Zack Quaintance and Anna Readman, who worked together on last year’s Death of Comics Bookcase anthology, have teamed up for Macabre Valley, a “Texan werewolf grindhouse comic” that draws from Quaintance’s days as a reporter on the Texas.Mexico border.
“Right after college, I spent five years as a newspaper reporter in South Texas, a wild place filled with news and legends,” said Quaintance. “I was in way over my head. It didn’t go well, and it’s always felt like a bit of a horror story to me—so now we’re taking my real life experiences and crafting a fantastical, monster-filled version of events.”
The result is Macabre Valley, which Quaintance is currently funding on Kickstarter. The campaign is for the first issue of four, and it actually hit its goal already, so all you need to do is pledge and wait for your copy to arrive before Halloween.
“By doing the comic through Kickstarter, we’ll be able to do the book our own way, with all the twists, gore, and gritty terror this story demands. It’s going to get bloody, y’all,” he said.
Here are more details on the story:
Set in Texas, Macabre Valley is not just about the carnage delivered by a clerically-collared lycanthrope on the loose, but also about the death of the local news itself. In the comic, a young reporter gets a job covering the night cops beat at a newspaper in South Texas. When a Border Patrol agent is gruesomely murdered, our hero must untangle a violent mystery with a beloved local priest and a werewolf at its dark center.
Readman is joined by colorist Brad Simpson, letterer Becca Carey and designer Jared K. Fletcher in bringing the story to life.
“I’ve always loved the stoic romantic notions of Americana and the Southern Gothic,” said Readman. “From the melancholy notes of Townes Van Zandt to the pensive prose of Cormac McCarthy, the weird world of the Southwest has always been alluring to me. So when Zack sent me the script to Macabre Valley it was an immediate yes. Plus, drawing tattered cowboys is always fun!”
You can check out a preview from the comic below, along with the variant cover by John J. Pearson. Check out the Kickstarter page for more information.
