Q&A: Writer Michael W. Conrad and Artist Dave Chisholm Take Us Into the Haunted Rooms of PLAGUE HOUSE

2025/04/02 00:11:46 +00:00 | Derek Anderson

Oni Press invites readers to join a trio of ghost hunters in the haunted McCabe House in the new four-issue series Plague House. Written by Michael W. Conrad and illustrated by Dave Chisholm, Plague House #1 debuts this Wednesday, April 2nd, and Daily Dead caught up with Michael and Dave in a new Q&A feature to learn more about their uniquely haunted home of horrors!

You can check out our full Q&A below, and we also have a look at chilling preview pages and cover art for Plague House #1!

Thank you for taking the time to answer questions for us, Michael and Dave, and congratulations on your new comic book series Plague House! I really enjoyed the first issue and can’t wait to see what frights will be found in future installments. When did you initially come up with the idea for this supernatural story?

Dave Chisholm: This one’s for Michael to answer! But I’m hyped that you enjoyed the first issue–it only ramps UP from here and goes to some pretty unpredictable places!

Michael W. Conrad: I found myself considering the nature of haunted locations and realized that in the West we all kind of land on only one for a small handful of reasons. Unhappy/unresolved spirits, spiritual mistakes, or on more secular reasonings. My interest in this brought me to several older, less familiar philosophical explanations that I won’t discuss here for fear of spoiling something. Regardless, I wanted Plague House to marry these concepts in a way that will allow the reader another option. I like all the explanations for ghosts, and I don’t want Plague House to negate anything, I just wanted to add another perspective.

Plague House follows an eclectic paranormal investigative team consisting of Del, Jacob, and Holland, who all bring something unique to the investigation of the haunted McCabe home. How much time did you spend developing the backstories of this intriguing trio?

Michael W. Conrad: I like that each of the characters might feel familiar, and play with the typical ghost hunter tropes. I like even more that in spending time with them that they really took on a life of their own. Before I started drafting the script I created fairly developed backstories for each, and we get to see a small peek at each in issue 1. That said, there’s a lot about these characters that hasn’t made it onto the page, and in this way I will be haunted by each of them. That’s the nature of storytelling, it’s like a fractal, and we have to pick a course. When I’m done with a story there’s always a mourning period about what didn’t make it into the book. Hopefully I’ve done them right by giving enough, and leaving the right gaps for the reader to fill in as they see fit. It’s really important to me to treat characters fairly, and to allow them to be represented as complete people, not just paper dolls to torture for our amusement. I sometimes wonder if when a writer dies if they need to stand before their creations and answer for the things we’ve done to them.

Dave, I love the way your visuals pair with Michael’s prose to vividly bring nightmares to life in the McCabe home, especially the ghostly inhabitants lurking within the house’s creepy confines. How much fun did you both have creating the many horrors awaiting readers in this haunted house?

Dave Chisholm: Oh yeah, tons of fun, tons of fun. I love the weird properties of comics’ visual language that allow for some small bit of form or structure to interact with the story proper, to let the form and content reflect each other. It’s not JUST about putting amazing/horrifying moments into little boxes, but how every single element contributes to storytelling. Definitely the weirdest part about this, though, is that I based the interior of the McCabe house on the interior of my own house. Was this a huge mistake? I guess I will find out!

Michael W. Conrad: I write a lot of stories that incorporate dreams and wild circumstances that allow us to really get wild with the visuals. Often the hardest part is showing some restraint; Dave has a jazz background, and I’m a fan, so we both know that quote about the notes you don’t play being important. Dave has an uncanny way of being able to capture the horror while keeping it grounded, this has been a critical component of Plague House.

While working on Plague House, were you both influenced or inspired by any other haunted house stories in film, TV, comic books, or video games?

Dave Chisholm: Definitely–each of our three protagonists, in a way, could serve as representative of some of the various wings of this strange part of human culture–Del is very much the tv personality ghost hunter, the “ghost bro” who probably was a backup wide receiver on his high school football team but feels the need to “goth it up” and wear black all the time now that he’s found his niche, while Jacob is representative of that religious/Catholic side of it that we all know from pop culture–The Exorcist and such. And Holland stands for that sort of Gen-Z “new media,” Tik-Tok, short-form video culture that is rooted in perhaps a cynical kind of artifice. Maybe that’s not a totally generous read of any of these characters! Sorry, Michael!

Michael W. Conrad: Dave really nailed it. He’s right about the influences on the characters, and while I don’t always like these types of people, I did endeavor to make each of them the type of person I could identify with in some way, and kind of root for.

Plague House is initially planned as a four-issue series, but do you have plans to continue this series beyond the fourth issue if given the opportunity?

Dave Chisholm: I dunno–the big idea could absolutely have legs!

Michael W. Conrad: We could definitely further explore the concept, it might need new characters though, I’m not sure anyone will survive.

With Plague House #1 coming out on April 2nd from Oni Press, what do you hope readers take away from this series, and do you have any other projects coming up that you can tease?

Dave Chisholm: I just hope people dig it. There are definitely things that I hope people get out of it, but I’d like for them to find their own conclusions to a work like this. It’s a nuanced story for sure–but also super fun and scary and gnarly.

