Artist Michael Walsh Talks Creepshow: Joe Hill’s Wolverton Station

Skybound’s Creepshow is arguably the most praised horror comic anthology of the last few years. Which comes as little surprise given its legacy, dating back to the 1982 Creepshow film, and Greg Nicotero’s ongoing hit Creepshow TV series. What is surprising perhaps is the pedigree of Skybound’s first Creepshow special — Creepshow: Joe Hill’s Wolverton Station, based on the author’s fan-favorite prose story. We recently spoke with Joe Hill about how the comic came to be, and today we’re chatting with the book’s artist, Michael Walsh. Read on, as Walsh discusses his love of horror, collaborating with Hill, and his hopes to tackle more Creepshow. And if you’ve not yet signed up, be sure to join our rewards program Skybound Insiders this month for a chance to win a copy of Wolverton Station signed by Hill, Walsh, Nicotero, and the book’s co-writer Jason Ciaramella. It’s free to join!

Wolverton Station isn’t the first Creepshow story you’ve illustrated…

Yeah, I guess I’m the veteran Skybound Creepshow person. [Laughs.] But Joe [Hill] acted in the original Creepshow movie. So he’s the true veteran. I think he was just five years old or something. And then Jason [Ciaramella] did some writing on the Magic cards for Creepshow, so he had some experience with Creepshow before as well. I actually did the drawing for those cards, for the Magic Secret Lair [cards]. So we unknowingly worked together prior to this comic book.

How did the Wolverton Station comic come about?

I had just finished or had begun working on my first Creepshow story, which I wrote and drew myself. I had been talking to [Skybound editor] Alex [Antone] about working together on future projects. And he had mentioned that he had some stuff lined up with Joe Hill, whose previous work I’ve really enjoyed, as a reader of comics and novels. I mentioned to Alex, “If something lines up, I’d love to work with Joe at some point, because I feel like our sensibilities really match and would probably gel well.”

Then this came up. I think there was a different artist originally attached, if I’m remembering correctly. That fell through for some reason or another, and Alex reached out to me.

How did you first come to work with Skybound?

Well, I’ve known a bunch of different editors who’ve worked at Skybound over the years. Alex, specifically, I had met at a convention, many moons ago, back when he was at DC. I always enjoyed the books that he edited, and he enjoyed the books that I drew. So we had chatted about working together for a long time, but the stars just never aligned. Then when he made a move to Skybound, we started talking about working together again. And we’ve been really lucky to collaborate on a few projects now. I think that we both really enjoy horror and telling different kinds of genre stories. So we have a lot of fun building worlds that are not your typical comic book worlds.

Your comics career began with horror, via The X-Files comic…

Yeah, I would say that for sure. The very first thing I did was an Image book, very, very long ago. I think the first issue came out in 2012. That was my first published work, a sci-fi thriller with some horror elements. That was only five issues. I followed that up with X-Files. So some of my earliest work was in the horror genre. Then I jumped over to Marvel and worked at Marvel for years and years doing mostly superhero stuff, a little bit of sci-fi action, and then a bunch of comedy books and some Star Wars.

Then I kind of went back to horror. I did a Jughead: The Hunger book, where Jughead turns into a werewolf; which is, I think, what made Alex think I would be a good artist for this book down the road. I also did Black Hammer/Justice League, which kind of crossed over into the horror world. But yeah, my big return to horror was when I launched my creator-owned book The Silver Coin with Image. That’s a horror anthology-style book, and I just have so much fun drawing that I haven’t been able to stop drawing horror since then. I think there’s something that really appeals to me about drawing gore and creatures and monsters and these big reactions, and really focusing on pacing and storytelling and character work. Which is the most important stuff in telling a successful horror story.

Were you a big horror comics fan before turning pro?

Yeah, I was a huge fan of the horror genre in film. Then I started getting into horror comics, stuff like Hellboy and the old Creepy stuff, back in high school/early college. That’s when I found the very, very huge catalogue of horror manga, and got really into Junji Ito and PTSD Radio and The Drifting Classroom. There’s just so much good manga. That was right around the time that horror was kind of making a resurgence in in western comics. I feel like in, the last few years, it’s really exploded as one of the more popular genres in comics.

How did you and writer Jason Ciaramella and Joe Hill collaborate on Wolverton Station?

Jason and Joe worked together to adapt the original short story, which was one of Joe’s creations. So they have a really open collaborative process, where Jason’s doing a lot of the script writing and then they’re going back and forth from that point. I worked together very closely with both of them throughout the project. They were both just amazing to work with. So I’m definitely hoping to work with both of them again, at some point.

What is it about Joe Hill’s story “Wolverton Station” that lends itself to this adaptation?

Most of the Creepshow shorts are only ten pages. With the number of things that are happening in this story, there was just no way to do it in that condensed of a format. So it’s a pretty large single-issue one-shot. We get to tell a bit of a bigger story with it, focusing on more characters and more plot, and have a lot of fun. But I had been a big fan of Joe, like I said. I’ve read all of his novels and a bunch of his comic work, but I hadn’t read “Wolverton Station.” So I came into it completely fresh. I know that the original short story that this comic is based on is quite different. It’s been modernized and refreshed, and a bunch of it has been changed. So, knowing that, I didn’t actually really want to read the original, because I wanted to make sure that I was able to give it my own personality and my own take on the characters and my own flavor.

There’s definitely some black comedy to it. There’s a bit of a sardonic humor. It doesn’t take itself super seriously. But it’s not shy about gore or anything of that sort. It just has fun with itself a little bit. All the Creepshow stories are able to do that, whether it’s in the movies or TV or in the comics. They’ve always been a little bit tongue in cheek, but with those horrific elements that everybody loves so much about them. When I finished it, I was talking to Joe and he had said this might be the goriest comic that that he’s ever done, which felt like an accomplishment of some kind. [Laughs.] But that’s going to be for the readers to parse.

What else are you working on right now? What’s next for you?

I’m working on the next arc of Silver Coin, which was on hiatus. I just had a baby last year, and I took some time off. I need to take a bit of work-for-hire stuff to start building up the savings again. And get all the all the ducks in order for Silver Coin, since there’s a lot of moving pieces on that project. Because I’m doing all the art, co-writing it and lettering it, coloring it, and doing the design and co-editing it. It’s just a ton of work. So I’m taking my time with this next arc to make sure that it’s going to come out monthly when it does come out.

On top of that, I’ve got a few more projects with Skybound and a bunch of covers. I’m still doing art for a bunch of Magic: The Gathering cards as well. Magic: The Gathering has been really, really fun and a bucket-list gig. So it’s interesting to me that my Creepshow paths crossed this year from comics to Magic: The Gathering. So if I can maybe do some writing for the TV show I’ll hit that that holy trifecta. [Laughs.]