Horror novelist Adam Cesare‘s signature novel has a title that contains the two scariest words in the English language, Clown in a Cornfield, so right from the get-go you know that he gets horror. He’s also been adding comics to his resume over the last few years, having worked on Power Rangers comics, Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and more.
David Stoll, meanwhile, was the artist for Pantomime, a Mad Cave title with writer Christopher Sebela from a few years back. The story featured students at a school for the deaf who become thieves, and I still remember how clever the visuals were in communicating what was being said and heard by the deaf characters.
The two of them more recently united on Dead Mall, a four-issue miniseries from Dark Horse Comics. Along with letterer Justin Birch, they told a complete story that combined horror and mall culture. The story takes place in — and is narrated by — the Penn Mills Galleria, a former mall that’s about to be demolished when a group of kids decide to visit it one last time. Only they find it isn’t quite so empty.
The miniseries was recently collected into a trade paperback by Dark Horse Comics, and it’s available now in comic shops and bookstores everywhere. I spoke with Both Cesare and Stoll about the story, abandoned malls and more.
Continue reading “Smash Pages Q&A | Adam Cesare and David Stoll on ‘Dead Mall’”