Michael W. Conrad: I have a bunch of stuff on the way, but right now I mostly just want to make sure people dig into Plague House. I’m interested to see how people respond to the ideas we’re bringing to the table, and like Dave, I prefer to allow the reader to define their own meaning here. I think the story brings up a few really troubling questions we all like to avoid. I want people to be entertained, but I’d like even more for this stuff to stick in their mind, and encourage them to consider their stance on things. In the process of writing Plague House I realized that while this is indeed about ghosts, it’s also about questions that don’t have easy answers. Regrettably the world will keep asking us to determine our stance on some of these, and maybe through thoughtful media we can explore our moral compass, so we can be better equipped when we have to make a choice.

Thank you both very much for your time!

Dave Chisholm: Thanks so much for this!

Michael W. Conrad: Thank you, and thanks to my fellow oddballs, outcasts, and overthinkers. We’re gonna be okay, I have to believe this.

******

Press Release: PORTLAND, OR (February 3rd, 2025)– Oni Press – the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher of groundbreaking comics and graphic novels since 1997, is proud to present an extended look inside PLAGUE HOUSE #1 — the FIRST ISSUE of a deep and disorienting reinvention of the haunted house genre from acclaimed writer Michael W. Conrad (Wonder Woman, Double Walker) and 2024 Ringo Award-winning artist Dave Chisholm (Miles Davis and the Search for the Sound)! On April 2nd, it’s not the house that’s haunted… It’s the soul of America itself when PLAGUE HOUSE #1 makes its damnable debut!

“I've always loved horror books, movies, and comics--the weird, the occult, and ghost stories are part of my DNA--and so I am incredibly pumped to get to make this book with Michael and Bess Pallares and everyone at Oni Press,” said artist Dave Chisholm. “Michael's story works on so many levels--it's got great characters, it's got a fresh take on the haunted-house genre that's relevant--and it's scary, shocking, and fun all at the same time. I'm really bringing everything I've got to this art, too, and I can't wait for this book to keep people up at night.”

“As I’ve worked on this PLAGUE HOUSE I’ve discovered things about myself that I’m not entirely comfortable with, and perhaps that’s where true horror lives,” said writer Michel W. Conrad. “PLAGUE HOUSE is a story about haunted locations, how they work, and the demands they make of the living. It’s a story about violence, revenge, and the petty vulgarity that can get trapped in locations soiled by violence. PLAGUE HOUSE is a horror story about us, and the specters created in the wake of our most selfish deeds.”

Thirteen years ago, Orin McCabe was a family man living a privileged life in the suburbs. Today, he’s condemned to death row for murdering his entire family in an unexpected fit of hammerwielding brutality. In the aftermath of his heinous crime, it’s fallen to a trio of eclectic, but dedicated, ghost hunters—Jacob, the holy man; Holland, the skeptic; and their leader, Del, a true believer in the occult and worlds beyond—to surveil the abandoned McCabe home in search of proof for the existence of the undead . . . and whatever supernatural source may have possibly fueled McCabe’s inhuman massacre. But this ill-matched and uneasy squad of investigators is about to discover something much more terrifying than any ordinary spirit. . . . Something much more pernicious, much more contagious, that if not contained, could take full advantage of America’s unquenchable appetite for violence and deliver a plague of blood unto us all . . .

These never-before-seen preview pages usher you into a strange and dangerous world stained with blood, fear, and the deepest depths of the unknown..

In addition to the issue’s main cover by Dave Chisholm, PLAGUE HOUSE #1 will feature variant covers from Brian Level (Star Wars: Vader – Dark Visions), Noah Bailey (Wonder Woman: Black and Gold, Tremor Dose), Nathan Ooten (Neptune), and Alex Eckman-Lawn (Mouse Guard: Legends of The Guard, Art Brut). The infection is coming, whether you’re read or not, when PLAGUE HOUSE #1 begins to spread this April!

PLAGUE HOUSE is the next chapter in Oni Press’ genre-colliding slate of must-read titles for Spring 2025 that also includes MINE IS A LONG, LONESOME GRAVE #1 by Justin Jordan & Chris Shehan(February), FREE FOR ALL #1 by Patrick Horvath (March), OUT OF ALCATRAZ #1 by Christopher Cantwell & Tyler Crook|(March), and THE GODDAMN TRAGEDY #1 by Chris Condon & Shawn Kuruneru (April.)

For more updates on Oni Press, visit them on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram and X.

PLAGUE HOUSE #1 (of 4)

WRITTEN BY MICHAEL W. CONRAD

ART & COVER BY DAVE CHISHOLM

COVER A BY DAVE CHISHOLM

COVER B BY BRIAN LEVEL

COVER C (RETURNABLE) BY NOAH BAILEY

FULL ART VARIANT (1:10) BY DAVE CHISHOLM

VARIANT COVER (1:20) BY NATHAN OOTEN

VARIANT COVER (1:50) BY ALEX ECKMAN-LAWN

ON SALE APRIL 2nd 2025 | $4.99 | 32 PGS | FC