ADAM CESARE IS HANGING AROUND A DEAD MALL

How did you come to work with the illustrator of Dead Mall? And how your working relationship with them works?

I think pitching comics, it’s a “there’s no set way to do it” kind of thing, but I think more often than not an artist and a writer collaborate on a pitch and then send it around. That wasn’t the case here, I wrote up a pitch and character sheet for Dead Mall and that’s what I ended up selling to Dark Horse, so then it became a case of finding the right artist (with the right, open schedule, which is such a tough thing). My editors were invaluable during that process.

It was actually another artist on our shortlist that tipped us to David Stoll. And I owe that artist a drink at the next con we’re at, because working with David on this has been a dream. One of the kindest, most patient collaborators I’ve ever had on any project. Phone, twitter DM, text, long email chains: we’re in pretty constant contact.

And he’s so talented. I had some weird, amorphous, and honestly, not as good, version of Dead Mall in my head when I pitched it, but what David and I have been able to produce, working together with this team (our editors, Justin Birch on letters): so good.

Who came up with the look of the characters?

When people say “comics is a collaborative” medium, they really really really mean it. My scripts had very minimal physical description for our human characters (and a little bit more for our non-human ones), the character descriptions I put down were more for “general vibe” and then David and I went back and forth, finding what worked and what didn’t, with input from our editors. I think Emmett, our teenage alcoholic, was the character who had the most design iterations. Which was fitting, because Emmett’s a complicated guy.

Are they based on anyone you know?

Oh not at all! I don’t have a ton of friends. Gotta make them all up.

Is this your first foray into horror comics?

It is, which is odd, because it’s like my third time working in comics? Not that I’m any kind of pro, by any means. But with Boom! I did short stories for Adventure Time, Power Rangers, which led to a 4-issue arc on their Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance title (a run I’m incredibly proud of). But, no, for being a fairly single-mindedly horror guy, this fourth time working in the medium is my first time doing horror.

What made you decide to step into this market?

I’m a lifelong comic reader and have been reading comics since before I could read prose. My dad grew up a comics reader, and as a child in the 90s one of the things we’d do together, he’d bring me to the comic shop, I’d pick my titles, and he’d read them to me. So it’s been a medium I’ve been dying to break my way into for a long time.

And I very much caught the bug, with those first short stories, and I kept emailing Boom!, after they made the mistake of letting me in that first time for Adventure Time. I love collaborating with a team, I love working with artists, who are basically wizards, to me as a non-drawing layperson. And now getting to do it with Dark Horse? Who was the publisher of at least half of those books I was picking up as a kid? It’s wild to me, I’m so grateful I get to work with them.

What was the inspiration for Dead Mall, and do you think there is a gap in the market for the YA age group?

Dead Mall—a comic at least *metaphorically* about the psychic and physical damage commerce does to young people—grew out of, oddly enough, my love of malls. I love walking around malls, looking up their Wikipedia pages, seeing what their anchor stores used to be, what the layout was before the last time it was renovated. And Dead Mall is an idea I’ve had in the back of my mind for a while, but every time I’ve thought about pitching it as a prose book, I’ve recoiled, telling myself: no, it’s 110% a comic. I could spend forever in a book describing what a mall looked like in 1964, then 1994, then what it looks like now, as an abandoned building, but in comics David and I can just show you. And that’s never mind the fact there’s a lot of other tricks we use, that are endemically comic book-y. It had to be this medium.

And as far as is there a gap in the market for YA, maybe? But I also I think it’s in the process of being filled? There are a lot of great YA and MG comics, especially in the original graphic novel space, both from the indies with YA/MG imprints (Boom! Dark Horse, Aftershock, Vault) and the big two (some of the coolest stuff DC and Marvel are doing is for teen readers).

Bearing in mind you wrote the hugely successful Clown in a Cornfield (2020), a YA novel widely read by adults, would the readership be equally blended for Dead Mall?

It’s interesting, in my pitch materials, I called Dead Mall YA, but then when it got time to start handing in scripts, I think Dark Horse was a little surprised at the content (violence, language, and… other stuff that would be totally fine in a YA prose setting), so I think they’re some days looking at it more like an adult title that features teens, rather than a teen title with adult crossover. But it’s fully YA to me, if a little, uh, goopy. I think this fits perfectly with the Clown books and my other (unannounced) YA novel work.

So, long answer short: yes, Dead Mall is definitely something I hope both teens and adults pick up and think will appeal to both audiences.

Comics, unlike novels, are more of a quick hit and don't have the advantage of having the narrative time to hook a reader; how did you ensure that Dead Mall hooks the reader with the first issue?

Haha. As I’m writing this the first issue isn’t out yet! So who knows if we have! But hooking readers in issue one was, clearly, something I tried to be cognizant of. Which I think was helped a lot by the fact that we’re a 28-page comic, which is longer than a lot of single-issue titles. We’ve got a little more space and, generally, I think one of my strongest assets is my ability to sketch characters quickly through dialogue. Add to that Stoll’s art and we’re in business. You’ll end issue 1 knowing who these teens are and what kind of trouble they’re in (very big trouble), you’ll also have a clear idea of who the villain is (the mall itself, who narrates the book), but, saying that, I don’t think you’ll at all see what’s coming next issue, or the one after that, and you deffffffinitely won’t guess how things end in issue 4.

