“We Just Wanted the Absolute Top of the Mount Olympus of Horror” — Q&A: Stephen Graham Jones Discusses the Star-Studded Guest Appearances and Blood-Soaked Scares in TRUE BELIEVERS: ISSUE #3 – SLASHFEST

The author of I Was a Teenager Slasher, Night of the Mannequins, and My Heart is a Chainsaw (among other must-read books), Stephen Graham Jones is no stranger to the blood-soaked realm of the slasher genre, where a sharp-bladed scare or sinister slice-and-dice could be waiting around every creepy corner. While Jones has thrilled and chilled readers of his novels for years, he's also infused his perilous prose into the pages of comic books with True Believers.

Co-written by Jones and Joshua Viola with illustrations by Ben Matsuya and lettering by Jeremiah Lambert, the True Believers trilogy takes place at the real-life Colorado Festival of Horror, where fervent fans of the slasher character Killr™ have taken cosplaying to a deadly new level by unleashing their own reigns of masked terror on unsuspecting con-goers.

With True Believers: Issue #3 – Slashfest now available from Bit Bot Media, Daily Dead had the great pleasure of catching up with Stephen Graham Jones in a new Q&A feature to discuss working with the talented team of True Believers to create a Killr™ trilogy, co-writing a horror story that takes place in his stomping grounds of Colorado, and seeking out "the absolute top of the Mount Olympus of horror" with the third issue's star-studded guest appearances that include Barbara Crampton, Jeffrey Combs, Bit Bot Media co-founder Klayton of Celldweller, and legendary musician Slash as the narrator of this latest tale of horror convention carnage!

Below, you can read our full Q&A with Stephen Graham Jones, and we also have a look at the four variant covers by Matthew Therrien and the main cover by Ben Matsuya and Jeremiah Lambert.

In case you missed it, check out our exclusive preview of True Believers: Issue #3 – Slashfest, and to learn more, visit Bit Bot Media's official website!

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer questions for us, Stephen, and congratulations on True Believers: Issue #3 – Slashfest, the third and final issue of your comic book series that takes place in the world of cosplay and horror conventions. When you and co-writer Joshua Viola originally began writing this series, did you know this epic story would come to an end, or has the story taken on a deadly life of its own through the writing process?

Stephen Graham Jones: We weren’t planning on a trilogy, I don’t think so. It was supposed to be a one-and-done, like the original Friday the 13th. But, much like that movie, things . . . and torsos, and throats . . . opened up. But, even when we did two and sort of had a sense that a trilogy might be fun, we had no suspicion how that might happen. I don’t think planning and forethought particularly helps the slasher. Slashers are best when they’re seat-of-the-pants affairs. That way they can go any which way.

What has it been like to team up with the core creative team of co-writer Joshua Viola, artist Ben Matsuya, and letterer Jeremiah Lambert on all three issues of True Believers?

Stephen Graham Jones: Working with talented people, first, makes me look smarter, and second, it makes the final product better. When everyone’s as professional and invested as they were for True Believers, it becomes a labor of love. Which, you know, isn’t really “labor” at all.

True Believers takes place at the real-life Colorado Festival of Horror, not too far from Boulder, where you live and teach. How much fun has it been to write a slasher that essentially takes place in your own backyard?

Stephen Graham Jones: It’s great to splash blood all over your stomping grounds. Or, it was for me.

Similar to the first two issues, the third issue of True Believers is brimming with star-studded guest appearances, including Re-Animator and From Beyond stars Barbara Crampton and Jeffrey Combs, Bit Bot Media co-founder Klayton of Celldweller, and legendary guitarist Slash as the narrator. How did you decide which icons to feature this time around?

Stephen Graham Jones: We just wanted the absolute top of the Mount Olympus of horror. And, who knows why, they returned our calls and were willing to play along.

Can you give us a tease of what types of slasher scares await readers within the pages of True Believers: Issue #3 – Slashfest?

Stephen Graham Jones: Red herrings. Chimpanzees. GWAR. Plenty of bodies left behind. A big party at the end, as the genre requires. No small amount of cosplay. Hopefully some surprises. Maybe some emotion?

Were you and Josh influenced or inspired by any other horror movies, books, TV series, or comics while working on True Believers?

Stephen Graham Jones: The whole slasher shelf, yeah. Books, films, television, comics, all of it, but none in particular. More like we swam in the slasher waters fully dressed, and went right from that deep, dangerous pool to the writing desk, and the colors from our sleeves ran onto the page, so there’s hockey masks, knife hands, Star Trek masks—everything we all know and love about the slasher.

True Believers is billed as the final issue of this blood-soaked trilogy, but as Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning taught us, slasher franchises never truly die, even after The Final Chapter. Do you and Josh have plans to resurrect the masked Killr™ in the future if given the opportunity?

Stephen Graham Jones: There may be a surprise in the trade edition . . .

Looking back, do you have a personal favorite horror convention memory, either as an attendee or as a special guest yourself (or both)?

Stephen Graham Jones: Riding an elevator once, I happened to look behind me to Patrick Stewart standing there in the corner. For the rest of that ride I was in a turbolift on the Enterprise. I guess my heart sort of still is.

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

Stephen Graham Jones: Don’t spin your wheels one project too long. Keep moving. Finish one thing, move on to the next, and keep doing that faster and faster and faster. It’s an education in itself, and somewhere in there you’ll likely pull something worthwhile together.

