"Writer Michael W. Conrad and acclaimed artist Noah Bailey, the creative team behind the hit graphic novels Tremor Dose and Double Walker, reunite for The 99 Legs, their most disturbing collaboration yet. The 99 Legs finds its roots in the duo’s shared appreciation of the Italian Giallo film genre, complete with its leather clad killers, twisting suspense, and the perfect marriage of avant garde and low brow art sensibilities. Together with letterer Kyle Arends, Conrad and Bailey deliver a fright filled original graphic novel that will be released exclusively via Amazon’s Comixology Originals digital content line on November 17, 2026, and will be published in print from Mad Cave Studios on August 3, 2027."
I recently had an opportunity to catch up with Michael W. Conrad and Noah Bailey to learn more about their latest collaboration, their Giallo influences, and much more! Along with a preview of The 99 Legs, we also have a process video and images from Noah Bailey to give Daily Dead readers a behind-the-scenes look at bringing this story to life.
What were the initial conversations between you two that led to the creation of The 99 Legs? And what about this particular project excited the two of you enough for it to be your latest creative endeavor?
Michael W. Conrad: We batted around a ton of great ideas, ones I hope we get to at some point, but The 99 Legs immediately made us both excited, mainly at the prospect of how different it felt from our previous books. I think I pitched it to Noah as being an excuse for me to write some very purple prose, and set it in an uncanny time period in a very different setting than the books we had done before. Aside from that, with Giallo as a major influence on the idea it gave us a good reason to jump into some incredible cinema and view it through a lens of what we might do if we were handed the keys. We both had enjoyed Giallo films previously, but deeply examining them and digging into the lesser-known stuff only made me more excited to write this one.
Noah Bailey: Michael came to me with the initial idea. We were developing a completely different story, different in every way from this one. I had begun doing material tests and research for that book, and Michael was basically like “I’m really inspired by this right now, so what do you think?” And I was stoked! I was incredibly excited about the other project as well, and I hope we get to that, but this was a very exciting change of pace, and it just immediately filled my head with imagery, and I knew exactly how I wanted to approach it.
You’ve both mentioned Giallo films as a major source of inspiration. What specific Giallo films do you gravitate to and what was the biggest influence on this book?
Michael W. Conrad: Lot’s of Argento, Deep Red, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, other classics like Torso, Don’t Torture a Duckling, Black Belly of the Tarantula, and even stuff like Peeping Tom, which isn’t Giallo, but shares a lot of the same genetics.
Noah Bailey: Opera, Tenebrae, Suspiria, Blood and Back Lace, Deep Red, especially. And then some kinda American Giallo-inspired films like Cruising, Dressed to Kill, Road Games.
Having worked together on multiple projects now, how has your creative partnership and process evolved?
Michael W. Conrad: We recently did an interview and the person conducting it said he could really tell that we’re friends. I asked him if that was uncommon and the core of his response seemed to be yes. Noah and I aren’t now and never have been business partners, or anything like that, we’re friends first. I think when we started making comics together we quickly realized that more important than anything was looking out for each other. Our friendship is familial, a real bond, we got serious about getting books made at the same time and I quickly realized that in Noah I had found so much more than a creative associate. I don’t know if it has been as much an evolution as a realization that I’m really lucky to have met someone who clicks so well with who I am and what I do.
Noah Bailey: It’s really true, I love Michael very much. I love creating with Michael. I love the way his mind works. I love the conversations we have. I love the work we make together. I think we are part of a karass, bound in some inexplicable way. We found each other in a strange way, and I can’t imagine us ever having been strangers. That’s not to say we haven’t had our share of head-butting and harsh moments. We are like brothers, sometimes all of these intense feelings come out in awkward ways and make for some poor communication, but even in all of that, the love is always there and always will be. We are intense people and we don’t hide it! Hahaha. But, seriously, I love this man immensely. His success and happiness is my success and happiness. I adore him. It is always exciting to work together and I always am looking forward to the next thing. It’ll be a beautiful thing to be real old and look back on all of the things we’ve made together.
With the meta-concept of the story following a writer whose work comes to life, did you put more of yourself into this character than you traditionally do in your books?
