When
@josiahwalker_ asked me to create some promotional ephemera for his short film
@veryprosperousmenfilm in the style of a Chick Track, those toxic little evangelical pamphlets that tell us the devil is real and the rapture is comin' soon, I knew two things: it had to be about kids seeing some scary shit, and it had to take place in a movie theatre.
The result is “Happy Ending,” a meta-movie comic. It’s presented as an auxiliary narrative: not quite a prequel, but a story that exists in the same universe as another story. Josiah and I have worked together before but this was our first time really getting our hands dirty. I don't think it'll be the last. I'm so proud of how this turned out, and I'm so proud of him and the film–if you're in LA this weekend, go catch it at
@screamfestla ! You can get a physical copy of this piece if you attend a screening. (I even hand-stapled and cut these. C'mon, don't let my long hours at Staples go to waste!) Swipe to see process photos, and a great shot of me & Josiah in all our ethereal cowboy glory at a work event in Nashville last year.
Side note: when I first took this on, I don't think I realized just how labor-intensive writing, laying out, and drawing a 28-page comic is. The art and writing style is heavily inspired by the work of #grantmorrison in addition to the Chick tracks themselves, and in true Chick fashion I took some analog shortcuts, including tracing my own hands, body, and face, and visiting my local movie theatre (
@plazaatlanta !) for some reference photos, which I then traced and deep fried in a few bespoke photoshop filters. You don't need AI to make mildly off-putting art, kids! Just a tablet, weird facial features, and a dream. I'm pretty sure that's how the bible-thumpers at Chick still do it, after all.
#HorrorCommunity #indiecomics #Screamfest2025 #FilmFestival #ShortFilms
