Welcome to Doug Wagner and Daniel Hillyard’s Crazy Zombie Apocalypse Graphic Novel
I remember the first time I read Vinyl. It was an orgy of crime, serial killers, cults and manic comedy beats. It took the comic book world by storm and, for me, it was my very first Doug Wagner and Daniel Hillyard experience. Skip past dozens of follow-up stories to the year 2026, where Wagner and Hillyard are crowdfunding their next graphic novel, I Love Apocalyptic Zombie Misfits.
Resurrected in a vat of holy motor oil, a nerdy pacifist finds himself trapped inside the hulking body of a supernatural slasher and forced to protect a psychic kid from the forces of Heaven, Hell, and everything in between. It’s a lot to process, but at least he’s got a Halloween mask and a squad of homicidal chickens!
Earlier this month I caught up with Wagner and Hillyard to talk about what’s inspired this crazy detour into the world of the undead and the apocalypse.
An Interview with Doug Wagner and Daniel Hillyard
All of your collabs seem to have an origin myth. Daniel, you once blamed the whole existence of Vinyl on yourself, pitching Doug a cult of sunflower farmers in an underground bunker. So who’s taking the fall for Misfits? Walk me through how “nerdy pacifist resurrected in holy motor oil, trapped inside a supernatural slasher, guarded by murder chickens” became the actual pitch.
Daniel Hillyard: I mean you’re not wrong, the reason for having to draw so many sunflowers in VINYL might have been my fault, but MISFITS is all Doug.
Doug Wagner: Yeah… this one’s entirely on me. Daniel is completely innocent. Well, that may be stretching things a bit too far. Let’s just say he’s not at fault here.
For I Love Apocalyptic Zombie Misfits, the first piece was really just the idea of a supernatural road trip. Once I had that, the rest of the characters started climbing into the truck one by one. Eventually I looked at what I’d assembled and thought, “Well… this is either going to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever written or my favorite.” Thankfully, it turned out to be the second one.
Daniel’s only crime was saying, “Yeah… I think we can actually make this work.”
Daniel, you two have designed some iconic looks together before — Walter’s teddy bear mask in Vinyl took days of back-and-forth to land on something that was equal parts terrifying and funny. What did that process look like for building the “Frankenstein-esque” slasher body our pacifist hero gets stuck inside — and how do you design something that horrifying while still needing it to be someone readers root for?
Daniel Hillyard: Man, that takes me back, all those teddy bear mask designs. Our Frankenstein-esque character Cecil was a perfect example of the back and forth that Doug and I have with figuring out the look of our cast. We knew that we wanted a large Jason Voorhees type of build and someone that was menacing just to look at. Originally, I had him somewhere between the punisher and the terminator from T1 and he kind of evolved from there. Doug had the brilliant idea to have his eyes be different colors which just added to the creepy look for him.
The real fun in trying to make Cecil into a character that people can get behind, was in his mannerisms. He’s this massive guy that is designed to look like your worst nightmare to meet in a dark alley but inside is this nerdy soul. The more we leaned into having him act kind of innocent and goofy the more likable I think he became and it was a part of both his major development and a running gag.
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This is the first release out of The Fourth Leaf, Clover’s new creator-owned imprint. Hank Kanalz has said he greenlit the book the second “Murder Chickens” came up in the pitch — so what did the runway actually look like on your end? How much rope did Clover give you two to just go for it?
Doug Wagner: Daniel and I have been making comics together for over twenty years, so we know the kinds of stories we love telling. With I Love Apocalyptic Zombie Misfits, Clover never tried to steer us toward something safer or more conventional. They understood exactly what kind of book we wanted to make and basically said, “Go make the best version of that book.”
As creators, that’s all you can really ask for. When someone believes in your vision enough to let you chase it without second-guessing every strange idea, you end up taking bigger swings. I honestly think I Love Apocalyptic Zombie Misfits is the most unapologetically “Doug and Daniel” book we’ve ever made because Clover gave us the confidence to leave all the weirdness exactly where it belonged.
Doug, you told AIPT a while back that your dream with Plush was to make readers “giggle quietly in the dark at things that make them uncomfortable.” Misfits raises the stakes to Heaven and Hell fighting over a psychic kid — does that philosophy scale up the same way at a cosmic level, or does something have to give when the stakes get that big?
Doug Wagner: That’s a fantastic question. I actually don’t think my philosophy has changed at all. The playground just got bigger.