Michael W. Conrad: I think it would be interesting to say yes, but the truth is no–I put myself in all the books in a variety of ways. Some of the characters express elements of myself I like, or parts I detest, but at the end of the day they are fictional. I think I’m self-aware enough to know when I’m brushing up against these elements of myself and I make an effort to not go there. It feels dangerous to even admit this much, because the characters in our stories are so incredibly flawed, I wouldn’t want readers to believe that the morals, opinions, or choices of the characters we bring to life are based too closely on my own. There might be some intersectionality in moments, but I’d like to believe that I can tell these kinds of stories without the assumption of a self-insert, or that I might have a busted moral compass.
Noah, I really loved the visual techniques used on this book, including the way color was used in a very Italian horror / Giallo-esque way. Can you speak to your creative approach?
Noah Bailey: Thank you so much! I was just really excited to finally put all of these years of studying ink drawings to use and get a lot of black down on the page! I really threw everything I’ve ever learned about ink at this thing. It was scary, and exhilarating. I felt like I was in communion with the ink masters at fleeting moments. Hahahaha. The coloring was a unique beast! Sometimes the color enhances an image immediately, and other times it can be a bit of a battle to make sense of it all. I just knew that I wanted the colors to be exciting to look at. If you flip through the book very quickly in printed form, it’ll look like a whole bunch of unique settings and moods. That was my desire!
Can you two tease the horrors that await readers in The 99 Legs and something you're especially excited for readers to experience in this book?
Michael W. Conrad: The 99 Legs has some really incredible moments, fights on fire escapes, bodies riding on carousels, remains propped up like mannequins in department stores, it goes on and on and with Noah illustrating it, you know it’s going to be at once brutal and beautiful. The thing I’m most excited about is the quiet stuff, the moments without as much flash or gore. Noah is capable of taking a brief description of a scene and making it come alive. I’ve heard people say that part of what made early Star Wars work was that everything felt lived in, everything had a history, and this was made richer by our imaginations filling in the gaps. Noah’s art does that for me. The 99 Legs is basically Star Wars.
Noah Bailey: If you’re new to our work together, you can expect a fast-paced, prose-rich, surreal, occult, colorful murder saga! If you’ve read all our previous work, you can expect something totally different from all that, but I hope ya still dig it!
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"When a down-on-his-luck crime writer discovers a string of gruesome murders in his area that seem to align with his newest unpublished manuscript, he alerts his agent in the hopes that they can prevent it from being delivered to publishers. Terrified by the turn of events and fearing that the book will implicate him in the crimes, he tries to stop the murders before they happen. What follows is a blood-spattered, spiraling nightmare, as the mystery of the killer’s identity unfolds.
Together with letterer Kyle Arends, Conrad and Bailey deliver a fright filled original graphic novel that will be released exclusively via Amazon’s Comixology Originals digital content line on November 17, 2026, and will be published in print from Mad Cave Studios on August 3, 2027."
To pre-order and learn more, visit: https://www.amazon.com/99-Legs-Comixology-Originals-Vol-ebook/dp/B0DK2YRQ9D/
PREVIEW:
After more than a decade as a consultant in the entertainment industry, Jonathan James launched Daily Dead in 2010 to share his passion for horror. He takes immense pride in Daily Dead's talented team of writers, who passionately explore and celebrate horror as a respected art form capable of telling complex, character-driven stories with deep emotional and cultural impact.
Over the course of his career, Jonathan has written more than 10,000 articles and hosted panels at major conventions, including New York Comic Con and San Diego Comic-Con. He is also consulted with as an expert on horror and pop culture, offering insights on horror history and the latest trends through media outlets, film festivals, and conventions.
After more than a decade as a consultant in the entertainment industry, Jonathan James launched Daily Dead in 2010 to share his passion for horror. He takes immense pride in Daily Dead's talented team of writers, who passionately explore and celebrate horror as a respected art form capable of telling complex, character-driven stories with deep emotional and cultural impact.
Over the course of his career, Jonathan has written more than 10,000 articles and hosted panels at major conventions, including New York Comic Con and San Diego Comic-Con. He is also consulted with as an expert on horror and pop culture, offering insights on horror history and the latest trends through media outlets, film festivals, and conventions.
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