Interview With Landry Walker

I've been a big fan of writer Landry Walker  since his incredible work on Supergirl Cosmic Adventures in the Eighth Grade book. He is definitely one of those creators whose work I immediately put on my pull file. The works tend to be very complex and layered, with a plot pushing forward but with incredible themes and concepts bubbling along too.

When I heard he was writing a horror book called The Butcher's Boy for Image, I reached out and asked for an interview. Luckily, he obliged. Of note, The Butcher's Boy is only three issues in and well worth looking for.

On to the interview.

Anj: Thanks for doing this.

The Butcher’s Boy comes right out of the gate as pretty stark horror. Is this the first pure horror book you’ve done? (As a 50+ year old, I grew up reading DC horror comics and watching all the horror films I could in the 80s. And I loved your Mad Hatter book.) 

LW: Not the first. Several years back I authored a Manga-style original graphic novel called House of Odd, which was part of the Dean Koontz Odd Thomas series. I collaborated with Dean on that one – he provided a short plot and cast of characters, and I filled out the rest.

I also have done a couple of shorts in Eerie Magazine over the years, and dabbled with a send-up of classic horror monster movies with the Little Gloomy series that Eric and I did (that later became a cartoon series called Scary Larry).

LW: My Mad Hatter book was arguably a horror story as well – I certainly perceived it as one while writing. And I wrote a Star Wars short story that was coded as a horror story – Face of Evil – about a criminal that betrays her partner and goes on the run. It involves a lot of surgery and ends very badly for the thief- very much intended to read in the classic Tales from the Crypt style of storytelling.

Anj:  I truly thought that Mad Hatter book was horrifying. I reviewed it here way back when. And whenever I see it I buy it and give it to friends.

Are you a fan of the genre in comics or films? 

LW: I’m personally very gun-shy with horror. I watched very little and never immersed in it overly. Horror gives me anxiety and gore make me squeamish. But I also love exploring different genres, and horror is probably the easiest thing for me to write. Real life is filled with it. We all have plenty of experience in the world of horror, just through the act of surviving this world.

Anj:  I am wondering about the story-telling choices you made in this first issue. We open with some pretty terrifying images of characters we haven’t really met and then flashback to before those gruesome events and learn who they are. It was a great hook for me and basically made me reread the issue immediately once I was done and had a handle on the characters. Was this a big decision to open the first issue this way and carry on that style? Or was that just what you think the story needed ? Do you worry that you are tipping your hat about where the story is going when you tell it that way? 

LW: My instinct – historically – has always been to hide what is to come. I personally believe that the journey of the story is where the reward is. But audiences think differently now. They have so much to choose from that they need to know why they would be interested in a thing at the start. You often hear “why should I care about these characters!”. It’s a critique that - I would argue – blame shifts an attention issue that has manifested in our culture on to the storyteller in a way that is damaging to the reader. But comics is a blend of art and commerce. I may disagree with the way people now choose to engage in storytelling, but at the same time I have to exist within that ecosystem and adapt.

That said, I’m not actually adverse to a flash forward. I use them all the time, Danger Club started off with a big one in issue 2. It can be fun to give you something without context and then build you to the place where that scene makes sense. So while I hate to give away what is to come (and in fairness, it’s not telling you the “why”, which is where the real story is), there is a joy in the shock of it, and fun in using the device to excite the reader.

Anj: I don’t really know exactly what’s going on yet which also has me wanting more. We have heard the urban legend of The Butcher and The Butcher’s Boy. The book feels part psychological terror, part teenage cast 80's slasher, part local legend, and maybe a dash of Lovecraft? Did you go into the story thinking of touching on one sort of type of horror or kind of touch them all?

LW: It’s all of them. You summed that up with Danger Club – which kind of superhero book was it? I remember you saying, “all of them”. The Butcher’s Boy is less inclusive than that – I have less than half the page count this time around. I want the tropes of Lovecraft, slasher films, stalker horror…. All that stuff.

Here’s a secret – Butcher’ Boy, Danger Club, Pepper Page, and The Last Siege are all part of one series.

(QR code to unlock that mythology!)

Anj: Intriguing! I've sung the praises of Danger Club for a while. 

In terms of The Butcher's Boy story, is this one that has been gestating inside you for a while? Or did this come together recently?

LW: My friend Pannel drew a butcher character many years ago called “Butcher’s Boy. He worked on a pitch of this with our friend Mario DeGovia years and years ago. It was a fundamentally different book and a wholly different character. The Butcher’s Boy in that form was a Hellboy-esque anti-hero. About five years ago I suggested to Pannel that there was a horror story in there instead. From there I ran with ideas, bouncing them off Pannel. I wrote the first issue and we reached out to Justin and he was interested. From there we started shopping around. It got picked up in late 2022.

Anj: What’s it like working with Justin Greenwood again? How much input did he have into the story itself?

LW: The initial concept was already formed, but Justin and I like to hop on the phone and sound things out. He’s a wonderful collaborator and I knew I would work with him again. My goal has always been to produce three books with Justin – minimum. Pat and Brad were easy to hire too. Pat and I have worked with each other all the way back to Supergirl and the Mad Hatter, and Brad stepped in and did the second half of Last Siege colors when Eric had to shift to Pepper Page. I’m super happy with the entire team – I consider myself very lucky to get to work with so many supportive people. And patient! They all are very patient with my scattered way of working.

Anj: Speaking of Justin, he was the artist on The Last Siege, a story set in medieval times. You also did Danger Club which I think is about as meta a discussion about superhero comics that’s out there. You’ve done sci-fi and licensed stuff like Star Wars. And, of course, All Ages stuff like Supergirl Cosmic Adventures and Brave and Bold. I’d call the Mad Hatter story was horror. That’s a lot of genres! Any you haven’t done that you want to? Any of them your favorite? Does the story idea dictate the tone and genre? 