Basing a comic on a bunch of teenage kids must be filled with narrative pitfalls and traps, especially concerning the "voice" of the protagonists; how did you tackle making the characters feel natural to the younger reader?

I taught high school English for 5 years, and not all that long ago. So I try and listen when I’m around young people, but I think the idea of “sounding young” is a trap in itself authors can fall into. Because we aren’t young, and language changes faster than publishing moves, so I try to write dialogue that works as dialogue and fits the characters and story, isn’t necessarily “true to life”.

We don't really have malls over here; we have shopping centres, but they are more like a wee corner shop to those of you over the pond. Please explain the draw of malls to kids to those of us more used to\ hanging outside of the local Walmart.

Oh wow, y’all are missing out. I’m sorry. Hmmm. How to describe a mall? First of all, think of your favorite stores, now move them closer together, and it’s not raining, and all your friends are there, and everything smells like hot oil and cinnamon, since you’re standing down wind from the combination Wetzel’s Pretzels and Cinnabon. Just heaven. You really should make a trip over to the States before they’re all gone. Because we are losing a lot of them, as the way people shop changes.

How many episodes do you see Dead Mall running for?

It’s a mini-series, so these 4 issues will tell a complete, self-contained story.

Were you ever tempted to turn Clown in a Cornfield into a graphic novel?

Hmmm. No, that was always a novel. And I think going back and doing a straight adaptation wouldn’t really work (or be something I’m interested in), but if there were a way to do a spin-off, a Frendo side story that felt like it fit the medium, maybe something that happened between the first and second book… I wouldn’t be against that at all, I’d be sharpening my pencil to write it.

It has taken graphic novels and comics years to lose the reputation that they are in some way 'dumbed down' literature, and I saw not too long-ago legendary YA author SE Hinton (of The Outsiders fame) was savaged on Twitter for alluding to this outdated opinion. How relevant do you see comics as a form of literature, particularly for the horror genre?

I think anyone who says stuff like that hasn’t read comics. But I also don’t want to get my knives out for SE Hinton. Who cares? She’s made huge contributions to literature. I say leave her alone. Do I think comics are lit? Yes, of course, if we’re doing the reductionist “what counts as ‘real’ reading” debate (hint: it all does). But I also think comics is a medium and artform completely unto itself. Like film, like music. I’m interested in consuming good art, not categorizing it (or, frankly, defending it) for the narrow-minded.

Clown in a Cornfield won the YA Stoker award and was a genuine flagship winner for the prize. Has your career had much of a bounce from the Stoker success?

Yes, I’m very honored and grateful for it. I think, even audiences who aren’t familiar with the award or the HWA, you put “award winning!” on the cover and it gives you a bump. Then there’s the faith it brought me with my publisher. It was a blessing on a lot of fronts, for sure. Plus: cool statue, *almost* in-scale with Warhammer miniatures.

The YA book sector is hard to make inroads into and is often seen as very cliquey. As a traditional horror writer with many adult titles under your belt, have you made many new contacts, been invited to speak to school kids or had the opportunity to develop your 'brand' as a YA writer, especially now that Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives is out?

That hasn’t been my experience at all and I think it’s unfair to characterize YA that way. I’ve been invited to speak at stores, libraries, book conferences, classrooms, book clubs: I think the readership and support system around it is incredible and I’m so thankful for it. And that’s not even getting into the digital side of things, the remarkable booktubers and tiktokers and bookstagrammers (most of whom specialize in YA) that have supported me and the books in a big way.

Which of your adult novels would make the coolest comic?
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Oh for sure either Video Night or Exponential. Selfishly, just to see what/how an artist would visualize the monsters in each.


Thank you so much for the insightful questions, it was great to talk!

DEAD MALL #1

Shop Til You Drop!
The Penn Mills Galleria is about to be demolished. Five teens sneak into the mall to take a last look around before it's gone. However, while Penn Mills has been closed for years, the mall is far from abandoned. A night of exploration becomes a shopping spree from hell. The teens must contend with the sprawling, transformative cosmic horror of Penn Mills or be trapped forever within the Dead Mall.
· Adam Cesare is a critically acclaimed horror author and is a leading voice in the emerging genre of contemporary YA horror.

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 Clown in a Cornfield, earned a 2020 Bram Stoker Award nomination, multiple starred reviews, and has been optioned for film.
CREATORS
Writer:
Adam Cesare
Artist:
David Stoll
Colorist:
David Stoll
Cover Artist:
David Stoll
Genre: Horror

Purchase a copy here 

Adam Cesare

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Adam Cesare is a New Yorker who lives in Philadelphia. He studied English and film at Boston University.

His work has been featured in numerous publications, including Shroud Magazine. His nonfiction has appeared in Paracinema, Fangoria, The LA Review of Books and other venues. He also writes a monthly column for Cemetery Dance Online.
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His novels and novellas are available in ebook, paperback, and audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all other fine retailers.
You should buy some.

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