Last month, Dark Horse announced their books for October, and as usual it featured a number of titles perfect for the Halloween season. Among these was Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt’s “The Midnite Show,” a title that doesn’t just feel like a great Halloween book, but a celebration of horror. This book looks like so much fun to read, and when I spoke to Cullen and Brian, it seems like they had fun making it too.
Cullen Bunn: I think that’s absolutely accurate! This is a very meta comic when you think about it! It’s all about those outside influences.
Certainly, movies play a huge part in the chemical makeup of this book, especially the movies of Hammer Studios. I remember Brian and I trading clamshell VHS editions of the Hammer horror films way back before we had even broken in to comics. And I’m pretty sure it was a Hammer Dracula movie that I watched from behind the couch when I was a very small child sneaking into the living room to secretly watch the late night horror feature that my older siblings were watching.
Midnite Studios is very much a tribute to Hammer Studios. We created the studio. We even pulled together a list of all the monster movies produced under the Midnite banner over the years.
But let’s not forget the Universal Monsters. In the comic, Basil Saxon is our version of Lon Chaney, and the monsters in the comic are obviously drawn from the classic Universal lineup.
And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention The Monster Squad and Waxworks as inspirational to a book like this.
Brian Hurtt: There has always been shared interests and influences that form the creative language between Cullen and I. But more than any other project we’ve worked on, this one is built on what I consider our core influences and inspirations.
We both found a love of horror at an early age and we both have visceral memories of Hammer Dracula films. Similar to Cullen, I was about five when I surreptitiously saw a film on HBO where Dracula falls and is impaled on a large crucifix. This scene stuck with me into my adult life before I finally tracked down what this mystery movie that had imprinted on me was. It turned out to be Hammer Films’ Dracula Has Risen from the Grave. Finding that movie as an adult then led me down the path of all the other Hammer Horror films!
I also remember watching all the Universal Monster films on TV with my dad as a kid. When I was about six years old they would come on TV on Tuesday nights and I would be allowed to stay up just a little later that night to watch them with my dad. I can’t stress how formative all these memories are to my creative DNA!
And speaking of Waxworks, in eighth grade I had a video of it that I had taped off of TV during one of those free Showtime trials. I loved that movie so much that I wore that video tape out!
Cullen, I specifically remember the first time you mentioned this project, not by name, just as something you and Brian were working on next. At the time you said, “It’s Brian drawing the kind of thing he should be drawing! It’s full of action, humor, monsters, and terrible moments of gory horror,” and I’ve been psyched for it ever since. You really seem to have created something where you not only get to tell a story you’re clearly passionate about, but a comic where you get to have fun making it.
Continued belowCB: It’s been so much fun!
Look, I’ve wanted to tell stories about these monsters since I was a kid! I used to check those great old Crestwood monster books out from the library over and over. I bought a copy of Movie Monsters from the Scholastic Weekly Reader program, and I wanted to put on a monster show SO BAD!
Working on this book made me feel like a kid again!
BH: We’ve been lucky in that we’ve only ever worked on projects that were a lot of fun to us. From “The Damned” to “The Sixth Gun,” our books have always come from a place of love and “The Midnite Show” is no different. It really is tied to some of our earliest genre memories and therefore has a very special place in our hearts.
Cullen, in the announcement for “The Midnite Show” you said, “Brian and I didn’t just throw a group of random monsters together for this book. We created a detailed history for them, a detailed history of Midnite Studios.” This jumped out to me because I was a backer of the “HEK Treasury,” which featured a story, “Biologic,” told over several parts. But it wasn’t just told through comics. It was also told through a gatefold quadruple-page spread and a visual history of The Biologic Wars. There was way more world building than ever made it into the final comic. And I can’t help but feel that same energy at work in “The Midnite Show.”
CB: That’s fair. It’s fair for almost any book Brian and I work on together. As I mentioned, we made a list of all the movies Midnite Studios produced. We also made notes about things that happened to the monsters in those movies, events that changed and influenced the versions you’ll see in “The Midnite Show.” We could make comic “adaptations” of all the movies in that list. But I dream. I dream.
BH: In addition to the main comic book story of “The Midnite Show” we’ll be sharing some of this further world-building that Cullen and I have done for this series in some form of backmatter to the series. As has been intimated, we have not just ideas for the history of Midnite Studios but also a sense of the filmography and storylines our fictional studio produced!
I love the idea of exploring Midnite Studios in the backmattter. I’ve seen a little teaser from the first issue, and even in this one image, the history you’ve created is everywhere.
I have to wonder though, does this make an issue of “The Midnite Show” longer to write than a usual issue?
