Q&A: Artist Mauricet Discusses Collaborating with Writer Alisa Kwitney and AHOY Comics to Bring HOWL to Otherworldly Life

2025/01/15 18:07:58 +00:00 | Derek Anderson

Something domineering and not of this world is infecting the thriving artistic community of Greenwich Village circa 1957 in the new comic book series Howl. Written by Alisa Kwitney with artwork by Mauricet, the first issue of Howl is now available from AHOY Comics, and Daily Dead caught up with Mauricet in a Q&A feature to discuss the new five-issue series, including paying homage to comic book artists from the ’50s, instilling Greenwich Village into the story as its own authentic character, and collaborating with Alisa and the team at AHOY Comics to bring this sci-fi story to otherworldly life!

You can read our full Q&A with Mauricet below, check out our previous Q&A with Alisa Kwitney, and be sure to keep an eye on AHOY Comics' website for more details on Howl and their other exciting comic book series!

Thanks for taking the time to answer questions for us, Mauricet, and congratulations on Howl, which does an amazing job transporting readers back to the beatnik scene of Greenwich Village in 1957! Howl reunites your excellent artwork with the powerful prose of Alisa Kwitney. How did you initially get involved with this series?

Mauricet: Hey, thanks for the interview and mostly for liking my work with Alisa. Howl was discussed while we were still working on our previous book G.I.L.T. Alisa and I have a really great collaboration and, might I say, friendship. We are discussing new story ideas all the time and the kind of things I’d like to draw next.

Greenwich Village in the late ’50s is not just a backdrop but also a major character in Howl. How important was it for you to authentically capture that time and place through your artwork?

Mauricet: The Village is a character in itself in our story, really. I gathered as many references as I could find: photos, movies, some books… but most of all I tried to avoid being too cliché, too obvious. I also tried to put myself in the mindset of the time a bit (antimaterialism, soul-searching, and realistic portrayal of human condition. No drugs, though, ahah!), listening to modern jazz, and reading about the movement’s flagship authors like Ginsberg, Burrough, and Kerouac.

You’ve collaborated with Alisa previously, including on the Creepshow and Project: Cryptid comic book series. What do you enjoy the most about working with Alisa to bring engaging stories and unique characters to life?

Mauricet: It’s a real collaboration. We go back and forth all the time. Alisa is open to my ideas, my views as a storyteller. What is best for the story is what will see print no matter who came up with the idea. We really are co-authors. And as I said, we’ve become friends over the years as well. Comics are a labour of love for me. It, of course, involves telling stories, but it’s also about human relations, empathy and being in tune.

Jack Finney’s The Body Snatchers is one of my favorite books of all time, and Howl certainly pays homage to Finney’s timeless sci-fi story. Were you influenced or inspired by The Body Snatchers and its film adaptations while working on Howl?

Mauricet: That book is wild. And I was really disturbed by its 1978 movie adaptation. I watched the 1956 version not so long ago and liked it a lot. The recent one… nah.
As for being influenced graphically, not really. "I Married A Monster From Outer Space" from 1958 on the other hand really helped me in terms of mood and look. I don’t know if it shows in the art, though.

Do you have a favorite scene in particular that you illustrated for Howl?

Mauricet: That would be revealing too much about the storyline. I enjoy all the challenges Alisa throws at me. But to answer your question somehow, let me say that I enjoyed the little homages to Wallace Wood, Jack Kirby, and some other comic book artists from that era that I was able to draw. And I’m really proud of my covers this time.

What has it been like to collaborate with the team at AHOY Comics to help bring Howl to life?

Mauricet: Working with AHOY is a pure joy. They know what they’re doing and are doing it well. Tom Peyer, my editor, gives me creative freedom and has firm beliefs in my abilities as a storyteller and artist. And the people at AHOY are honest and trustworthy people, too.

Ultimately, what do you hope readers take away from Howl?

Mauricet: I hope the people who’ll pick up our books will be entertained by the story and art and have some fun escaping the sometimes too harsh reality of the 21st century. Being entertained and captivated is mostly what I expect as a reader as well.

Howl is initially a five-issue series, but do you and Alisa have plans to continue this story beyond the fifth issue if given the opportunity?

Mauricet: Howl is really a standalone story. But who knows? With Alisa, we’ve discussed a possible second story arc.

What advice would you give to artists who are just getting started?

