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Welcome to Haunted MTL‘s “People behind the mask” interview series where readers are introduced to fantastic horror content creators.

This week we’re talking to author Russell Nohelty, a USA Today bestselling author and founder of Wannabe Press. Russell has had a great deal of success on Kickstarter, raising over $100,000 across a variety of projects. We’ll be talking about Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter today.

A psychopath escapes a mental asylum and becomes a monster hunter, but he doesn’t know if he’s killing monsters, humans, or it’s all in his head. Ichabod is a self-contained graphic novel that deals with perception, reality, and redemption.

You can buy the book on Amazon right now.


How did the concept for Ichabod Jones come about?

Russell: I had taken my first book, The Wannabes, down to San Diego Comic-Con and pitched it to every publisher I could find. The book was a YA superhero story about fake superheroes who get real superpowers. In fact, that logo became the logo for my company that I still use to this day.

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Anyway, everybody told me no. They said, “why would I do a superhero book when Marvel and DC do superheroes?” This was in 2010, years before indie superhero books became a big seller. So, I came home dejected and decided I wanted to make a book that could NEVER be published, with the most unlikely hero imaginable. Interestingly, it’s become the book everybody wants to publish now and was the first book to get a publishing contract.

I still remember crested over the 405 on my way to the valley when the idea hit me for a psychopath hero, who society cast off, who has to become a hero. I loved the idea of trying to get you to love and root for somebody that society has said is evil. Ichabod is, at its heart, a story of redemption. Can somebody who is objectively evil in the eyes of society redeem themselves and become a hero? Can the audience root for somebody like that?

All those ideas thrilled and excited me. Now, as we start the second arc after a 10-year gap in production, I’m just as excited to explore them as I was on day 1.

You mention Johnny the Homicidal Maniac as an influence to the project overall. What was your experience reading it for the first time?

I couldn’t believe something so horrifying could also be so funny and poignant. Johnny was a HORRIBLE person. I mean, he indiscriminately killed thousands of people, and yet I rooted for him the whole time.

It was truly eye-opening for me as a writer and a comics fan. Johnny was truly deplorable. He killed with joy and glee. Yet, I wanted him to win. It showed me that anything was possible if you crafted the story correctly, and had the right art style combined with a complementary writing tone.

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It is up in the air whether Ichabod is a monster hunter or not. Where do you find most readers land in that interpretation?

They are all over the map. For a long time, my favorite thing was listening to people tell me their theories. As we move into the second arc, that is still a factor, but it’s much less a factor to the story in the second arc. It’s really hard to keep that suspense when you are telling a big story.

However, everything will assuredly be answered as long as I can keep the story going for enough issues. Right now, I have 6 arcs planned out, but the interest has to be there for me to keep telling the story. If I can get there, everybody will know the truth. I just hope it satisfies them.

How did you first connect with Renzo Podestá? How do you feel he has added to the project?

I met Renzo from an open submission in 2010. Back then I was using Digital Webbing to hire artists, and I wasn’t getting many submissions for Ichabod. I got tons for my book Katrina Hates the Dead, but I had only gotten five for Ichabod. I thought that I would have to settle for a less than perfect artist for the project. I saw some who were nice, but none who blew me away.

I was about to hire a different artist when Renzo’s test page came in and I was floored. It made it into the book without changes. It’s page 4 of the first volume. I loved his work instantly. He was the person who turned me on to Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. I knew I wanted something that felt surreal and like we were stuck in Ichabod’s head, but I didn’t know what that meant until Renzo showed me.

One of your other projects is Katrina Hates Dead Shit, though it has expanded to Katrina hating a lot of things. What did you learn from that initial project that you applied to Ichabod Jones?

Well, Ichabod came before Katrina. It was my first book. However, I wrote multiple Katrina stories before I went back to Ichabod. What Katrina and my prose writing, in general, have done is showed me how to tell bigger, more intricate stories.

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Both Ichabod and Katrina were quite simple in their construction, which is okay for a short series, but for a longer series, you need a lot more meat to make it interesting. There needs to be more conflict, and a bigger goal to sustain something for 24-30 issues than for just 4 issues.

What is your favorite horror story?

I don’t like jump scares. I like my horror to dissect the human condition in a weird and creepy way, so I think it’s a tie between Jacob’s Ladder and In the Mouth of Madness.


