In the latest collaboration between writers Alyssa Quitney (The Sandman Presents, GILT) and Artist Morissette (Star Wars Adventures, GILT) is coming HOWL, a new five-issue series launched through AHOY comics. Ddescribed as the marvelous mrs maisel meet Invasion of the Body Snatchersthis storyAnd in Greenwich Village in the late fifties is about what happens when artistic and free-thinking bohemians are perhaps but slowly replaced by people who are essentially pod people?
“I wrote it for those who loved the 1959 Roger Corman film Bucket of Blood and wondered when someone would create a feminist version of the ‘frustrated beatniks’ This series? Writer Alyssa Quitney says, “This is probably my most personal work yet because it’s loosely based on stories and letters written by my mother at the time and my father, a science fiction writer. Robert Sheakley (former Omni editor and author of The Tenth Victim) lives in the village. Mixed in with all of these family legends is my lifelong love of Pod People stories, especially all versions of The Eater. The Body,” “Starman” and “The Thing.”
“This is not my first collaboration with Alisa, but it is certainly our most accomplished and ambitious work to date,” said artist Morris. “As an artist, I love being dragged out of my comfort zone and challenged – but boy, was I in for a real adventure here! Trying to accurately depict the conservatism of the 1950s and the swinging 60s There’s something truly remarkable about this strange period between the early 1900s and the early 1900s without falling into cliché. howl is sci-fi horror, a genre I felt uncomfortable with at first – but Alyssa convinced me that I had what it took, and she was right. I definitely have that type, and I don’t even know, my main influence is probably John Carpenter’s The Thing. How convenient, you’ll find out if you give our book a try!
“The Fifties have this reputation, probably from sitcoms, for being staid, conformist, exuberant – oh, man, it definitely comes from sitcoms, because you can’t write Naked Lunch in Leave it to Beaver,” ” said editor Tom Pell. “exist howlIn “Quitney and Morrissette,” Quitney and Morris reveal the essential truth about this fascinating era: that it was, like any other moment in American history, a time of change, fear, danger, and weird cauldrons.
Solid stuff, right? The summary is as follows:
In late 1950s America, Senator McCarthy was hunting down communists, teenagers were making out at drive-in theaters, and B-movies warned of flying saucers and alien invasions—but in bohemian Greenwich Village, things were different. Very different. It was there that we found the members of Scylla, a boys’ club of distinguished science fiction writers and editors, among the turtleneck-wearing, sandal-wearing, smoking freethinkers, intellectuals, and artists. Yet even as these futurists sip cocktails and tell stories of life on other planets, they don’t doubt that real aliens are already among us, sowing the seeds for their empires – or rather , are spores.
Aliens are the last thing on 23-year-old beatnik and proto-feminist Ziva Rodblatt’s mind – she’s busy trying to prevent her mother from discovering she’s living with her boyfriend out of wedlock. But when the boyfriend comes under the influence of celebrity therapist Myrtle Morel, she begins to have doubts. Why would Bert sneak out before dawn to meet a stranger? Why does he suddenly like cream of mushroom soup? Ziva isn’t the only one who believes she’s living with someone who seems familiar but is clearly different. Suddenly, it seemed like a lot of writers, artists, and musicians were falling under the spell of Myrtle. But what can an energetic college dropout do to fend off an alien invasion?
Finally, here are some preview pages and panels.
“You might say I repurposed the ‘alien hidden among us’ trope to reflect my own concerns,” Quitney added. “Back in the Fifties, there was a widespread fear of a fifth wave of evil outsiders pretending to be one of us. After spending several years dealing with a family member’s dementia, I wanted to explore what it means to see someone so… The psychological horror of being so profoundly changed that they look like a stranger Because I can’t accept horror directly, I like to present it with humor – the jelly shot method.
“Without a doubt, this collection sums up the beauty and magic that true collaborations should always have,” added Morris. “Alyssa and I—we ‘clicked’!” It all looked like a dance, with each dancer knowing the steps the other was going to take. Working under the AHOY umbrella again feels like the best part of my 30+ year career to date. I hope you, the reader, enjoy this journey too. Of course I do.
