by the YMB Staff

YMB: Tell us about Halloween Man.

DREW EDWARDS (writer, creator of Halloween Man): Halloween Man is a digital/web comic I've been doing since I was 18. It's not perfect, but it's a lot of fun. If heroic zombies, sexy mad scientists, talking goats, and foul mouthed wizards seem like your idea of a good time. Then you've probably found your new favorite comic. And...get this..wait for it.....it's a love story.

I think it's the sort of thing that a lot of Hack/Slash fans would end up digging on.

YMB: What made you want to write a crossover with Hack/Slash?

DREW EDWARDS: Mostly for the fun of it. You don't do something like this because you're trying to reinvent the wheel. You do it because it makes for tasty "junk food." The character fit well together. Once it was purposed to me, it seemed like a very natural thing to do. I mean it doesn't seem out of left field like say....Halloween Man vs. Tiny Titans.

YMB: How much involvement did Tim Seeley have with the writing process?

DREW EDWARDS: He was pretty cool about giving everyone their breathing room. Early on he gave me firm list of "Don't do THIS" and then he checked in from time to time. But over all, he was very hands off. Which was actually scarier than if he had been breathing down my neck the whole time. I felt like I had to do right by his creations.

YMB: When did you first get involved with Halloween Man?

DAVID BALDEON (artist): I think it was three years ago more or less I started posting some of my pencils in the Millarworld forums. Drew contacted me to pencil a 12 page story called Duel, a madly fun Halloweenman gig complete with zombies and headless riders. Then I got the chance to give my version of Halloweenman's origin in a remake version of the original story (I proudly shared credits with the very talented Nicola Scott).

RUSSELL HILLMAN (editor): About five years ago. Drew had written the Halloween Man Christmas story faster Santa Claus! Kill! Kill!, and was assembling an art team. I read the script out of curiosity, and loved it. Drew types as fast as he speaks, which can be pretty fast at times, so it was filled with typos. I offered to look it over, and Drew accepted. I filed down some of the rough edges and made a few suggestions. Drew liked what I'd done, and sent me a few more scripts to polish. Five years later, I'm still here.

BRIAN CROWLEY (letters): in 2004 I did a rough pinup and talked to Drew about doing some stuff for Halloween Man that never materialized because I moved onto working for DDP and that took up a huge amount of my time. That and I'm kinda slow.

MARC LEWIS (colorist): Through email conversations with Nicola Scott who happened to be doing a three page short entitled "Necromantic" (at least that's what the pages were titled). Unfortunately, (for the story) I got another gig. I had also got to know Drew through the Millarworld.tv forums as just about everyone else.

SCOTT D. SIMMONS (inker): One of my favorite artists, Nicola Scott, sent out a ComicSpace bulletin asking for an inker to help her with a project where she was the penciler. I sent her a message volunteering enthusiastically and showing samples, and soon I was inking two pages for her, and she came back to have me do two more. This was for the re-telling of the Halloween Man origin, aka "Zombie in a Black Leather Jacket (Revisited)". When she got snapped up by DC, the story had to be finished up by a new penciler, and I was brought on board fully by Drew to work on inking those pencils. The new penciler was of course, David Baldeon, and they were looking for an inker who wouldn't leave out the details of his line work. Not only was I faithful to his work, but I tried to add texture and little details that he really seemed to like.

YMB: How did you get involved with the crossover?

DREW EDWARDS: It's all Brian's fault! Brian is the one who got Tim and I talking. The whole kind of grew out of that. Personally, prior to this happening I never would have imagined doing it. Halloween Man is just this little DIY comic and Hack/Slash is a pretty big deal.

DAVID BALDEON: Drew e-mailed me offering me the gig and the rest is history!

MARC LEWIS: Drew and I had been emailing for a while about doing something. When I sent him my latest batch of comic samples he put me on the crossover.

RUSSELL HILLMAN: Drew emailed me as soon as Tim gave him the OK, and I was in from the get-go.

BRIAN CROWLEY: I was kinda the one who got the ball rolling. I was working at Devil's Due as the Staff Letterer and then eventually become the Graphic Designer and Tim Seeley and I were chatting at the Patrick Brower's Christmas party (Owner of the awesome Challenger's Comic Shop in Chicago) and I mentioned to him something about Halloween Man. Long story short, Tim offered to let Drew use Cassie and Vlad in a crossover. Anyone who knows Tim Seeley shouldn't be surprised by this, he's one of the most gracious and generous guys I know. He likes sharing ideas and letting others play with his toys because every three seconds he's thinking up something brand new.
So then with the crossover in getting things geared up I've taken on a Project Manager/ Art Director role and liasoned with DDP to get us setup with an FTP and a few other exciting things that hopefully we'll discuss at a later date. Thankfully with this book, my days as a letterer end for good.

SCOTT D. SIMMONS: It was an honor to be asked by Drew to be the inker on Hackoween. I guess he was pleased with the Zombie pages I'd done with David, that he asked me to do it. In the meantime, while we waited through the whole process and for David's pages, Drew had me inking "God of Machines" and also got me hooked up as a penciler and inker for a project involving his lovely wife Jami Deadly. So, by keeping me around, I guess I don't suck, haha.