You can buy the first volume of Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter on Comixology, Amazon, of Drive Thru Comics. Ichabod can also be previewed on Webtoon. Russell and his work can be found at www.russellnohelty.com as well on social media such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Please enjoy this preview of artwork from Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter.

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David Davis is a writer, cartoonist, and educator in Southern California with an M.A. in literature and writing studies.

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Horror in graphic novels

Creepy Comics Collages by Jennifer Weigel, Part 5

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Well, you won’t get rid of me that easily… Ha ha, I lied about coming to the end and the afterlife in the Creepy Comics Collages segment, it was just an opportunity for rebirth. Besides, it’s World Collage Day! So having come into another comic book to rework, here we go again…

The Voice creepy comics collage by Jennifer Weigel
The Voice creepy comics collage by Jennifer Weigel

Creepy Comics Story 9: The Voice (of God or Reason or perhaps an homage to my ex)

“Come to me my children, the voice of God awaits!… Don’t let them escape!” Please beam me up out of this weird comic collage alternate reality. “God I am your hand! Lift me… to your place. I commend my spirit!” I want to go back to dreaming about starfish.

The computer programmer behind the scenes turns to face us and smiles. “Guardians! This is a place of God!… Come to the true voice of God!” “I am everything.” “Come to the voice!” And the horrific AI generated creatures abide by his every coded word.

Just like last night in the — signs posted for Nightmare, No Exit. The deer spirit faun screams in surprise, “Eeek!” “No! I defy you!” She returns to the form of a little girl with arms outspread to the open sky. “Y’know, a day like today makes all the stuff that happened last night seem just like a bad dream!” The dream seems so real…

Somewhere in the city, the computer programmer sits up at night in pensive monologue, “You try to make a difference… But it doesn’t really matter.”

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The City creepy comics collage by Jennifer Weigel
The City creepy comics collage by Jennifer Weigel

Creepy Comics Story 10: The City (Metropolis becomes self-aware)

This segment is brought to you by Dead Artists and Talking Dinosaurs. No really, wait for it…

Woooooo Uhhhh Wooooooo Uhhhh… Wump! Uff! Wump! Uff! “She belongs to The City!” The Glenn Fry 1985 hit single looms ominously overhead as Metropolis becomes self-aware. “The City… will live!… The City… will breathe!” The City gasps for air, “Got to… breathe!… Got to… Breathe!

Her breath is the wind… Her eyes are windows. Her heart pumps fluid through buried plumbing… “I’m The City!” Her mind is The City!

And we have a celebrity appearance by Rich Koz “Son of Svengoolie” WFLD 1973: “I take a nap for 10,000 years and look what happens… some-body builds a city!” Kerwyn chimes in, “Geez! Somebody’s been busy!” And we cut out to a scene of Svengoolie standing alongside his coffin.

Portrait of myself with dark makeup and crow skull headdress, backlit by the sun.
Portrait of myself with dark makeup and crow skull headdress, backlit by the sun.

Well, that’s all folks. Or is it? For now, any way… until I get more comic books… Duh duh DUHHHH…

If you want to see more art, check out more of Jennifer Weigel’s work here on Haunted MTL or on her writing, fine art, and conceptual projects websites.

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Horror in graphic novels

Creepy Comics Collages by Jennifer Weigel, Part 4

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Wow, I can’t believe you’ve stayed the course through four whole strange story posts of these creepy comics collages. But this is the final frontier, the last segment, the standing ovation as it were. So here goes…

The Grave creepy comics collage by Jennifer Weigel

Creepy Comics Story 7: The Grave (shallow enough for ya?)

“It should take longer, it seems to all of them. Such holy flesh should not give before a blade so easily.” “His brow is growing so cold.” “Yes it would be. He’s dying.”

“My god… I’m not dead.” Put the shovel down. “Life is a no-win situation. Besides… You’re already dead!”

“I’m not dead. I’m not dead!… Oh, Oh my god… I can’t move… What’s happened to me?” Buried alive. Or maybe not.

“Dead?” Perhaps I am actually dead. I was expecting something… I dunno… different.

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“I’m not hungry, I’m dead. I’m not sure what I’m doing here, in fact.” At least I’m not a zombie. That seems a small consolation right now though. “My organs are shutting down. It is a relief.”

“Three days have already passed.” We’re just sitting here, rotting. Like Norman Bates’ Mother. At least someone was kind enough to supply a rocking chair. “Oh, one last thing before I go… You’re doing my fucking head in.”