With Halloween season upon us, do you have any favorite horror movies, books, video games, comics, or TV show recommendations for our readers to enjoy this autumn?

Stephen Graham Jones: Harper’s Island. It’s a really solid slasher series. Scream Queens is as well.

With True Believers: Issue #3 – Slashfest coming October 13th from Bit Bot Media, what other projects do you have coming up that you can tease for our readers?

Stephen Graham Jones: A repackaging of my All the Beautiful Sinners novel is out at the end of the month, and then in December, my flash-fiction collection States of Grace is out again, but with a lot more stories in it this time.

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Press Release: Stephen Graham Jones, whose latest novel, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, was featured on President Barack Obama’s 2025 Summer Reading List, and Denver Post bestselling writer Joshua Viola are returning to the deadly world of their comic book series TRUE BELIEVERS for a frightening grand finale. The star-studded, blood-soaked, final issue features appearances by Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, Re-Animator and From Beyond stars Barbara Crampton and Jeffrey Combs, and fan-favorite musician and Bit Bot Media co-founder Klayton of Celldweller. Previous issues of TRUE BELIEVERS featured some of the biggest names in horror — iconic actress Jamie Lee Curtis, the band GWAR, bestselling novelist R.L. Stine, screenwriter and film director Jeffrey Reddick (Final Destination), musician Matthew Kiichi Heafy, actor Devon Sawa, and the characters from the cult horror film Deathgasm. TRUE BELIEVERS: ISSUE #3 – SLASHFEST will be available from Bit Bot Media on October 13, featuring art by Ben Matsuya, letters by Jeremiah Lambert, four variant covers from acclaimed horror artist Matthew Therrien and a main cover by Lambert and Matsuya.

“Thanks to Slash for sitting on that stool and bringing this closing installment of True Believers home,” writes Jones. “When you have a stable narrator, the story can be operatic and bloody, funny and scary, have chimpanzees and mannequins, heroism and evil: everything you might want from the last in a slasher trilogy.”

After the first issues of TRUE BELIEVERS introduced fans to the bone-chilling slasher character, Killr™and an obsessive fan who wreaked havoc at the real-life Colorado Festival of Horror, TRUE BELIEVERS: Issue #3 – Slashfest once again pits con-goers against another masked menace who takes their devotion to the cult slasher franchise Killr™ far too seriously. But is this just a cosplayer, or someone from the past with deadlier intentions? True to its bloody roots, the issue promises outrageous kills, tongue-in-cheek gags, meta Easter eggs, and enough gore to satisfy even the most die-hard horror fan.

“The third and final issue of True Believers is finally here and I couldn’t be more pumped,” says Viola. “This series has been a wild ride from day one and I can’t wait for fans to see how it all goes down. It’s louder, bloodier and funnier than ever, but still true to the twisted idea that kicked this whole thing off. Welcome to Slashfest!”

Fans can purchase TRUE BELIEVERS: Issue #3 – Slashfest via Bit Bot Media. For more updates, sign up at bitbotmedia.com for the Bit Bot newsletter and follow the company’s social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.

Stephen Graham Jones is the NYT bestselling author of some thirty novels and collections, and there’s some novellas and comic books in there as well. Most recent are Don’t Fear the Reaper and the ongoing Earthdivers. Up before too long are The Angel of Indian Lake, and I Was a Teenage Slasher. Stephen lives and teaches in Boulder, Colorado.

Joshua Viola has contributed to video games including Pirates of the Caribbean, Target: Terror, and The Smurfs. In 2024, he co-founded Bit Bot Media with Klayton (Celldweller/Scandroid). The company is best known for Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver – The Dead Shall Rise (co-written by Viola), the fourth most-funded graphic novel in Kickstarter history, along with a slate of licensed IP projects spanning The Terminator, Evil Dead 2, The Rocky Horror Show, Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, and more. Beyond games and comics, Viola has also produced films such as Deathstalker, Deathgasm 2, and Shrine of Abominations.

Ben Matsuya illustrated the comic Jupiter Jet—co-created by Jason Inman and Ashley Victoria Robinson—which was successfully funded on Kickstarter in 2017. His follow-up was the horror-comedy graphic novel Midnight Massacre. He recently illustrated a 6-issue comic book miniseries for the Unioverse videogame tie-in.

Jeremiah Lambert, from full time mechanical engineer turned full time comic and art man. Doing gigs for Hasbro for both Transformers (Movie versions, Rescue Bots and Robots in Disguise) and Tonka Truck (Tonka Chuck) promotional art, as well as He-man and the Masters of the Universe exclusives for Mattel / MVCreations / Super 7 Toys. Comic and design work for GenSeven Comics, Viper Comics, Hex Publishers, ActionLab Comics, plus dozens of various other independent comic companies and comic writers. Jeremiah also has enjoyed internet viral exposure with his parody art.

Bit Bot Media is a multimedia studio co-founded by musician Klayton (Celldweller) and bestselling author and film producer Joshua Viola, known for its innovative fusion of graphic novels, video games, film, and collectible merchandise inspired by cult-classic franchises.

Main Cover by Ben Matsuya and Jeremiah Lambert:

Barbara Crampton Variant by Matthew Therrien:

Jeffrey Combs Variant by Matthew Therrien:

Slash Variant by Matthew Therrien:

Klayton Variant by Matthew Therrien: