Q&A: Meredith McClaren Pays Homage to Teen Horror Television and Gives a Supernatural Spin to Real-World Issues in New Graphic Novel MEAT EATERS

"Let it be said that dying is rough. Nineteen-year-old Ashley Moore found this out the hard way." A teenager reluctantly discovers a supernatural side to her previously ordinary world when she wakes up dead one morning with a taste for really fresh meat in Meredith McClaren's delectably deadly Meat Eaters. With the undead graphic novel taking a bite out of shelves on July 8th from Oni Press, Daily Dead had the great pleasure of catching up with Meredith in a new Q&A feature to discuss the origin of Meat Eaters, paying homage to teen horror television (especially from the ’90s), and giving a supernatural spin to real-world issues in her creepily unique coming-of-age tale.

You can read our full Q&A with Meredith below, and we also have a look at the cover art and preview pages from Meat Eaters!

Thanks for taking the time to answer questions for us, Meredith, and congratulations on Meat Eaters! When did you initially come up with the idea for this graphic novel?

Meredith McClaren: Oh, man. I’ve got it in the pitch folders going back all the way to 2018. Feels like ages ago.

I think part of it came from a lot of watching teen supernatural shows, where characters would just be needlessly mean to each other and thinking, "They need a character to look them dead in the eye and say, ‘Stop that.'’’ They needed a "mom friend."

Another part of it is just coming from issues I have around eating and food. Ongoing health stuff that has developed in tandem to the book. Ashley trying to figure out what is happening to her mirrors some of the same stuff you go through when you’ve got chronic symptoms and can’t find an answer.

From the first draft to the final version, approximately how long did it take you to write and illustrate Meat Eaters?

Meredith McClaren: Let’s see. Like I said, it was in the folders from 2018. I don’t think the script was given a green light until 2022. And the final pages were turned in around November 2024.

It’s so fun to follow the main character of 19-year-old Ashley Moore, who wakes up dead one day with an insatiable craving for flesh. How important was it for you to make this an intriguing coming-of-age story in addition to a spellbinding tale of horror as Ashley is forced to dig up and face the demons of her past?

Meredith McClaren: So, I really like the minutiae of stories. I’m not wired to do big overarching stories about the end-of-the-world events. Grand epics. Not saying I’m not intrigued by those and the possibility of doing them. But I tend to gravitate towards smaller stakes. Like, when I read superhero stories, I want to know about the superhero suit tailors. I want to know about the insurance adjustors. I want to know about what kind of therapy you need after dealing with the Joker.

A zombie figuring out what to eat is just the thing I like to do. Unfortunately, it has a lot of similarities to real-world issues people face. But it adds a spin to it that makes more people engage and pick up.

I’ve mentioned this before in other talks, but there was a behind-the-scenes thing in Buffy I saw once that made the most sense to me in the world. They tried really hard to write whatever monster her monster of the week was, as a corollary to whatever personal issues she was working through. It made a narrative thread that bolstered everything they were getting to. So yeah, if you can take a supernatural spin to a real-world issue, you’ve made the audience interact with the problem with a new thinking structure. It’s something I try to work with often.

Do you have a favorite moment in Meat Eaters that you’re especially excited for readers to experience?

Meredith McClaren: Ashley’s first real fight with a creepy is a lot of fun. I like to think it shows a lot of her character. She’s practical. She can get the job done. She’ll have a breakdown about it when it’s safe to do so.

Ashley’s journey and the creatures she encounters along the way remind me of shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Charmed. Were you influenced or inspired by any other comics, TV series, movies, books, or video games while working on Meat Eaters?

Meredith McClaren: Yeah. I grew up with Buffy and followed the first few seasons of Charmed. Angel too. I was a big CW ’90s supernatural buff. Teen Wolf was on my radar while writing this too. The book is definitely more a response to those shows than most other influences. (I was really into creepypasta though as a teen as well.)

It’s a lot of, "Were I in this extremely unlikely situation, here’s what I would do."

Ultimately, what do you hope readers take away from Meat Eaters?

Meredith McClaren: Don’t ignore your problems. Don’t pretend they don’t exist. You have to look them in the eye and reconcile that even if you can’t make them go away, you can find a way forward while tolerating them. And if you’re upfront and honest about them, you can often find people who are willing to walk that path alongside you.

Do you have plans to continue this story in a sequel to Meat Eaters if you were given the opportunity?

Meredith McClaren: I DEFINITELY do have a few threads to follow in my head. I would really like to explore what embracing the creepy lifestyle would mean for Ashley. She’s a de facto werewolf leader now, so there’s politics.

She’s also come to terms with what being a ghoul means IN THE MOMENT, but there’s a lot to unravel about what that means for her future. She’s already dead. She’s exceeded her cut off point. What does that mean for interpersonal relationships when you know you’re going to outlast mostly everyone?

And the vampires. I would really like to give the vampires more airtime. They amuse me so much.

But it also depends on audience. If they want more, I’ll give more.

What has it been like to work with the team at Oni Press as you prepare to unleash Meat Eaters into the world?

Meredith McClaren: Oni’s been lovely. They gave me my first break in comics with Jen Van Meter’s Hopeless Savages V4. A lot of my introductory experiences with the industry were facilitated through them, so they’re always going to have a special place in my heart. And I’ve done a couple of other books with them since.