LW: I want to write a Jane Austen style romance book still. I have a detailed plot I wrote out for that about 6 or 7 years ago. Pirates – I have a pirate story just about ready to launch. Probably no more superheroes. I think with Eric’s death the age of superheroes has passed for me.

Anj: I first learned of you through Supergirl Cosmic Adventures. Hard to believe that is 15 years ago. Looking back, any thoughts on it?

LW: So many! Too many! It was a brilliant opportunity, and one where Eric and I often felt we finally managed to hit a level of professionalism in our work – only 15 years in after half those years spent working on Disney Adventures Magazine. We saw our careers as existing in a Before Supergirl and After Supergirl state - and we already had our own TV show and had worked in Paris in our own office for a month before Supergirl – but it wasn’t clicking yet. Supergirl was where it came together.

It’s horribly disappointing we weren’t given an opportunity to continue the series. I will never understand why our version of Kara was not allowed to continue – particularly when I know that it has served as a genesis point for other DC projects – including animation. The book is in in’s 4th or 5th printing? I still get royalty checks for it? I mean, it sells. Why not sell more?

But it’s too late. I’d never go back to it now, for obvious reasons.

Anj: Thanks so much for taking the time to talk comics with me. Hope people are checking out The Butcher's Boy. 

As for Cosmic Adventures, I freely admit when I see it in trade somewhere I buy it and pass it on. I so hoped for a sequel and have also never understood why you and Eric weren’t given the chance. I first saw Eric’s art on the book and could feel the joy coming off the page. And then I saw his work on Danger Club and was floored by what I can only call his artistic precision in capturing the eras that book covered. I was just so impressed. We lost him too early. I only know him from his work though. Can you tell us about him as a person, creator, and friend?

Well, in regards to the sequel - I'd say we were hurt by other books that were off schedule - mainly Mike Kunkel's Shazam book. We found ourselves lumped into this idea on the administration side that the books were all way off the calendar - despite the fact that Cosmic Adventures never missed a deadline. All-ages were still a tough sell at the time, with high-ranking editorial people lacking faith in the idea. The management of DC was still very much enraptured with the outdated 80's slogan "Comics aren't just for kids!". They were embarrassed, and they made little effort to hide it. Because of these things - so i was told - we were denied a second book. We kept trying all the way until 2015 - I'd say that was when we (more or less) stopped believing DC might come around.

Worth noting that Cosmic Adventures is in its 3rd or 4th printing, with two other non-direct market editions as well. I still earn royalties on the book. Retailers call it "Evergreen". It doesn't matter if the main line has been rebooted or Kara in other books has become a serial killer - Cosmic Adventures stands as its own book, you don't need to read anything else to understand it, and it can be handed to anyone of any age. So it keeps selling. And selling. And selling. Who could have known?

I mean, we knew. So...

The temptation to write at length about Eric is always strong - we were friends for close to 40 years and roommates for 15. We were kids when we met, and immediate friends, so there is a lot I could say. But I will try to keep it (relatively) brief - we used to joke that we shared a brain. Our collaborations came effortlessly, and I think it's fair to say that I owe my career to him and his labor. I learned storytelling through him, and he carried me for a good ten years on the creative side of our professional work while I did all the labor on the business end (which he loathed).

Eric was extremely precision-minded, and drew everything freehand - he rarely used rulers or guides. Look at Danger Club - that's all free hand pencils. No inks. No rulers. No templates. He was very much a genius, and comics is poorer as an industry for failing to see that.

 
Funny anecdote - that very first image of Supergirl that Eric drew that DC shared? That was never meant for public viewing. It was part of the pitch that got us the book, but it was underbaked, so to speak. Eric was very irritated that it was released as he didn't think it properly represented his art. I would agree - though I worried about it less than he did. Also: Rikki Simons deserves a quick shout-out for coloring that first image for us, and deciding to give Kara tights. That was all him, and it was a great call. Thanks Rikki.

Anyway... Eric had an uncanny ability to alter his art style. Look up our Little Gloomy book, or Kid Gravity from Disney Adventures. It was the love of comics -all kinds of comics - that drove him. It also broke him a bit. The way that DC Comics functionally discarded him after our Batman book - we found out we had been removed from that series by seeing a solicit in Previews - hurt him on a level I cannot describe. Eric grew up believing the myths of publishing - of the Marvel Bullpen, of professionalism. He was the most loyal person you could ever know. So DC just shutting the door on both of us - him more so - was critically damaged and added to his general depression. That depression and overall anxiety is what ultimately led to the seizure that killed him. There is a bit of a convoluted path there, and certainly other factors. But the treatment Eric received from the comics industry - which was mostly dismissal - played a part.

That's a horribly down note, so let me pivot to a more positive one. This site was one of the rays of sunshine in that somewhat gloomy cloud, and both Eric and I read every review. The many fans we got to know online were a huge uplift and source of joy. I'm still regularly in touch with readers from 2009 of Supergirl. That all has mattered a lot to me, and it also made a huge difference for Eric. The show of support from the readers was unquestionably inspiring for us both. The renewal of that from the fans of the Supergirl TV show was an equally vibrant part of the experience.

I can speak for Eric 100% here as well, and he would undeniably say thank you. Thank you for curating this wonderful site - it really did make a difference. And thank you to all the fans that supported him - and by extension me.

Anj: Eric is missed for sure. My condolences. I am continually floored by his art when I reread your books.