Talking With Doug Wagner And Daniel Hillyard About ‘Plastic: Death & Dolls’ #1

Plastic: Death & Dolls #1 is out today from Image Comics. The return of everyone’s favourite plastic obsessed serial killer, Edwyn Stoffgruppen, who has managed to evade the law since last we saw him. I enjoyed the original Plastic miniseries and I’ve enjoyed each one of my subsequent visits to the ‘Material’ shared universe with both Vinyl and Plush. So what better time than the present to track down both Doug Wagner and Daniel Hillyard and grab them for an interview?

Olly MacNamee: One of my favourite comic book serial killers of recent years, Edwyn Stoffgruppen, is back this week in Plastic: Death & Dolls #1. But when did you both have the burning desire to return to Edwyn’s story? Was this sequel/prequel always on the cards?

Doug Wagner:  I can only speak for myself. I had absolutely no plans to writer another Plastic… right up until the moment I finished typing the last word of the first one. This kind of happens to me every time a write a book. I fall head over heels in love with my characters, and the second I’m done writing the final page I immediately start wanting to continue playing with these new voices in my head. I’ve had this new story in my head since the day I finished writing “THE END” on the first mini-series.

Daniel Hillyard:  I agree, I think the desire was there straight away. But we only revisit characters if we feel like there is a cool story there to tell, and with Death and Dolls, we felt like we had that.

MacNamee: And this is a ‘secret origin’ tale like no other, isn’t it? We get to see Edwyn’s twisted development into the perverse killer as a child. And, even at the age of 10 he’s a terror. Why did you feel you both wanted to delve into his childhood in this sequel?

Wagner:  I wish there was some big-brained answer I could give to this and make us sound all smarty pants and the like, but that just ain’t us. We put a 10-year-old serial killer in the book because we wanted to tell that story. That and we thought it’d be funny and terrifying all at the same time.

Hillyard: What’s not to love about creepy Lil’ Edwyn. Seriously though, I think the scenes with Lil’ Edwyn (particularly later in the story) are some of the more disturbing scenes we’ve done to date.

MacNamee: I’ve noticed that in each of your ‘Material’ books there’s always something bigger and badder for your antagonists to rally against. Can we expect something of the same in this series? After all, you have a distinct knack of getting the reader to root for the bad guys. And, after reading issue one – and being something of an animal lover itself – I can’t help but start rooting for him again.

Wagner:  Olly, you’re on to us. Daniel and I always get a kick out of writing a character that seems irredeemable and make them a person you want to root for with everything you’ve got. This won’t be any different. Edwyn is an unapologetic serial killer. He’s not even close to the worst human we’ll meet in this story.

Hillyard: Doug, I think we’ve been found out.

MacNamee: Now, without giving too much away, what – if any – where your inspirations for this series? Both narratively and stylistically?

Hillyard: Stylistically, with the adult Edwyn story, I tried to keep it in line with what you might expect from a Plastic story, but with the Lil’ Edwyn sections, we aimed for something more fragmented in layout and design and tried to tell the story with more of a creepy atmosphere. Having the horror elements just below the surface. With adult Edwyn though it’s all in your face in blood-soaked gory detail.

Wagner:  Well, we’ve technically got two stories here. One with an adult Edwyn kind of drifting through life aimlessly, and the other the story of a 10-year-old Edwyn being raised by a single mom and trying to live his best life.

For the adult Edwyn, I was inspired by that part of life I think everyone finds themselves in and can find relatable. I believe everyone feels lost, alone, and adrift at some point. From my perspective, I’ve learned the universe hates when we’re in this state. Don’t have a purpose. Don’t worry the universe will provide one for you whether you like it or not, and the longer you fight it, the harder the universe will push back. The big question is how far will our serial killer Edwyn let it push him until he pushes back.

For 10-year-old Edwyn, this is going to sound a tad terrifying, but I was inspired by my own childhood. I had an exceptionally odd, chaotic, and thrilling childhood. I just took some of that and sprinkled serial killer all over it.

MacNamee: I love the “less-is-more” approach you’re taking in depicting – or rather, suggesting – a lot of the gore in this debut issue. Very cinematic. I assume this was a conscious decision? It works really, really well and reminded me of classic scenes from Psycho and Reservoir Dogs where this is applied so effectively.

Wagner:  I think we’ve found that our kind of people tend to fill in the gaps far more horrifically than anything we could ever write, draw, and you know, still get published. Why not lean into that?

Hillyard: I couldn’t have said it better.

MacNamee: Like Reservoir Dogs, these characters live in a loosely shared Tarantino movie universe. And you’ve made no secret that all your books are also linked. Can we expect more cross-pollination in this new series? What should eagle-eyed readers look out for other than some craftily created surnames?

Wagner:  As you know, Daniel and I always do our best to make every mini-series a standalone story. I don’t want readers to have to read Plastic to understand Vinyl, or Plush to understand Vinyl. We even tried our best here to make Plastic: Death & Dolls as independent of the original Plastic as much as possible. Now, with that said, we do love our Easter eggs, and no, Olly, I’m not even going to give away a tease.

Hillyard: I second this as well. All I can say is that there are some in there.

MacNamee: One last one, guys, before I loosen the ropes and let you go. With a sequel to Plastic, can we expect any more of your substance-abusing characters to also make a rude return?

Wagner:  Yes.

Hillyard: … Soon.

MacNamee: As always, many thanks for your time. Now, you won’t tell anyone I’ve held you captive while we did the interview, right? After all, I know where you live.

Wagner:  Wait. You thought you were holding us captive? Ha! That’s amusing.

Hillyard: [evil laugh]

Plastic: Death & Dolls #1 is out now from Image Comics and you can read my review here.