Mauricet: Comic books are a story-driven medium most of all. Never forget that. It’s of course also about pretty pictures, but these have got to tell a story.

With Howl #1 out now from AHOY Comics, do you have any other projects coming up that you can tease?

Mauricet: I have another book, a one-shot, that I’ll soon start drawing for AHOY. They haven’t announced it yet so… Hush.

Thank you very much for your time, Mauricet!

Mauricet: Again, thanks for giving me the opportunity to use words instead of pictures for once.

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HOWL #1

(W) Alisa Kwitney
(A) Mauricet
Cover A: Mauricet
Cover B: Bill Koeb

Marry a science fiction writer, become science fiction! That’s the law of Greenwich Village in the late 1950s, home of poets, artists, musicians, writers, their put-upon partners—and the extraterrestrial spores that are secretly taking them over! Novelist/comics writer Alisa Kwitney (The Sandman Presents) mixes science fiction with family memoir, featuring stunning art by Mauricet (Star Wars Adventures).

January 15, 2025

$3.99

Press Release: The latest collaboration from novelist and comics writer Alisa Kwitney (The Sandman Presents, G.I.L.T.) and artist Mauricet (Star Wars Adventures, G.I.L.T.) is HOWL, a witty bohemian sci-fi that can best be described as Mrs. Maisel meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The five-issue series is set in Greenwich Village in the late ‘50s, home of poets, artists, musicians, sci-fi writers, their put-upon partners — and the extraterrestrial spores that are secretly taking them over. HOWL is the latest series from AHOY Comics, the Syracuse-based independent publisher known for its acclaimed creators, witty satires, and commitment to risk-taking storytelling. Issue #1 will feature an A cover by Mauricet as well as a B cover by renowned illustrator and painter Bill Koeb and land in stores on January 15, 2025.

"I wrote this series for anyone who loved the 1959 Roger Corman movie Bucket of Blood and thought, When is someone going to do a feminist version of the 'frustrated beatniks on a rampage' trope?" said writer Alisa Kwitney. "This may be my most personal work yet, as it is loosely based on my mother's stories and letters about the period when she lived in the Village with my father, the science fiction writer Robert Sheckley (former Omni editor, author of The Tenth Victim and unacknowledged influence on Douglas Adams). Mixed in with all this family lore is my lifelong love of pod-people stories, especially all versions of Body Snatchers, Starman and The Thing.”

In most of late 1950s America, Senator McCarthy is hunting down communists and teenagers are making out at the drive-in while B-movies warn about flying saucers and alien invasions — but in the bohemian Greenwich Village, it’s a different story. It is there, amongst the turtlenecked, sandal-wearing, reefer-smoking free-thinkers, intellectuals and artists, that we find the members of Scylla, a boys’ club of brilliant science fiction writers and editors. Yet even as these futurists sip their cocktails and spin tales of life on other planets, they do not suspect that the real aliens are already here among us, planting the seeds — or rather, the spores — of their empire.

Aliens are the last thing on 23-year-old beatnik and proto-feminist Ziva Rodblatt’s mind — she's too busy trying to keep her mother from discovering that she is living out of wedlock with her boyfriend. But when said boyfriend falls under the sway of celebrity therapist Myrtle Morel, she begins to grow suspicious. Why is Bert sneaking out before dawn to meet with strangers? Why does he have a sudden taste for cream of mushroom soup? And Ziva is not the only one who believes that she is living with someone who looks familiar, but is unmistakably and disturbingly different. All of a sudden, there seem to be a lot of writers, artists and musicians falling under Myrtle's spell. But what can one feisty college-drop-out do to fend off the alien invasion?

"This is not my first collaboration with Alisa, but it's certainly our most accomplished and ambitious work so far," said artist Mauricet. "As an artist, I love to be dragged out of my comfort zone and be challenged — but boy, was I in for a real adventure here! Trying to be accurate and nail this weird time period between 1950s conservatism and the beginning of the swinging 60s without falling into clichés was really something. HOWL is science fiction horror, a genre I wasn't at ease with at first — but Alisa convinced me I was capable and turns out she was right. I do have this genre in me and, without even knowing it, my main influence was probably John Carpenter's The Thing. How convenient, as you'll see if you give our book a try!"

