Talking With Doug Wagner And Daniel Hillyard About Their Latest Serial Killer Series ‘I Was A Fashion School Serial Killer’

The darkly disturbed creative team who brought you the dark comedy horror world of the “Plastic-verse”, writer Doug Wagner and artist Daniel Hillyard, follow this up with a new series, I Was A Fashion School Serial Killer from Image Comics. And another serial killer. But this time, a female fashion student with a shocking taste in textiles. Having enjoyed all the series put out by these guys, I was keen to learn more. And so with the promise of deleting certain compromising documents, Doug and Dan eventually agreed to an interview.

Olly MacNamee: Doug, Daniel, congratulations on the new mini-series. I love the juxtaposition of horror and high fashion. With something of a track record for writing comedy horror, where did you come up with this one? And don’t either of you try and tell me it’s based on your college years.

Doug Wagner: LOL. I mean, I did have a great time in the four college’s I attended. Regarding where this concept came from for me, it was one of those ideas that started from some simple research and blossomed from there. A few years ago, I was doing research into female serial killers. You know, as people do. I bumped into the legend of Elizabeth Bathory and the rumors that not only did she murder a shit ton of people but that she regularly took blood baths. I couldn’t help but wonder what a modern serial killer would do with all those bodies. Being part Native American, I’d read in my youth about how most Native American cultures never wasted a single part of an animal they hunted for food. They used every single part for something. That lead me to thinking why not just hide the bodies in plain sight. Turn the skin into leather, carve accessories out of their bones, etc. That was the birth of Rennie. And for me, her next logical step was to turn her obsession into becoming a fashion designer. What’s that? Yes, that’s how my brain works! 

Daniel Hillyard: That’s seems like a logical train of thought to me. I can’t say that much inspiration was derived in my part from my college years. For one, I was never that stylish, though I did have a leather jacket. 

MacNamee: College years can be tough for some. But like it or not, Rennie does make a friend. What should readers know about the effervescent, hard-working Sofie?

Wagner: I love Sofie. She’s as much of an irresistible force as Rennie, just in her own way. As we learn in the series, Sofie is putting herself through school and works an ungodly number of hours at her job to make that happen. She spends every other waking moment studying for her classes. She’s always exhausted and working her hardest, but despite all of that, she’s always a ray of sunshine, kind to everyone, and is for some reason, resigned to Rennie being her best friend. 

Hillyard: Sofie is just a cool character. I think everyone knows or has known a Sofie at some point. She is so different from Rennie, and despite Rennie’s reluctance to be friends at first, I think that she sees things in Sofie’s character that she would like to adopt herself. And Sofie sees qualities in Rennie that she would like to see in herself too.  

MacNamee: And talk about tough teachers. Rennie’s has something of the Anna Wintour about her. Someone to steer clear of if possible? 

Wagner: I guess that depends on your perspective. For me, Ms. Porschia is my dream teacher. She’s eclectic, overly blunt, and doing everything she can to prepare her students for the hard knocks of the fashion industry. Becoming a fashionista is not for the weak, and Ms. Porschia is going to find out if her students have what it takes as quickly as she can.  

MacNamee: Daniel, from a design point of view, did you relish the challenge that a story set in a fashion school brings to the drawing board? 

Hillyard: It had its peaks and valleys. At first, I was super excited, then terrified, then excited again. The initial thought was all about the possibilities that populating a world of aspiring fashion designers brings, but then it sort of dawned on me, the more I started to research, what a massive undertaking it was. But then the fascination with it all started to set in and I kind of got lost in it. I had a consultant on hand of course (my wife) who helped me coming up with styles for the cast. So, I can say I did relish the challenge, but there was a little bit of terror in the middle there. 

MacNamee: And I notice a subtle change in your artwork. I’m interested in knowing how you’ve tweaked and refined your style on this series. 

Hillyard: I’m glad it shows. I always wonder if these adjustments I make are just in my head or if they really translate. I started thinking about fashion design sketches which then got me thinking of the art style in Disney’s animated 101 Dalmatians (I swear there is a through line there). I wanted to try and translate some of that sketchiness into the style, but as I tend to learn more into the neat side of things it inevitable got pulled back a bit as I started. 

MacNamee: In theme and tone, I Was a Fashion School Serial Killer, seems like it could be the bastard offspring of Your Dark ‘Materials’ trilogy. For the purists out there, is this set in the same shared universe? 

Wagner: Absolutely. It’s an integral part of the whole “Plastic-verse” as we like to call it. That said, we try our best to make sure every mini-series set in the Plastic-verse is a standalone story that doesn’t require the reader to have read any of the previous books to enjoy the current one. That’s very important to us. 

MacNamee: It seems that this partnership has been a very collaborative experience. How have you been informed by the other’s input into the creative process? 

Wagner: Oh, wow! That’s hard to quantify for me. Daniel and I have been working pretty much non-stop together for over a decade now. During that span, it was unusual for us not to email each other multiple times a day. He’s become one of my dearest friends and a cherished collaborator. I feel like over the years we’ve pushed each other to be better than we were the day before, we’ve grown as storytellers together because of that, and he consistently opens my eyes to new perspectives in delivering story visually. We are total geeks about comics, visual storytelling, and the pursuit of continuous growth. We constantly share anything we’ve read, watched, seen, or heard that we’ve loved with each other. We’ll talk for hours breaking down why a single episode of Fargo works and how that can possibly be translated into comics. Or an episode of Stranger Things, an issue of Feral, a Taylor Swift song… well, you get the idea.

Hillyard: It is really hard to describe in a step-by-step process kind of way, but if you imagine two best friends trying to make the coolest thing that they can, you pretty much have a solid visual for it. Doug will be writing, and we’ll be talking about the story, what if this happens next, if character x does this or that. And then Doug might be looking over me drawing and saying something like, add more blood and an eyeball flying out over here. Not a depiction of actual events, but I feel like that’s the kind of vibe.  

MacNamee: Okay. With all the talk of blood, guts and glitter, here’s a cuddly one to finish on. When does creative collaboration become a long-lasting friendship?

Wagner: For me, it’s when your collaborator giggles out loud about a serial killer in love with a sex doll. That’s when I knew we were two peas in the same dark, twisted, pod.  

Hillyard: Exactly that. It was then that we both knew.

I Was a Fashion School Serial Killer #1 (of 5) is out on Wednesday, April 2nd, from Image Comics.