Q&A: Tyler Boss and Martin Simmonds Discuss Their New Comic Book Series UNIVERSAL MONSTERS: PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

Since Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera was published more than a century ago, many adaptations have graced the screen and the stage (as evidenced in Heather Wixson's excellent Phantom Thread column), and now Skybound Entertainment and Image Comics (in partnership with Universal Products & Experiences) are bringing the haunting of the Palais Garnier to life on the paneled page in jaw-dropping, frightful fashion with a new four-issue comic book series.

Written by Tyler Boss with gorgeous artwork by Martin Simmonds, the first issue of Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera is now lurking in the shadows of comic book shops and digital platforms, and to celebrate its anticipated release, we caught up with Tyler and Martin to discuss their ambitious new take on the classic horror story, including the stunning illustrations (there are so many pages in this first issue that should be on display in an art gallery), telling a love story in "maybe the best haunted house in human history," and the major influence of the 1943 film starring Claude Rains.

Below, you can read our full Q&A with Tyler and Martin, and we also have a look at the cover art and preview pages from Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera #2 ahead of its March 25th release!

To learn more about Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera and other exciting releases (including the new Universal Monsters comic book series centered on Dracula, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein's monster, The Invisible Man, and The Mummy, respectively), visit:

• https://imagecomics.com/

Thank you for taking the time to answer questions for us, Tyler and Martin, and congratulations on Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera! This is genuinely one of the most gorgeous and atmospheric comic books I've ever laid eyes on. How did each of you get involved with this new take on The Phantom of the Opera, and what was it about this classic story that made you want to immerse yourselves in its world?

Tyler Boss: I was working on a slasher comic last year called You’ll Do Bad Things and Alex Antone (our wonderful editor) reached out to see if he could read it ahead of release. After sending it along, he asked if I had any interest in the Universal Monsters. I responded “YES” forgetting to even ask, “Which monster?” I was thrilled when he asked if I had a take on the Phantom. At its core, Phantom is a really simple story: a young woman gets a promotion at work, but then a man who lives in the basement is stalking her. That simplicity really allows the adaptor to explore whatever you find most interesting about those characters and their relationships. It also doesn’t hurt that if you're telling a ghost story, you have maybe the best haunted house in human history as your setting.

Martin Simmonds: First of all, thank you for the kind words! I first became involved with working on The Phantom of the Opera not long after completing the artwork on Universal Monsters: Dracula, however, at the time there wasn’t a writer attached. I had recommenced work on The Department of Truth, so knew it would be a while before I could switch projects, and I think it was probably about a year before a gap in my schedule allowed me to start work on Phantom.

Once I was told that Tyler was writing the series, I was very excited to read the scripts and get painting. I knew Tyler primarily as an artist, but I was excited to work with him on Phantom as he’d recently been doing good things (sorry, poor joke!) as a writer on You’ll do Bad Things, and his scripts for Phantom were incredible, plus it’s always nice to work with friends on projects.

How important was it for you to find a balance between honoring the 1925 Phantom of the Opera film (and the novel by Gaston Leroux) while also bringing your own unique vision to this timeless story? Were you both fans of the original film adaptation and book before working on this series?

Tyler Boss: Funnily enough I think my first introduction to the Phantom was with the Goosebumps version, and while I’ve read the novel and love the 1925 film, we actually started our adaptation looking at the 1943 Claude Rains version. While that may seem an odd choice with how iconic the [Lon] Chaney version is, the ’43 version being less known really was a benefit to our retelling. It gave us a framework that was pretty different from the two most well-known adaptations of Leroux’s novel, which opened up new avenues for us to explore. Things like: with all these people dying at the Palais Garnier, we should lean more into Raoul as an investigator. Bring a cat-and-mouse police procedural element to his part of the story. Why is this specific Phantom here? Why is he interested in Christine? Fans of the 1943 film will notice the inclusion of characters like Anatole Garron and the Maestro from that film, though they will seem a fair deal different than their movie counterparts.

Martin Simmonds: My introduction to The Phantom of the Opera was the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, but our series is directly inspired by the 1943 movie, so that was the visual starting point for me. The 1943 Claude Rains movie is such a beautiful-looking movie, there was plenty to draw from as our starting point.

Martin, I’m in absolute awe of how your artwork brings this classic story to life in beautiful and haunting fashion. There are multiple pages of this story that I would frame and hang on my wall in a heartbeat. The swirling textures and bold colors really invite the reader into the haunted Paris Opera House. What was your creative approach to bringing your own unique visual style to this classic story?