“The Fifties have this reputation, probably from sitcoms, as staid, conformist, prosperous — oh, man, it’s definitely from sitcoms, because you couldn’t write Naked Lunch in the Leave It to Beaver house,” says editor Tom Peyer. “In HOWL, Kwitney and Mauricet reveal the essential truth about this fascinating time: that it was as much a bubbling cauldron of change and fear and danger and weirdness as any other moment in American history.”

“You might say I've repurposed the 'alien hidden among us' trope to reflect my own concerns,” added Kwitney. “Back in the fifties, the prevalent fear was of a fifth column of nefarious outsiders pretending to be one of us. After spending years dealing with a family member's dementia, I wanted to explore the psychological horror that comes from watching someone change so profoundly that they seem like a stranger. Since I can't take horror straight up, I like to serve it with humor — the jello shot method."

"This series sums up without a doubt for me the beauty and magic of what a real collaboration should always be," added Mauricet. "Alisa and I — we 'click!' It all seems like a dance where each of the dancers knows the steps the other one is going to take. And working together under the AHOY banner again makes me feel like this is the best part of my 30-something years long career so far. I hope you as a reader will enjoy the ride too. I sure do."

HOWL will be published by AHOY Comics, the independent publisher perhaps best known for SECOND COMING, a controversial satire by Mark Russell, Richard Pace and Leonard Kirk in which Jesus Christ resumes his holy mission; JUSTICE WARRIORS, the acclaimed political satire by Matt Bors and Ben Clarkson; and BABS, the profane sword-and-sorcery satire by Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows. The company is the brainchild of journalist and satirist Hart Seely (publisher), an award-winning reporter whose humor and satire has appeared in The New York Times and on National Public Radio; comics writer Tom Peyer (editor-in-chief); and cartoonist Frank Cammuso (chief creative officer). AHOY Comics launched five years ago with four acclaimed comic book magazine titles featuring full length comic book stories, poetry, prose fiction, and cartoons.

HOWL #1 will be on sale in comic shops everywhere on January 15, 2025.

About the Creators

Alisa Kwitney is a former DC Comics staff editor and the author of the Eisner-nominated mini-series Destiny: A Chronicle of Deaths Foretold. Her novels have appeared on The New York Times New and Noteworthy in Paperback list and Barnes and Noble’s Discover Great New Writers program. She has an MFA from Columbia University and has taught writing at Fordham University and McDaniel and Manhattanville Colleges. Her mother, Ziva Kwitney, wrote non-fiction for Ms Magazine, Cosmopolitan and the New York Times. Her father, Robert Sheckley, was the author of the novel The Tenth Victim, which became a cult classic film. He is considered a master of dark, funny science fiction, and is best remembered for his short stories. Much of his best work was done in the late fifties and sixties, when he was living with Ziva in Greenwich Village.

Website: www.alisakwitney.com

Twitter: @akwitney

FB: www.facebook.com/alisa.kwitney.sheckley/

Instagram: @k.witty

Mauricet is a Belgian comic book artist. He has been drawing since he could hold a pencil in his right hand. His career started 36 years ago in Belgium and France working for some of the big publishers in Europe. For the American market, he has worked on such titles as Tellos, The Crossovers, Harley Quinn, The Gang of Harleys, Dastardly & Muttley, Future Quest, Star Wars adventures, Swine and Creepshow.

More recently he has been steadily collaborating with AHOY Comics drawing stories for Edgar Allan Poe's Snifter of Terror and Project: Cryptid as well as the miniseries G.I.L.T. co-created and written by Alisa Kwitney.

About AHOY Comics

AHOY Comics debuted in the fall of 2018 with the bold promise for readers to expect more from its line of comic book magazines, featuring comic book stories, poetry, prose fiction, and cartoons. The independent, Syracuse-based company is the brainchild of publisher Hart Seely, an award-winning reporter whose humor and satire has appeared in The New York Times and on National Public Radio. AHOY’s editor-in-chief Tom Peyer is committed to publishing comics with a (dark) sense of humor with titles like the religious satires SECOND COMING and HIGH HEAVEN, the superhero parodies THE WRONG EARTH and HASHTAG: DANGER, the sci-fi spoof CAPTAIN GINGER, the time travel tales PLANET OF THE NERDS and BRONZE AGE BOOGIE, and the humor/horror anthology series EDGAR ALLAN POE’S SNIFTER OF BLOOD.