The guidance and assistance that they’ve offered in the making of Meat Eaters has been so very appreciated. And the book really would not have come into itself as well as it has without them.

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

Meredith McClaren: Try and figure out what your consistency is and stick to that.

A lot of people ask me how to make themselves known to the industry and I often reply that being present on some kind of social platform on a consistent posting routine is really helpful. What that routine is, is for you to decide. And it’s something you really have to be honest with yourself about. If your consistency is once a month. That’s fine. If it’s three times a week, I’m suspicious, but again, also fine.

The point is that you are honest about what your audience can expect from you. What you can do without overburdening yourself. If you tell your people, "I only upload once a month, but it’s on time," your audience is not going to hold that against you. They just want to know when they can expect you back and how best to support you.

Don’t work yourself to the bone on a deadline that’s going to destroy you. It’s a really easy trap to fall into, and it kills a lot of creatives.

With Meat Eaters coming out on July 8th, do you have any other upcoming projects that you can tease for our readers?

Meredith McClaren: I’ve got a self-published travelogue called Enjoy. Endure that’s posting currently to my Patreon. By the end of the year, I’ll start posting it publicly and will hopefully be in the works putting it in a physical copy. It covers a recent trip to Vietnam, and I’ve really enjoyed it.

There’s a new middle grade book in the works with Little Brown called The Rift too. It’s about two half-sisters, one human, one a little more than that. And how their relationship starts to change after the older one starts to step out into the bigger world. That one’s not due until 2029 though, so there’s a bit of a wait.

I do have two other books that came out this year though, if people are jonesing for more stuff. Crumble is written by me and drawn by Andrea Bell. It’s a middle grade realism fantasy about being able to eat your feelings for real, and the kind of consequences one can expect from the bad ones. And then there’s the second installment of Black Cloak, written by Kelly Thompson and drawn by me. That one’s more of an adult sci-fi, fantasy, detective story about the last city left in the world and the people all trying to live there. Sometimes there’s murder.

Those are the only ones I can talk about for now. 

Thank you very much for your time, Meredith!

Meredith McClaren: Thank YOU! It was a delight.

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Press Release: Oni Press – the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher of groundbreaking comics and graphic novels since 1997 –is proud to announce the next stunning installment in its summer 2025 graphic novel lineup: Meat Eaters. From cartoonist Meredith McClaren—co-creator of the acclaimed series Black Cloak—comes a punishing and poignant original graphic novel about the monsters that lurk both in the darkness beyond—and within us all . . .

Let it be said that dying is rough. Nineteen-year-old Ashley Moore found this out the hard way.

All Ashley wanted was to keep her head down and work hard until she could escape the small town where she felt she was stagnating. But after waking up one night covered in blood—and irrevocably dead—Ashley finds her foolproof plan for getting out has gone up in smoke, and something within her has changed.

Without a heartbeat and with a disturbing craving for fresh—preferably bloody—meat, Ashley finds herself privy to a world that exists just beneath our own: a world of ghouls and monsters and things that go bump-in-the-night. Despite her desire to be left alone—and to not think about the night of her death at all—Ashley is slowly drawn into the realm of the unusual, getting advice from ancient vampires, dodging angry pack leaders, and becoming the reluctant big sister to werewolves Motley and Harrison. As she does, she finds it increasingly difficult to put away the parts of herself she wishes to ignore—namely, what happened that fateful night she stopped breathing. The truth, it turns out, can’t stay buried forever.

“MEAT EATERS is an ode to all the teen horror television I lovingly consumed over the years,” said Writer and Illustrator Meredith McClaren. “Where there are bad things in the world, sometimes they hurt you, and sometimes that makes you change in ways you do not like.”

In this visceral story about the effects of trauma and anxiety, dying is indeed hard. But getting on with it? That can be worse. Don’t miss this deadly debut when Meat Eaters takes its first bite in comic shops and bookstores everywhere on July 8, 2025!

About the Creator

Meredith McClaren is tired. When not safely in her bed, cocooned in a burrito of comfort, she has worked on stories like BLACK CLOAK, HEART IN A BOX, HOPELESS SAVAGES, and SUPER FUN SEXY TIMES.

Sometimes while still in bed.

You can find her website at: meredithmcclaren.tumblr.com

Her Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/meredithmcclaren

And her twitter at: @IniquitousFish

But you might have to get out of bed to check those websites.

Best not risk it.

About Oni Press

Founded in 1997, Oni Press has a 25-year history as one of the industry’s most respected and acclaimed publishers of award-winning comic books and graphic novels with titles including Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim, K. O’Neill’s Tea Dragon Society, Cullen Bunn & Brian Hurtt's The Sixth Gun, Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer, Ezra Claytan Daniels' Upgrade Soul, Brenna Thummler’s Sheets trilogy, and many hundreds more. In 2019, Oni Press merged with Lion Forge Comics – the Eisner Award-winning independent comic book publisher founded by Academy Award-winning producer and entrepreneur David Steward II – to create one of the largest, independent libraries of comics content anywhere in media. The Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group now exists as a publishing subsidiary of Steward’s diversified global media company, Polarity.