Martin Simmonds: Tyler had mentioned Edgar Degas as an artist to reference, and I had also been thinking along the same lines of adopting a looser, impressionist approach. We discussed how to approach the music visuals, which play an important role in the story, and thankfully we were both in agreement that we should embrace a bold use of colour to delineate the musical scenes.

Tyler, I love how you sprinkle in humor in some of the dialogue in the first issue while still maintaining a sense of creeping dread where someone could always be watching from the shadows. Was it fun or challenging (or both) to write dialogue that’s adapted from a classic story that takes place in the 1890s while still putting your own spin on it?

Tyler Boss: I thought it was important to bring some more dimensionality to Raoul and Christine. In some versions of Phantom, I feel like it’s insane that there is a love triangle between the Phantom and the other two with how much of a weird jerk Raoul is. In the same breath Raoul can at times
in versions of the story feel like, “Hello, I am the foil character;” Christine can feel like a MacGuffin—less a full person and more an object for moving the Phantom’s story forward. Bringing some humor to certain moments for Christine and Raoul and showing other sides of them felt important.

Martin, I love how the color palette changes when Christine sings—it’s like she’s basking in the glow of her triumphant achievement and entering a state of pure jubilation. How intentional were you with the color choices when it came to emphasizing the emotions of these characters?

Martin Simmonds: In all honesty, I don’t really plan the colour palettes prior to painting, but I knew the music scenes would benefit from a shift in gear colour-wise, and that’s where the experimentation comes into it. I had an idea of using double imagery to represent the vibrations as we not only hear music but also feel it, and the emphasis on Christine singing and hitting the high notes are also highlighted by focusing on her head and chest voices, how they blend to reach certain notes and resonance, and the colour and light emanating from those areas.

Martin, did your prior experience bringing another classic monster to life in Universal Monsters: Dracula impact how you approached the visuals to Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera?

Martin Simmonds: Well, we knew that given my previous work that this would also be a painted book, but I was conscious that it should stand on its own and not be a repeat of the way I approached Dracula. There are similarities in style, but Phantom has a more consistent use of bold colour throughout the storytelling. One other good thing with working on both of these Universal Monsters books was that we had great reference material to draw upon in the movies the books are based on, and the 1943 Phantom movie features some incredible architecture and costume design that made my time working on our adaption so enjoyable.

Why do you think Phantom of the Opera continues to captivate readers and audiences more than 100 years since the book’s publication and the release of the first film adaptation?

Tyler Boss: I think it’s two things. One is what I said earlier about how simple the story is. You can understand the stakes and main characters in a single sentence. A woman has been elevated, but an unseen force threatens her success. But the second thing I think is we all love a weird guy in a
mask. You immediately ask, “What's under the mask?” And while with Phantom we all know that answer is “nothing good,” we all want to see what version of “nothing good” we’re dealing with. It’s a very simple human story that also tickles our innate curiosity of the unknown.

Martin Simmonds: I think the contrast of the horror element set against the romance and the beautiful surroundings of Paris and the Palais Garnier means the story can be approached in a variety of ways, and as has been shown over the years, not all versions have followed the same path.

What has it been like working with the team at Skybound as you prepare to release Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera into the world?

Tyler Boss: It’s been wonderful to be honest. Truly, everybody has been gracious, be it from feedback to making sure we’re all hitting our deadlines. It has really been a wonderful experience I hope I get to have again in the future.

Martin Simmonds: The entire Skybound team are great, and its been a pleasure to work with them. I’m so pleased they wanted me back for a second Universal Monsters book.

The stage is set for Christine, the Phantom, and Inspector Dubert to go on quite the ride in this series. What can you tease about the horrors awaiting readers in the upcoming issues of Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera?

Tyler Boss: Every subsequent issue continues to ramp up the stakes with a rising crescendo until the very end. While those familiar with the Phantom’s story will see all the telltale signs of things to come, be it a certain chandelier or the inevitable unmasking, Martin, myself, and the rest of the team at Skybound have tried to craft something that feels like it could stand up against any other telling of the Phantom of the Opera story, and maybe can even become a favorite version of the tale.

Martin Simmonds: It’s got horror, romance, high notes, and a killer chandelier. What more could you want?

Ultimately, what do you hope readers take away from your version of The Phantom of the Opera?