Adrift Afterlife creepy comics collage by Jennifer Weigel
Adrift Afterlife creepy comics collage by Jennifer Weigel

Creepy Comics Story 8: Adrift Afterlife (why you save the best gold coins for the ferryman)

How’d we get here? “I do not stand alone. I am sat in a boat.” “.. to be millions of miles away from any care in the world.” Was that the Ferryman? “Only liberty I know.”

“He does not remember arriving here, or if he has been here before. It is not the island he grew up on, though it feels so very familiar… He has been waiting for the night tides to come in, for they will bring starfish. He has always liked watching them cling to the beach before the current pulls them back into fathoms.”

“And the ocean brings him starfish… Perhaps his father had nothing to do with this place at all.” The ferryman stands on the far shore. It makes no difference now.

“Beneath the ocean, razor-sharp coral grows and plunges towards the surface, sent by a green place that would not like to burn.” “The sand is soft between his toes and he is not ashamed of anything.” The ghosts are here, contentedly it seems.

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Portrait of myself with dark makeup and crow skull headdress, backlit by the sun.

Thank you for joining us for these creepy comics collage art stories. But here’s where we have to leave it off. Trust me, it’s best that way. Besides I’m out of creepy comics to collage with.

If you want to see more art, check out more of Jennifer Weigel’s work here on Haunted MTL or on her writing, fine art, and conceptual projects websites.

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Horror in graphic novels

Creepy Comics Collages by Jennifer Weigel, Part 3

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We’re ba-ack… Are you ready for the next creepy comics collages graphic story overload? After the last time and the intermission I wasn’t sure I’d see you again, but here we are, together again. You’d almost think we put something in the water – wink.

Now where were we? Oh yeah, the world was going to hell… or was it?

Alien Invasion creepy comics collage by Jennifer Weigel
Alien Invasion creepy comics collage by Jennifer Weigel

Creepy Comics Story 5: Alien Invasion (A Fist Full of Physics!!!)

“Elsewhere… months… earlier…” “It begins as a flicker pin-point of light getting closer ever closer until it takes form.” The sky is falling, damn you Chicken Little.

“…unconfirmed rumors of extraterrestrials have surfaced this evening following reported sightings in upstate New York earlier today.” There’s the news for you. Always blowing things up to increase viewership ratings.

“Then I would suggest a test immediately.” ‘K Doc, we get it; maybe there’s cause for concern. Guessing these aren’t friendlies based on intel, or that the government pissed them off. “Where’s William Shatner when you really need him?”

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“Next morning… City Hall…” “A Fist Full of Physics” Blamm-o! “As if that’s some kind of homage.” It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I was feeling fine but now I’m not so sure. “All of this is on your head.” You can thank the world governments with their shoot first, ask questions later policies for that.

“The act was deplorable. It’s ramifications were permanent.” Doc looks unamused. “And the doctor drones on in his cold monotone… ‘Then we all die.’”

Werewolves creepy comics collage by Jennifer Weigel
Werewolves creepy comics collage by Jennifer Weigel

Creepy Comics Story 6: Werewolves (Londoners, eat your hearts out)

“Fables Werewolves… no one can hear you howl.” So now we’re elbow-deep in lycanthropy? This story just keeps getting weirder and weirder…

“… I feel so… disoriented… is this vertigo?” No, you wouldn’t be so lucky. Once bitten, twice shy. It’s The Change. Prepare yourself for the transformation.

“Hello dear.”

“What now?” Enough with the damned interruptions already, can’t you see I’m at work?!

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“Shall we start a war?”

“No! No! Leave me alone! Leave me alone! No!

“What now?”

“I know one thing.” “Never will you suffer the indignity of this animal’s touch again.” The wolf seems somewhat offended by that statement. No really. And probably rightly so.

“Maybe it’s just an excuse, a fucking cop-out for when we inevitably fuck-up our lives and hurt people… We’re not cursed, we’re rotten, or mad or…”

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“I don’t deserve this!” he howls. Stop blaming the werewolves for your own human indecencies. Teacups get broken and the London werewolves get angry.

Portrait of myself with dark makeup and crow skull headdress, backlit by the sun.
Portrait of myself with dark makeup and crow skull headdress, backlit by the sun.

Thank you for going all in with us over this series, there’s… one… more… final… huzzah… In the meantime, check out more of Jennifer Weigel’s work here on Haunted MTL or on her writing, fine art, and conceptual projects websites.

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