Comics’ next big horror series is coming… and its beloved creators are at Emerald City Comic-Con 2025, giving excited fans fresh details. Exquisite Corpses, a new 13-issue series from Image Comics, features the incomparable horror writer James Tynion IV (Something Is Killing The Children, Nice House on the Lake), who partners with talented artist Michael Walsh (Silver Coin, Nullhunter) and a bevy of other brilliant creators to craft a bold new tale of terror and violence.
Speaking at a “fireside chat” in Seattle’s new Convention Center, Tynion IV and Walsh took a deep dive into their past work and their new collaboration for Exquisite Corpses. Starting with compliments, James Tynion IV highlighted Silver Coin, a gorgeous horror anthology illustrated by Walsh, which Tynion IV said inspired him to reach out about creating the world of Exquisite Corpses alongside him.
Shooting right back, Walsh complimented Tynion’s stunning Nice House on the Lake, a truly excellent and trippy series.
Speaking on their inspirations, Tynion IV explained that the X-Men: The Animated Series and the comic event Age of Apocalypse were the first steps in his love for comics (something I can relate to as an X-Men fanatic). Later, it was Vertigo’s diverse comics that really inspired Tynion IV with his comic writing after realizing just how unique and vast the world of comics could be, later becoming an intern at the Vertigo offices at the start of his comics career.
Asked to give an “elevator pitch” on Exquisite Corpses, Tynion IV said, “Every five years, the 13th wealthiest families get together to play a game. Each of them selects an incredibly dangerous killer and releases them into a small town in America. Whoever wins the fight, that family gets to run the country for the next five years. This is the story of the small town of Oak Valley, Maine, with the people of Oak Valley trying to stay alive in this dangerous game.”
Tynion IV considers the series a “serial killer fight ’em up” and wanted a chance to craft unique, fascinating characters and make them beat each other up!
Tynion IV and Walsh want to “invest years of time and energy” into the Exquisite Corpses world, reporting that the first 13 issues in the comic are only the first series of, hopefully, many. Since this killer game happens every 5 years, Tynion IV said he could imagine a follow-up series called Exquisite Corpses 1985, and the possibilities of expansion also include a series focusing on the backgrounds of certain fan-favorite killers.
While Walsh and Tynion IV loved designing the incredibly unique serial killers that act as the series’ villains, they say that the story’s true heart is the town’s residents, who start dying very quickly but make you root for them to survive as long as possible.
The first killer Walsh designed was “Gamer Kid,” a “sociopathic, terrifying little kid who was equating people he killed in the real world with kills in a video game…. as we went through the process of creating the characters, we then made Gamer Kid a Cub Scout, wielding a machine gun named Calvin.”
“The Fox Mask Killer” is a “Kill Bill” type assassin who Tynion IV thinks will become a fan-favorite, iconic character from the new series, as well as “Rascal Randy,” a monstrous killer in a massive rabbit costume (which Walsh said was inspired by Chuck ‘E Cheese).
Hilariously, the moderator of the panel, Jazzlyn Stone, said that when she was reading the newest color version of Exquisite Corpses on a recent plane trip, she needed to turn away from the people sitting next to her because of just how gory and brutal Walsh’s art was.
Tynion IV also revealed that while creating the Exquisite Corpses comic, their team began developing an actual real-life game inspired by the series. First thought up by Michael Walsh, the artist began creating stats for various characters and brought a draft version of the game with “killer cards” to a writer’s summit for the creative team… and they loved it. They spent an entire night playing the game! Walsh reports that they have been play-testing the game with a group of folks and that they really cannot wait for people to get their hands on it, although details are still being kept secret. So exciting!
Personally, I can’t wait to dive into the world of Exquisite Corpses – which debuts on May 14th, 2025, with a massive 60-page #1 – and explore the twisted world that James Tynion IV and Michael Walsh have created, even though I know it will probably give me nightmares for days.
You must be logged in to post a comment.