What Keeps Me Coming Back Is The Collective Happiness — Discussing ‘Dread The Hall H’ With Writers Chris Ryall and Jordan Hart

Comic con season has descended upon us, and creators Chris Ryall and Jordan Hart are back again to poke fun at it. The pair, along with several artists, are unleashing the 2026 version of Dread the Hall H. The Image Comics release comes out, appropriately enough, during San Diego Comic Con and lampoons everything from long lines to con exclusives. Comicon.com caught up with the writers to discuss the joys and the pitfalls of these crazy events.

 

 

Tom Smithyman: It’s pretty meta to create a comic book about conventions that celebrate comic books. Did you get the inspiration for the book while standing in a really long con line?

Chris Ryall: The great thing about conventions is also the thing that inspires us to want to tell horror stories about them: there is so much going on at any given time, with so many disparate personalities, events, costumes, and vendors that lots of unexpected things happen all the time. Or we just wonder about what could happen. Or we take apocryphal convention stories and heighten those even more. Either way, there’s no shortage of wonderful, terrible stories to play with around convention culture. But you’re right, that even the more horrific stories in Dread the Hall H are all told through the lens of our deep love of comic cons.

Jordan Hart: Chris and I live in southern California, so we’re lucky to have several big cons a year in our back yard. The idea for the book didn’t come while in a line, but hours, probably days, of cumulative line standing over the years were certainly an inspiration. My first story in this series last year was called Line Capped and starts with first-time attendees not able to get into a single line on their first day…even for a coffee!

 

 

Smithyman: Cons can be miserable affairs filled to the brim with too many people, cranky celebs and artists, overpriced and bad food, and really long lines. What keeps suckers like us coming back every year?

Ryall: I am drawn back for all those reasons you just cited! I find cons to be exhausting, yes, but never miserable. If anything, I come away from a long, crowded convention more inspired than ever to keep making comics as part of this big, messy, wonderful industry. We all come back because we all love it, even if at times, we wish certain things could change in ways that might suit us even more. Basically, I regard conventions like family members: I love them for all their messiness, and while I try to change parts about them, I also love and accept them for the way they are, too.

Hart: What keeps me coming back is the collective happiness. When I was a kid, the cons I went to in the Midwest were in bowling alleys. But everyone was excited to be there. And even though cons are mega events that take over cities these days, that same sense of belonging and “I’m with people who get me” is still there. As a creator, what I love most about cons is the ability to hang out with my collaborators in person. Comics are a team effort, and my teammates have always been scattered across the globe. SDCC and New York Comic Con, in particular, are where I can see and sometimes meet my partners from Europe and the East Coast.

 

 

Smithyman: Each story in the issue focuses on a con truism, like exclusives, celebrity panels, and line cons. What is your most unique con experience?

Ryall: I’ve been coming to San Diego Comic-Con since 1997, and done plenty of other shows all over the world, so I’d be hard-pressed to think of any one of them as the most unique. But they all lodge in my head for so many different reasons, from great encounters, great panels, great meetings, great parties, or just great finds in the back-issue bin alongside Jordan.

That said, I have an answer that sounds like it’s just to help promote this comic, but really, one of my most unique experiences happened during last year’s Dread the Hall H panel. That one remains one of my all-time favorite panels — we had a great lineup on the panel, the crowd was very into it, we had a couple of great surprises like someone cosplaying as one of the comic’s characters (even though it just came out the Wednesday of Comic-Con, same as with this year’s issue), everything. Maybe we can capture some of that magic again at this year’s Dread panel, too.

Hart: What I love about SDCC is that the con takes over the entire city. Someone once called downtown San Diego “nerd Mardi Gras,” and it couldn’t be more accurate. When The Walking Dead TV series was at its peak, they used to do a zombie escape run/obstacle course in Petco Park, which is across the street from the convention center. Huge areas of the stadium were staged with cars, objects, and hundreds of zombies in full makeup. Your goal was to make it through a massive MLB stadium without being infected by a walker. I did that every year with my dad and brother, and it was always the highlight of the week.

 

Smithyman: How do you put a book like this together? Do you come up with all the ideas yourselves, or go to some of your other creators and ask them what ideas they have?

Ryall: We made a promise at the start that we’d not hand off the writing to anyone else, to try to keep the point of view specific to us and not go down the usual anthology route. The biggest challenge I have is which story or idea from conventions past is worth the focus this year, versus which one should get workshopped more and is better held for next year? That’s the fun part. One of the fun parts. Some of the others are when we share the ideas and watch each other’s reactions and also when the artists take anything we’ve written and make it look better than we ever hoped.

Hart: Chris covered most of it, but I will add that now at cons, the ideas seem to come even easier. The first Dread the Hall H called on our past experiences, but now that the series is out, most of my inspiration happens in real-time. At the New York Comic Con and Wondercon, which we were both at, I remember us texting each other multiple times a day, reporting what we just saw and saying, “Exaggerating this would be great for a Dread story.”

 

Smithyman: Do you have a favorite con? Ahhh, screw that. Do you have a least favorite con, and why?

Ryall: It’s got to be a tie between San Diego Comic-Con and any other convention that has brought me in as a guest. Now, if SDCC ever makes me a special guest, despite my living in town, that might be enough to move it into sole possession of first place.

Hart: My least favorite cons are the ones without comic dealers. Whether I’m a professional guest at a show or an attendee, I want to end each day with a stack of comics. Digging through old long boxes is always my favorite part of any con!

 

Smithyman: What is the longest amount of time you’ve spent in a line, and was it ultimately worth it?

Ryall: Probably the line to get into a particularly large East Coast convention a few years ago: somehow, people walking up off the street and buying a ticket on the spot were able to walk right in, but all of us pass-holders encircled the entire building waiting to get in. (And yes, it was worth it.)

Hart: For sure, the Hasbro line at SDCC 2011. It was before they gave out day tickets or the pre-registered time slots that they do now. I checked out at 2:30 PM. And I’m guessing the doors opened around 9-9:30 a.m. But the 16” X-Men Sentinel exclusive was so worth it.

 

 

Smithyman: If you could change one thing about cons, what would it be?

Ryall: The fact that each convention eventually comes to an end? Yeah, I’d do away with that part.

Hart: That the con crud didn’t exist.

Smithyman: Yeah, con crud is not to be taken lightly! Good luck with the new issue.