It's amazing to see David's pages roll in, and think "I get to ink this beautiful piece of art!" I am humbled and amazed by this experience, and working with these talented people and these great characters is just alot of fun.

YMB: Had you read Hack/Slash before you got involved with this?

DREW EDWARDS: Certainly. I really respect what Tim has done with it. I also have to say that I love...love....LOVE Loaded Bible as well. Which has Jesus kicking vampire ass in a "Mad Max" type world.

SCOTT D. SIMMONS: I was familiar with the character of Cassie Hack, and was excited about being able to work a project involving her. It seemed like a really fun crossover. It totally makes sense to see these characters lay into each other based on what they are used to expecting in their own universes. And it's a crossover that a casual reader can come into a understand who either Cassie or Solomon are.

MARC LEWIS: No, I hadn't and to be honest I still haven't. Sorry, Tim. My LCS is 30 minutes away and they don't carry the book.

DAVID BALDEON: I have to be honest and say no. As far as I recall, there has been no spanish edition of Hach/Slash, so I had no real notion of it until not long before begginig with the crossover. Once I got into it, of course, I have read quite a big deal of it. Real fun read, by the way. I kept on thinking that pairing this two characters was an excellent idea... and I was pencilling it!

RUSSELL HILLMAN: I had heard about it, and the idea of the final girl fighting back against slashers interested me, but for some reason I hadn't picked it up. As soon as Drew told me he'd had the nod to start working on the crossover, I hit up my LCS for research materials, and had to kick myself for not picking it up sooner - this book is great! Cassie and Vlad are awesome characters, and in the time I've been reading, the book has gone from strength to strength.

There are probably a bunch of people out there like me, and hopefully this will persuade them to pick up Hack/Slash too.

BRIAN CROWLEY: Since I was working at DDP, I had. Prior to working at DDP, I had noticed it on the rack and assumed it was a Buffy knockoff... which I think some cynical fans do. But man, once you crack open the books though you realize that it's a much, much different take than Buffy but equally as good in quality and execution. Then you talk to Tim and realize that he's never watched Buffy and that he and Whedon have this bizzare hivemind of genuinely similar ideas but with Hack/Slash they have the bizzare Tim Seeley twist. The stuff he puts Cassie and Vlad through in the ongoing series is just gut wrenching... I mean what other heroine gets two of her toes ripped off in the first issue? Or Vlad hooking up before Cassie to save her from the demon world Nef? And friggin Pooch? I mean I watched Tim draw Pooch. The boy just ain't right.

YMB: Favorite horror movies?

DAVID BALDEON: I'm a Carpenter guy. The Thing, The Fog, Halloween... Love the storytelling. Aside from Master Carpenter, I'd go with the classics: Whale's Frankenstein, Night of the Living Dead, Hellraiser, The Fly, Alien... I had too much fun with The Evil Dead to consider it horror but I guess it counts... The Shining! Way too many to count, I guess. I just can't name only three of them.

MARC LEWIS: Alien. That movie scarred me for life. I'm obsessed with it. Cabin Fever was truly a creepy, disgusting movie. Honestly, the slasher flicks never scared me.

RUSSELL HILLMAN: The original Halloween, Rosemary's Baby, Psycho, Freddy vs Jason, the original Dawn of the Dead, Gremlins, the original The Wicker Man, Jaws, Evil Dead 2, American Werewolf in London... so many more.

SCOTT D. SIMMONS: I like a variety of films and maybe tend to lean most towards sci-fi and fantasy... so Aliens, Gremlins, and Nightmare on Elm Street parts 3, 4 and 5 really appeal to me in the "horror" genre. Gremlins is a yearly tradition to watch, and my wife and I enjoyed watching The Shining too. Other than those, the Alfred Hitchcock movies are great classics, as I grew up watching older movies. And I was lucky enough a few years back to see a special showing of Vincent Price's The House of Wax in 3-D, in an old style movie theatre, complete with a live organ/piano player... which was a really cool experience.

DREW EDWARDS: I just want to say that I'm digging the Joe Dante/Gremlins love here.

RUSSELL HILLMAN: That's because Gremlins is a great movie.

A Hackoween crew movie marathon would be a great night in.

DREW EDWARDS: Next Halloween we'll do that. LOL

But we'll have to add the Howling for more Dante love.

DREW EDWARDS: This is such a loaded question with me. I probably name off a different list depending my mood. Today I'll go with:

Brides of Dracula, Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, the Invisible Man, Mad Love, Halloween, An American Werewolf in London, Jaws, Texas Chainsaw Massacre part 2, the Old Dark House, and Night of the Living Dead.

BRIAN CROWLEY: I tend to like humor with my horror so Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness rank high, as well as Hellboy, Ghostbusters, Fright Night, Lake Placid, Gremlins, and Shaun of the Dead rank high.

But here's my dark horse pick... Demon Knight.

RUSSELL HILLMAN: Yeah, Demon Knight is great.

BRIAN CROWLEY: Loaded Bible is awesome...

Drew... no Hammer horror love?

DREW EDWARDS: Brides of Dracula is Hammer horror my friend. It's by Terence Fisher, who is probably one of my favorite directors.

And it has the ultra yummy Yvonne Monlaur in it! Hubba hubba!

Read the Hack/Slash & Halloween Man crossover "Hackoween" here.