CB: Not really. This book goes quickly! It’s just so much fun that time flies! All the extras and the behind-the-scenes world-building just seems to happen. It doesn’t derail me at all. Quite the opposite! It excites me!
I’m also curious, with movie titles being so much a part of the story, does this change the way you work with letterer Jim Campbell? Like, does he design the titles for posters on the cinema walls?
BH: I believe the only time we’ve used movie titles in the art has been on our opening page and for the title card when the film begins and in both of those cases I did the lettering–either digitally or by hand. But Jim has been fantastic as a partner on this comic in many other ways! Like all the best letterers he is making choices large and small that help with story flow and tone. I love what he’s done with in bringing voice to the individual monsters and his sound effect work has blended seamlessly with my own style. Normally, I hand letter all my sound effects but in the case of this book I’ve only done about 10 percent and Jim’s proficiency is a big reason for that. He has also made a choice about how he handles the lettering “in movie” as opposed to the comic’s “real world” that I think works brilliantly!
Continued belowAh, I’m looking forward to seeing that. I always appreciate Jim’s work.
One of the things that immediately struck me about the art I’ve seen so far is how you’re using two approaches for the art, one with just a clean ink line and another with an ink wash—perfect for a story about the world of the silver screen clashing with the real world. Was this part of the original idea for the project or something that evolved along the way?
BH: Honestly, it’s been a bit of an evolution. My original intent was to only use ink wash on the movie panels to help differentiate from the “real world’ and the film elements. When the creatures started to bleed into the real world the tones also started to bleed over as well. As with my previous experience working with ink wash in this way (like the second arc of “Manor Black”), the process took on a mind of its own and the toning ended up being applied more and more consistently across all pages. Again, this also works thematically because as the story progresses, the film world bleeds more and more into the real world.
I’m looking at the two variant covers for “The Midnite Show” #1 here, one by Francesco Francavilla and another by Dan Brereton. In the case of the Dan Brereton cover, he’s directly referencing Brian’s interior art. I can only imagine you were thrilled to see this one.
BH: I was both flattered and totally blown away when I saw his cover! I think what it came down to for Dan is that he couldn’t settle on any one monster so he painted all of them–plus some! It was clear when I saw this that we were all coming from the same place of love for these classic horror monsters. I couldn’t be happier with how this cover turned out!
CB: Dan is such an amazing artist, and when I think about someone who loves monsters and old monster movies as much as Brian and I do, I think of him! In fact, a couple of years ago, he sent me one of those great horror hardcovers from the ’70s/’80s… similar to the Crestwood books, but different. If my office wasn’t in such disarray at the moment, I could get to the shelves and tell you which one! But… he sent it because we both love those classic monsters so much!
Given Francesco Francavilla’s body of work, where he seems to be constantly drawing classic movie monsters for fun, having him do a variant cover on “The Midnite Show” seems like a perfect match.
CB: If there’s one person who loves classic monsters as much as Brian, Dan, and I, it’s Francesco! And, as ever, I’m honored to have him gracing one of my books with a variant.
BH: Francesco was a no-brainer when it came to putting together a dream list of artists to do variants! Like everyone else, I’m a long-time fan of Francesco’s and his classic movie monster posters are some of my faves. His Horror of Dracula and Invisible Man posters live rent free in my head!
CB: I think we can tease some of the upcoming covers. Well, I hope we can! Because I’m gonna. We have a few coming up, but one is by Leila Leiz, who I’ve worked with before, and one is by Kelley Jones, whose work always blows me away!
I look forward to seeing they play with the worlds of Midnite Studios you’ve cooked up.
“The Midnite Show” #1 (of 4) hits comic store shelves October 4, 2023. It should be a great way to settle into the horror season.
Written by Cullen Bunn
Illustrated by Brian Hurtt
Colored by Bill Crabtree
Lettered by Jim CampbellFrom the creators of The Sixth Gun and Manor Black comes this new supernatural horror series about monsters of the silver screen coming to life and wreaking havoc on a small town.
Basil Saxon is a legend among horror fans. Over fifty years ago, he vanished during a freak accident on the set of the film that would have been his masterpiece. The cursed film—God of Monsters—was never completed and has never been seen. But when a film festival shows footage from the long-lost movie, classic horror monsters manifest to wreak havoc and terror on the unsuspecting populace. A ragtag group of misfits must band together to stop the most famous creatures of all time and send them back to the realm of celluloid nightmares.
Cullen Bunn, Brian Hurtt, Bill Crabtree, and Jim Campbell unleash this tale of terror. Popcorn not included.