Tyler Boss: I hope they come away thinking, “This is what I always thought the Phantom of the Opera story could be.” We really tried to inject some horror into our retelling, and I hope that mix of gothic horror, romance, and crime is just the right blend for the reader. That it scratches the itch in their brain that the title elicited.

Martin Simmonds: Hopefully, our version will be seen as a bold and unique take, and it will entertain readers for many years to come

What advice would each of you give to comic book writers and artists who are just getting started?

Tyler Boss: Start small and read as much as you can. Or said another way, get a library card and save that magnum opus for ten years from now.

Martin Simmonds: Just keep making comics, whether that’s through DIY means or through small press/publishers. However you can make them, and as long as you love making them, just keep doing it. We all make mistakes along the way, but we learn through repetition and the breakthrough moments that make the process of making comics so rewarding.

With Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera #1 now haunting comic book shops, what other projects do you each have coming up that you can tease for our readers?

Tyler Boss: I’ll be writing the first spinoff series for the smash-hit Exquisite Corpses series about another favorite masked murderer, Rascal Randy. That series is drawn by the incredible Dylan Burnett and if you enjoy our story about the haunting of the Palais Garnier, check out my giallo-inspired slasher comic You’ll Do Bad Things. The entire collected edition is in stores now, drawn and colored gorgeously by Adriano Turtulici.

Martin Simmonds: I’m excited to be starting on the next arc for The Department of Truth—last year marked the five-year anniversary of the series, and I’m so proud that we are still putting out books and people are still picking them up. James and I still have so much more story to tell, and right now, it seems more relevant than ever.

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From the Press Release: Today Skybound Entertainment and Image Comics, in partnership with Universal Products & Experiences, revealed the cover lineup and preview pages for Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera #2, from the creative duo of Tyler Boss (You’ll Do Bad Things) and Martin Simmonds (Universal Monsters: Dracula,The Department of Truth). The second installment of this shocking new reimagining of Phantom of the Opera arrives in comic book shops on March 25, 2026.

The must-read horror series of the year continues! A young soprano, Christine, finds her career in chaos after a series of violent crimes plagues the Paris Opera House. Christine’s world has never been brighter...but when the Phantom of The Opera strikes again, nothing will ever be the same.

Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera #2 features a main cover by Martin Simmonds, an open to order B cover by Lee Weeks (Daredevil), incentive variants including a connecting 1:10 incentive cover by Anwita Citriya (Creepshow), a 1:25 incentive variant of Lee Weeks’ B cover in black & white, a 1:50 incentive variant by Abigail Larson (Lady Baltimore), and a 1:75 incentive variant by Michael Walsh Exquisite Corpses).

Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera is the sixth Universal Monsters series launch, following James Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds’ Dracula (which netted Simmonds a BEST PAINTER/MULTIMEDIA ARTIST (INTERIOR ART) Eisner Award nomination), Ram V, Dan Watters, and Matthew Roberts’ Creature from the Black Lagoon Lives!, Michael Walsh’s Frankenstein, Faith Erin Hick’s The Mummy, and James Tynion IV and DANI’s The Invisible Man.

Phantom of the Opera will be followed by an additional new Universal Monsters limited series pairing the biggest names in comics with pop culture’s most iconic monsters in the bestselling modern line of horror comics.

Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera #2 (of 4) (Lunar Codes below | SRP: $4.99, unless otherwise noted) will be available at comic book shops and digital platforms including Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, and Google Play on Wednesday, March 25, 2026.

A full list of covers is below:

• Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera #2 Cover A by Martin Simmonds (Lunar Code: 0126IM0431)
• Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera #2 Cover B by Lee Weeks (Lunar Code 0126IM0432)
• Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera #2 Cover C (1:10 Incentive) (Connecting) by Anwita Citriya (Lunar Code: 0126IM0433)
• Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera #2 Cover D (1:25 Incentive) (B&W) by Lee Weeks (Lunar Code: 0126IM0434)
• Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera #2 Cover E (1:50 Incentive) by Abigail Larson (Lunar Code: 0126IM0435)
• Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera #2 Cover F (1:75 incentive) by Michael Walsh (Lunar Code: 0126IM0436)

Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera #2 Cover A by Martin Simmonds

Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera #2 Cover B by Lee Weeks

Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera #2 Cover C (1:10 Incentive) (Connecting) by Anwita Citriya

Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera #2 Cover D (1:25 Incentive) (B&W) by Lee Weeks

Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera #2 Cover E (1:50 Incentive) by Abigail Larson

Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera #2 Cover F (1:75 incentive) by Michael Walsh

Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera #2 Preview Pages