East Coast Dispatches: First Horror Series, First Photo Exhibition

I was originally going to send this update last week, but thought everyone’s inboxes would already be traumatized with a non-stop deluge of SDCC news.

Now that you’ve had a day to recover, let’s get into it!

“Terror can’t be contained, and Mad Cave Studios resurrects one of horror’s deadliest nightmares” in HAMMER HEAD, a brutal new five-issue horror comic book series from writer Ed Brisson and artist Damian Couceiro, with colors by Dee Cunniffe and letters by Patrick Brosseau.

Synopsis: “For 20 years, Jules has been hiding from her past. As the only survivor of the Hammer Head killing spree, she carries the guilt and trauma of having watched as everyone she loved was brutally murdered. Every couple of years, Hammer Head rises from the dead to continue his reign of terror anew, and with each repeated massacre, Jules falls deeper into the warm embrace of her own dark coping mechanisms.

When she’s thrown into prison with no trial and no hope, Jules finds herself part of a dark ritual built to force her back into the past that she’s spent her life trying to escape.”

“When I first got into comics, my plan was always crime and horror. While I’ve managed to write plenty of crime, I’ve only managed to dabble in horror here and there—mostly in short stories in Hellraiser, Creepshow, and Hello Darkness—though I guess you could argue that my Ghost Rider run was horror-based. Still, I’ve somehow never done a straight horror project—until now.

With Hammer Head, we wanted to create something that had the same feel as an ‘80s slasher movie, but without feeling derivative. I wanted something that felt fresh, something that played with the tropes of 80s slashers in an interesting and new way. Something that people wouldn’t see coming. Something that would horrify readers when they finally discovered what was REALLY happening.” —Ed Brisson

The debut issue features Cover A by Damian Couceiro, Cover B by Justin Coffee, and Covers Cover C and D by Bjorn Barends. We have a look at the first three covers below!

Hammer Head #1 will be released just in time for Halloween on October 7th, with Final Order Cut-Off (Pre-Order Deadline) on September 14th. You can pre-order this now from your local comic book shop or Mad Cave Studios.

This is the type of book I’ve been wanting to do for years. I’ve been a horror fan my entire life. As a kid, I was banned from watching them after persistent nightmares triggered by Poltergeist and Night of the Living Dead. But, barring me from watching them only fed my obsession. I was the only one on the house who knew how to program the VCR, so would set it to record horror films airing on TV after midnight and then watch them after school when no one was around — one of the benefits of growing up a latchkey kid.

As a teen, I used to go to my local video stores on Mondays and take advantage of the 5 movies for $5 deal, renting 10 for $10, and would make my way, alphabetically, through the horror section -- from April Fool’s Day to Fulci’s Zombie. When I’d finished with one store’s horror offerings, I’d move on to another until I’d exhausted the local horror supply. Like a fiend, I then sought out other horror fans and would tape trade back and forth, always on the hunt for rare and twisted movies.

Some of my very first writing back in elementary school was fan fiction (before “fan fiction” as a term existed), starring Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Leatherface, etc. I was so enthralled with these worlds that I was once almost expelled from school after one of my teachers confiscated a story I’d been working on in class (instead of doing actual class work). They were so horrified by the bloodfest that I’d written that they called in my mom for a meeting with the principal -- it’s only through her intervention that my expulsion was downgraded to a suspension.

In Hammer Head, Jules, our hero and the original final girl from Henry “Hammer Head” Elgin’s first massacre, is someone who has not been able to escape the trauma of what’s happened to her. She carries an immense amount of guilt, feels a responsibility for the deaths of her friends and family, but it’s a level of remorse that she cannot face. And so, for the 20 years since his first (but not last) attack, she’s hidden herself away on the margins of society, in a constant self-inflicted fugue.

When she’s arrested on drug charges and carted off to a mysterious prison -- with no call, no lawyer, no trail -- she and a small group of inmates are forced to confront their own past tragedies in a secret, brutal government experiment.

Co-creator and constant collaborator Damian Courceiro has done some career-defining work on this book -- including incredible character designs that will haunt your nightmares for years. Of all the projects we’ve worked on together over the past 15+ years, this might be my favourite.

I’m also excited to be reunited with Dee Cunniffe, on our third creator-owned project. Dee’s bloody colours are a perfect match to Damian’s brutal inks.

Of course, in addition to Damian’s cover, we’ve also got a Björn Barends, Martin Simmonds, and Justin Coffee (his first ever cover!)

I should have more exciting news on this book in the near future and will be sure to keep you all updated. I’ll be banging the drum on this one loudly.

You can also keep up to date on news about the book on Mad Cave’s website. Here and here.

As some of you may already know, I’ve gotten pretty heavily into photography over the past few years. I’ve been lucky enough to find a local group that’s been incredibly supportive in my learning and growth and have had the chance to exhibit photos a half dozen times now. In August, I’m going to have my very first solo exhibition entitled Insomniac.

I’ve suffered from insomnia since I was fourteen. It’s persisted through high school, college, getting married, having a kid, and moving cross-country. Over the years, I’ve tried everything from melatonin to prescription medications, from exercise to removing all clocks and electronics from the bedroom. Everyone I talked to had a solution and loved to share articles they’d stumbled across or anecdotes of what worked for a friend-of-a-friend.

But none of it worked. Ever.

To cope, I often go for long drives or walks late into the night, sometimes not returning until the sun comes up. Exploring backroads and sleeping neighbourhoods long after everyone has gone to bed is equally eerie and peaceful. In that quiet, I’m usually able to calm my constantly racing mind.

The goal of Insomniac is to capture that feeling -- the disconnect from the rest of the world that runs on a different schedule, of existing and exploring while the rest of the city sleeps. Of finding comfort in the quiet solitude of night.

If you’re in the Halifax area, I’d love to see you at the opening reception on Thursday, August 6th from 6-8pm at ViewPoint Gallery (1475 Bedford Hwy, Bedford, NS). There will be refreshment and snacks! I’ll also have an Insomniac photozine and postcards for sale at the show.

The exhibition runs until Sunday, August 30th.

For those of you not in the area who would like to pick up a zine, I’ve added them to my shop, which you can get to by clicking here.

Also, if you’re interested in following my photography in general, I post to a separate Instagram account from my comics stuff. You can check my photo account right here.

A THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS event tie-in! The DarkBirds and Mon*Star are tearing Sixth Earth apart to find Neko and the rebels. Little do they know that Neko is diving into the heart of Mon*Star's operation, hell-bent on destroying his operation from within...

In all the SDCC news flying about, I neglected to mention that the latest instalment of our Thundercats x Silverhawks crossover dropped last week!

Vincenco Frederici is doing incredible work and I couldn’t be happier than to have been teamed up with him.

Stakes are high as Neko tries to shut down the SilverHawks and Mon*Star. I do not think that ANY of you are prepared for how this series is going to end!

Once again, I’ll be at DCAF this year, slogging my books to locals who’re surely sick of my nonsense by now. It’s always a great time and is FREE for all to attend.

About:

DCAF is a FREE all-ages event celebrating comics & cartooning! Dozens of cartoonists, illustrators, animators, writers & vendors of comics! Come see their wondrous wares at this annual event – like a farmer’s market but it’s all comics!

DCAF is held at the lovely Dartmouth waterfront at Alderney Landing on a middle Sunday in August every year! Like a comic-con but with FREE ADMISSION! Sponsored by Strange Adventures Comix & Curiosities

Best,
Ed Brisson
Halifax, Nova Scotia