The following is an interview with GLAAD Award-nominated writer Jude Ellison S. Doyle (Maw, Be Not Afraid) and Eisner Award-nominated artist Caitlin Yarsky (Black Hammer Reborn, EC’s Cruel Universe) regarding the recent release of their new horror series, Dead Teenagers, with Oni Press. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Doyle and Yarsky about their shared creative process in bringing the story and characters to life on the page, the themes that they hope may resonate with readers, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations on today’s release of Dead Teenagers! What can you share with us about the genesis behind this project, and how would you describe the series’ overall premise?
Jude Ellison S. Doyle: Dead Teenagers is a story about five high school students stuck in a time loop. They’ve repeated their prom night in 1997 about 11,300 times in a row. They die every prom night, and their deaths are always a little bit different but ultimately the same: The person who dies first, the person who dies worst, the person who dies heroically, and the person who dies in hiding, and the Final Girl, who never dies at all. One night, the teens discover something odd hiding inside the time loops, and when they find it, the loop begins to break down.
BD: Jude, how would you describe your shared creative process in working with Caitlin to bring this world and its characters to life on the page?
JESD: Caitlin elevated the script at every turn. When I write a limited series, I tend to write all the issues together, back-to-back, because it helps me to maintain tone and continuity, so she had a big chunk of script to work from by the time we met. She went through it with me, asking me how I saw each character, and what references and aesthetics I was pulling from – “the ‘90s” or even “the late ‘90s” can look really different, depending on who’s remembering it – and I tried to put together a big document of looks and vibes and specific touch points. (The DeLiA’s catalogue stood us both in good stead, I think.) After that, Caitlin was both the artist and the colorist on the series, so she’d slowly build out the layers of the book – the layouts, the line art, the colors – and I’d get to see it take form, which was really magical. As an artist, she’s so elastic, and can really do anything you ask her to do, so seeing each new monster take shape, alongside all the tiny little character moments, was amazing.
BD: Caitlin, your artistic style naturally exudes deep ambience, tone, and mood – all of which evoke a strong nostalgia for ‘90s horror. When tackling a project like this one, is there anything that guides or propels your approach to the artwork?
Caitlin Yarsky: When I was growing up, I wasn’t allowed to see a lot of the more gory slasher type movies, But I was obsessed with Buffy, as well as the Goosebumps and Fear Street books, eventually graduating to Stephen King. So, those really informed that unique ’90s horror/comedy line we were trying to walk.
BD: At Fanbase Press, our #StoriesMatter initiative endeavors to highlight the impact that stories can have on audiences of various mediums and genres. How do you feel that the group’s story might connect with and impact readers?
JESD: I think this is a story about nostalgia for people who maybe don’t see their own teen years represented that well in media. One of the tensions in the story is about the way we imagine the teen years – particularly 30 years ago, as this glossy, ideal world full of witty, pretty young people having fun forever – and how being a teenager actually feels. It was still very rare to see openly queer teens. You never saw trans teenagers. You didn’t really talk about certain aspects of young people’s lives, like trauma or mental illness or substance abuse. All of these teenagers are a lot more complicated than the archetypes they’ve been slotted into, and sometimes their experience is a lot more painful and complicated than they’re letting on, and hopefully, other people with complicated or marginalized experiences can see themselves in that.
CY: I definitely agree with everything Jude said about the pain of growing up during that time. The conversations that couldn’t really happen as easily as they can now. While we romanticize an era without phones, the ability to ride your bike with friends all day and not come home til the evening…it doesn’t mean our society was healthy or that kids didn’t experience real, often hidden trauma.
BD: What makes Oni Press the perfect publishing partner for Dead Teenagers?
JESD: I’ve been working with Sierra Hahn, the editor-in-chief of Oni, and Allyson Gronowitz, my editor for Dead Teenagers, ever since my first comic, MAW, back in 2021. I trust both of them really profoundly: They both use genre storytelling to tell interesting, complicated stories that reflect and engage with the world around us. Everything they’ve put their hands to is eye-opening for me, and it’s an honor to be on that list.
BD: Are there any additional projects – past or current – that you would like to highlight for our readers?
JESD: I just wrapped up my third limited series at BOOM!, Be Not Afraid, and it’s as tonally different from Dead Teenagers as I can imagine – just a dark, bleak Southern Gothic epic about God’s responsibility for human suffering – so I have to imagine that reading them side-by-side would be an experience. (Though Allyson was my editor on both!) I also have a non-fiction book about gender called DILF: Did I Leave Feminism, which came out late last year.
CY: I drew a series with Dark Horse coming out for Magic the Gathering: Untold Stories, written by Michael Conrad. A really fun fantasy adventure with lots of Easter eggs for fans of MtG. I also wrote/drew my first solo miniseries with Dark Horse called Living Hell, and the trade came out last summer. If you’re into demon hunters, families that love laughing at each other, and spectacularly dumb Hell hounds, you’re in luck!
BD: Lastly, what would you like to tell fans who want to learn more about Dead Teenagers and your other work?
JESD: You’re supposed to tell people to follow you on social media, but I don’t think anyone benefits from following me on social media. I have a website, judedoyle.com, and the amount of times I post random thoughts about Lord of the Rings there late at night is thankfully limited. So, go there, I guess.
CY: I have an IG account but I mainly post on BlueSky these days. I post my art, some politics, and sourdough bread-making misadventures.
