty anxious about diving into horror. How do you feel now that you have a few horror and horror-comedy series (like Where Monsters Lie) under your belt?

Any time you step out of your comfort zone, and especially one you’ve had a degree of success with – which for me was Action-Comedy – it’s going to be scary.

I love the horror genre like I love comedy and action and while I was confident I could do a good job I was concerned about how readers would respond. But Horror and Comedy are really two sides of the same coin: both exist to draw a response (laughter/fright), both depend on establishing tone, set up and pacing – so I knew I had the skillset to do it.

I’m really fortunate that people have responded in the way they have because I just love telling stories, I love exploring different genres. I’m very lucky to have been supported by the readers in these endeavors and I’m extremely thankful.

2. What are you hoping people get out of Those Not Afraid, who have never seen your work or read this kind of comic before?

I’m hoping I made something fun for all fans of Serial Killer content and True Crime tales. I think it’s a great, fun idea – two serial killers find out they’re in reach of the state record for murders and enter into a terrible competition to break that record first. I, like I believe most fans of this genre, am fascinated with who these serial killers are, why they do what they do, how do they do what they do? The cat and mouse chase between them and the authorities and now between each other. What fun!

3. How did you decide that Those Not Afraidwas going to be your next series?

I wanted to do something that leaned closer to horror than Where Monsters Lie did which is, in my opinion, a great love letter to slasher movies but also with a high degree of humor to it. I’ve been trying to figure out my love letter to Serial Killers story for awhile and I’m not completely sure of what specifically was the trigger for the idea but I think the root would certainly be contributed to learning about Ed Keller and Herbert Mullins operating in the same town at the same time. It opened a bunch of what ifs I needed to know the answer to! What if they knew each other? What if they turned it into a competition? It was an exciting idea and the idea you’re most excited about is the book you want to do next.

4. How did you get Patrick Piazzalunga on board?

I brought the idea of the series to Dark Horse editor Daniel Chabon and we were both very excited about it and knew we needed someone who would bring something visually dynamic to the book. We wanted it to stand out. Daniel had just worked with Patrick on the Cullen Bunn series Monsters Are My Business and suggested him. I actually knew Patrick’s work from his contributions to the Marvel Snap game and was excited by his distinctive style. He was just the thing we needed to make this book dynamic and unique! He and his colorist Marco Brake did a killer job – pun intended!

5. You open the first issue with a quote by Richard Ramirez which is pretty terrifying. Was this quote an inspiration for the series or is it something you found after you wrote the story and thought would fit the story perfectly?

The quote wasn’t an inspiration for the series but it was absolutely the source for the title. I agree it’s a terrifying quote – I think Ramirez is one of the worst serial killers and by extension of that worst human beings to ever exist. And It’s likely my fascination with that – how awful the Nightstalker was – did play into the idea for the book though. One of the two protagonists, Daniel Dodson, is a home intruder like Ramirez but you’ll find through the run of the series they’re two entirely different creatures.

6. Did you have to do a lot of research before writing this story or listen to a few true crime podcasts?

I didn’t do research, per se, for the series but rather took years and years of casually listening to serial killer podcasts and what reading I had done out of interest and applied it to the characters and the story.

7. If you did listen to some podcasts, which ones did you check out? Do you have any favorites?

Generally, the way any sort of research would go is I would here about a killer I hadn’t heard before and did a search to see if anyone talked about them and then listened to a bunch until I found one I liked. That would cover a wide variety that are lost to time, unfortunately – I’ve definitely forgotten more than I remember. The serial killer podcasts I listened to regularly, or went back to often for information on were Last Podcast On The Left and My Favorite Murder. I found Last Podcast’s research was incredibly thorough and dispensed in a way that was always fairly enjoyable so they were PROBABLY the most common but there are a bunch.

There are a TON of serial killer podcasts, though. I wish I could remember all the others. The Golden State Killer on Casefile was unsettling and well-made if I recall correctly. I just wrapped up Man With The Black Mask from Deadline which was good if you want a stupid serial killer in a curious setting.

8. Were there any themes you consciously wanted to explore in the series?

I don’t think Those Not Afraid is a theme book, per se – it’s not saying anything – it’s, I hope, a fun serial killer romp (which is a crazy thing to say) but there were character things I was definitely interested in exploring – how these people and their action affect the people around them, the bizarre, dangerous found friendship of these two killers, the former sheriff seeking redemption or a deeper hole to drink himself into for failing to protect his community from these psychopaths.

8. You’ve created these characters that simultaneously feel real and outlandish, like any good fictional serial killer. Are there any homages to iconic fictional killers we should be looking out for in this series?

I’m not sure I have any fictional killer homages in the book but there are, I believe, a ton of real-life killer stuff in there. I tried to pepper the book with some of the real life serial killer facts I think are fascinating that apply to the story, and I think you can see how all the killers we meet are gestalts of histories greatest killers.

9. Why do you think the true crime genre is so popular?

Someone smarter than me would have a much better answer but for me I think there are a ton of factors in play but I think for me it’s that desire to be safe. We hear these awful stories and we can defend against them, we stay out of dark alleys, we try not to be helpless and alone. We are creatures of comfort and the idea there’s another one of us out there is existing solely to destroy that comfort is both terrifying and fascinating. I think there are a lot more factors – the idea of an outlier, the human fixation with mortality, and that people doing things we couldn’t imagine doing is inherently interesting just in this instance incredibly morbid and macabre.

10. Are there any other horror subgenres you’d like to explore in the future?

Honestly, I want to do them all eventually! The great thing about horror is that it has such a breadth of sub-genres that are unique but familiar and all are ripe for storytelling and creeps. Can we do teasers? I’m already working on another horror series at Dark Horse with Where Monsters Lie artist Piotr Kowalski and this one is a full on bloody revenge horror that I think is going to be really exciting for horror fans.

From DarkHorse.com