Cullen Bunn is a deeply scary person. And over the years, he’s shared some of that horror across his many comics projects, including Shock Shop, Shadowman, and The Midnite Show. Now, though, Bunn (alongside artist Jesus Hervas) is launching a new title, Invasive, that he’s calling among his most disturbing to date. Is your skin already exploding with goosebumps?
Invasive is described as a “terrifying new experiment in pain” as it focuses on Dr. Carrie Reynolds, a “veteran trauma surgeon with a godlike mastery of muscle and bone.” When her daughter Heather, a “recovering plastic surgery addict” suddenly goes missing (and then mysteriously returns), Carrie comes to visit and investigate a “new kind of underground hospital” — one with “no rules, no oaths, and no taboos too deep to not to be broken.” As physically effective as it is a psychologically assaulting, Invasive is a truly gripping entry in the singular kind of horror that Bunn has been mastering and building toward for years. You’ve been warned.
Invasive #1 is due out December 13 via Oni Press. In the lead up, Bunn was kind enough to speak with us about all things Invasive. That includes how Bunn builds his stories, his work to become increasingly terrifying/unsettling, a few cryptic story teasers, the narrative’s interest in power, and the idea of “going too far.”
Courtesy of Oni Press.
AIPT: What’s the elevator pitch for Invasive?
Cullen Bunn: Imagine a secret hospital, one with no rules, no code of ethics. The surgeons within this hospital are performing unnecessary and unwanted surgeries on unsuspecting patients, leaving a trail of the traumatized, the mutilated, and the dead. Two people—a surgeon and a detective—have banded together to seek out and stop this hospital and the fiendish physicians who toil within.
AIPT: You’ve said that this book is inspired by nightmares. What fresh hell does a Cullen Bunn nightmare look like, and why are these experiences so potent creatively?
CB: My nightmares usually manifest as these quick, incoherent flashes, like I’m briefly remembering some best-forgotten event from my past. Either that… or full on night terrors… which I haven’t experienced in a minute but probably will now that I’ve mentioned it. Thanks, AIPT. Thanks.
AIPT: Revisiting the nightmare thing for a second: does it almost feel like an experience of clarity? Like your brain telling you what you need to be writing right now?
CB: Sometimes, sure, and when that happens I’ll jot the idea down or just wake up and start writing.
Courtesy of Oni Press.
You know what I think is a little more troubling? I recently had a doctor who told me that sometimes nightmares occur because of some physical event taking place while you’re sleeping, like you’re not getting enough air. The nightmares occur as a means of stirring you out of sleep to address this.
Who knows?
But now I can’t shake the idea of nightmares as an early warning system.
Into the idea file it goes!
AIPT: You’ve also said this is among your most disturbing stories/books to date (that’s an accomplishment). Do you try to set the bar every time, and how is this one somehow more terrifying than a decidedly horrifying bibliography?
CB: I’m always trying to do something new and exciting, trying to challenge myself, trying to do something different. With Invasive, I wanted the book to feel, with every page, like this weird harbinger of approaching doom. I wanted the reader to feel the horror closing in. I played around a lot with reality versus surreality. I played with the pacing. I played with the character motivations. All of these things in the service of a very disturbing story. And I think I pulled it off. This one will stick with you.
AIPT: The book explores the “addictive nature of power.” Why is that idea intriguing, and how does it play out within the confines of the book?
CB: It’s something I’ve tinkered with in several other books, I guess, so it must be something that fascinates me. I’m really interested in the corrupting nature of power, especially how even a small amount of power can really go to someone’s head and change who they are. It’s like mutation, isn’t it? And power can be a tough addiction to shake… even when it is stripped away from you. In this book, we’re seeing the addictive nature of power primarily from the angle of these physicians who are performing these terrible procedures as a kind of strange power-play. We’re also seeing it from the point-of-view of our leads, who feel, for different reasons, that they have no power at all, that their lives are not their own. And that leads them into some pretty dark places.
Courtesy of Oni Press.
AIPT: You’re also reuniting with Jesus Hervas (after The Empty Man: Manifestation). How has your collaborative process developed, and what’s he added to this book?
CB: Jesus is a master of the dark and strange and twisted. He proved that with his work on the Empty Man books, so I knew he’d be right for this story. He also has a way of making our lead characters simply look… broken… haunted… in a way that seems both chilling and real.
AIPT:Why do stories that are basically “healthcare gone wrong” so impactful? Does it feel like a perversion of the one thing that’s supposed to preserve and value life, and does that somehow play into the larger addiction motif/theme?
CB: The perversion of something—of someone—who is supposed to preserve and protect life is a big part of this, yes. Invasive feeds off a mistrust, a misunderstanding, a fear that medical professionals, those we’re trusting with our lives, might turn against us or work without our best interests in mind.
AIPT: What’s the single most horrifying or bloody moment you can tease about this book?
CB: Oh, I’m not spilling the beans on that one! I will say, this book builds and builds to moments in the final issue that will terrorize the reader for a long while to come.
Courtesy of Oni Press.
AIPT: Similarly, is there a favorite or standout character that you can mention? Someone who is a good entry into the larger book/story?
CB: I’m a big fan of both our leads—Carrie and Vic—and I like how they interact and deal with the horrors at hand. Carrie, in particular, has gone to some pretty extreme lengths to find and stop these Murder Surgeons.
AIPT: Is there ever such a thing as “too far” for you? That thing or idea that you can’t write about or find too sacred somehow?
CB: Oh, sure. There are plenty of topics I won’t approach… or that I’ll be very, very careful when it comes to how I approach them. Many of them are personal for me and I don’t have a specific list of topics that I avoid. I guess I know them when I see them.
AIPT: Why should anyone pick up Invasive?
CB: Invasive is standalone horror story that, while running only four issues, will stick with you and give you chills for some time to come.
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