Talking The ‘Creepshow 2024 Holiday Special’ With Tini Howard, Blake Howard, And Stevan Subic

Bernie was hoping to meet some likeminded people at the Ancient Egyptian and Levantine Curiousities Club’s party. What he finds instead might shake readers to their core when the Creepshow 2024 Holiday Special hits shelves. Writers Tini and Blake Howard are joining forces with artist Stevan Subic and letterer Pat Brosseau for a tale of New Year’s Eve past. For more on that, here’s what the Howards and Subic had to say:

Rachel Bellwoar: What kind of horror did you want to tap into with this story?

Blake Howard: Combining the classic trappings of traditional gothic horror with some good, old-fashioned blood, guts and body-horror!

Tini Howard: Yeah – blending the some of the atmospheric gothic horror we love with Creepshow was a fun challenge.

Stevan Subic: In the first place, horror which I would like to see in a comic, somewhere between the twilight zone and good old visceral visuals. Layered, in a way that there is something for every pair of eyes that will read it and see it.

Bellwoar: Overall, would you say you’re a “holiday horror” fan or do you prefer your holidays happy and bright?

Howard (B): I mean… probably the second most famous Christmas story is full of ghosts and spirits. So, I think there’s precedent! I love cheery and bright, but I also love movies like Silent Night, Deadly Night and Black Christmas!

Howard (T): Krampus was pretty fun, too. Winter is such a chilly, dark time, (even here in Los Angeles it gets dark at 4 and the sky gets overcast) that it lends itself well to horror – but I am a sucker for twinkling lights, evergreen boughs, and baked goods for comfort.

Subic: I don’t mind a little horror for the holidays.

Bellwoar: Like Scrooge, Bernie isn’t the most easy to love. How was it writing and drawing for him?

Howard (B): You often gotta make your characters in horror a little unlikeable, so the audience won’t care too much if something wicked were to happen to them. But in general, I think he’s not so bad! Not as bad as the rest of his friends in the Egyptology Club.

Howard (T): I just love an unlikeable bastard. And Blake is right – they’ve gotta be unlikeable in a relatable way, I think, so you almost root for them. Bernie’s the only one that takes this stuff seriously, right?

Subic: For some unspecified reason, when our editor Ben Abernathy sent me the text from Tini and Blake and during my very first read the script, I saw immediately in front of me how he should look. I really like it when a new character builds himself with such ease, from inside, even in such a small space such as 10 pages. That is something that is not often the case. I enjoyed it!

Bellwoar: Bernie holds a very high opinion of Ancient Egypt. Is that an interest you share?

Howard (T): Oh in general, Blake and I are both hobbyist historians, which led us to spend two full days in the British Museum when we visited London in May. While there, we found ourselves surrounded by treasures from one of my favorite eras – Ancient Egypt. Literal rooms full of Egyptian mummies – and I think it was Blake who said “what if we did a story about mummies? You love mummies.” And I do.

Howard (B): Hard for me to dislike a culture that loves cats so much.

Subic: Absolutely, and it is a very interesting coincidence. I think that a lot of things in this story overlapped very nicely and that it was just made for the three of us to do it.

Bellwoar: When you think 1899, it’s usually prim and proper, not debauchery. Was it fun getting to burst that bubble with the New Year’s Eve party Bernie attends?

Howard (B): Like every society that prides itself on its prudishness, there’s always a dark underbelly. But I think the real immorality stems from the rampant colonialism and everything that goes with that.

Howard (T): Totally. As much as we loved spending our days in the British Museum, it’s hard to ignore how many of those artifacts were acquired. And while I don’t believe in the inherent mysticism of “exotic” things, Bernie and his pals sure do, and it’s that hubris that fuels the horror.

And it’s New Year’s Eve, on a new millennium! Everyone ties one on.

Subic: The story is unpredictable, has a very interesting denouement, unexpected, and ideal if you ask me. It is precisely this breaking of the framework and predictability that is the true value of art, and of comics. Great story, great concept. I really don’t like clichés.

Bellwoar: While the story is called “Auld Lang Syne,” I don’t think that’s what’s playing on the gramaphone when Bernie walks in. If you could have readers listen to one song while they’re flipping through this issue, what song would it be?

Howard (B): Oh man. Honestly, I recommend John Morris’ soundtrack for The Elephant Man, along with some tracks from Elliot Goldenthal’s score to The Mummy.

Howard (T): Blake’s so classy. I’m gonna say “The Wretched” by Nine Inch Nails.

Subic: Without any doubt, soundtrack from Yojimbo, opening score and the scene where Toshiro Mifune is walking, after that shoulder move, into the final battle.

Bellwoar: Thanks for agreeing to this interview, Tini, Blake, and Stevan!

Creepshow 2024 Holiday Special goes on sale Wednesday December 11th from Skybound.