Whether I’m writing about one guy in a teddy bear mask or a battle between Heaven and Hell, I’m still chasing the exact same thing. I want readers to laugh, get uncomfortable, laugh again, and then suddenly realize they’re emotionally invested in someone they never expected to care about.
The monsters, the angels, the demons, the apocalypse – they’re all just the backdrop. The story only works if you care about the people caught in the middle of it. If readers don’t fall in love with Cecil, Pavla, Yoel, Mosi, and the rest of these wonderfully broken misfits, then all the cosmic spectacle in the world doesn’t matter.
So no, I don’t think anything has to give. If anything, raising the stakes makes those quiet character moments even more important. Those are the moments that remind us what’s actually worth fighting for.
You’ve talked before about “WTF am I drawing” moments — Daniel’s line about there being more blood in that Plastic #2 beheading than the human body could reasonably hold is a classic. Was there an equivalent moment on Misfits, not about gore this time, but about story — a point where one of you looked at the outline and said “okay, this might genuinely be too much”?
Daniel Hillyard: To my memory, no. I think that line has been deleted over the years. [laughs]
Doug Wagner: There were a couple of times that I wondered if I’d gone too far. The trick I play on Daniel that he doesn’t know about is I write the scene in question, send it to him for any notes, and if he doesn’t react poorly to it, I keep it. But now that I’ve read his response, that may be an error in judgement on my part.
I don’t want to give too much away, but two immediately come to mind. I’ll just say chickens fighting nuns and guards eating fried chicken. I giggled a little too maniacally when writing both of those scenes.
The Kickstarter’s stacked — a Dust Jacket Edition with Chris Bachalo art, a Deluxe Slipcase, art prints, and an actual Murder Chickens Card Game. How hands-on were you two in building that campaign, and is there a stretch goal you’re quietly hoping backers unlock?
Doug Wagner: Hank Kanalz included us in every step of building the campaign, so we were very hands-on throughout the entire process. One of the things I really appreciate about Hank is that he’s always looking for the next evolution in printing and presentation – ways to make a book feel more like a collectible than just something you read once and put on a shelf.
He came to us with all kinds of crazy ideas, from deluxe editions to die cut slipcases to the companion book and even the Murder Chickens card game and then let Daniel and I pick our favorites. It really felt like a collaboration instead of a publisher simply telling us what the campaign was going to be.
Clover actually doesn’t do stretch goals, and I really like that philosophy. Instead of holding features back until certain funding milestones are reached, they build the best campaign they possibly can from the start. Every backer gets the full experience we set out to create from day one, and I think that’s a pretty cool way to approach crowdfunding.
Daniel Hillyard: I think the main question was always, what would we be most excited to see as added extras, you know?
Getting Chris Bachalo on the Dust Jacket Edition is a genuinely great get. What about his sensibility felt like the right fit for this particular book?
Doug Wagner: This was all my fault, so let me fanboy out for a second. I’ve been a huge Chris Bachalo fan for decades, so just having the opportunity to work with him felt a little surreal. He’s one of those artists whose work I would buy regardless of what book he was drawing. Getting him to create the Dust Jacket Edition for I Love Apocalyptic Zombie Misfits was honestly a bucket-list moment for me.
Now to answering your question. What makes Chris such a perfect fit is that he has this incredible ability to make the bizarre feel believable. His pages are packed with energy, personality, and these wonderfully weird designs, but there’s always a real emotional core underneath it all. That’s exactly what Daniel and I were trying to do with I Love Apocalyptic Zombie Misfits.
When I finally saw what Chris had created, it just made me smile. It captured the heart, the chaos, and the sheer weirdness of the book in a way only Chris Bachalo could. I honestly couldn’t imagine a better artist to introduce readers to this world.
Between the vat of holy motor oil, the Halloween mask, and a zombie-driven death truck, this sounds like every horror-comedy toy you own thrown into one box. Was there anything that got cut for being too much even by your standards — and is it getting saved for a sequel?
Daniel Hillyard: I don’t think we had to table anything, unless Doug has some stuff saved away. That being said there is lots of room in this world for massive expansion.
Doug Wagner: Oh, no. We threw everything we had at this book. One thing I’ve learned over the years is you can’t hold back in this industry. If you do, the story suffers. You can’t save your best ideas for some imaginary sequel that may never happen. You have to write every book like it’s the only chance you’ll ever get to tell that story.
That doesn’t mean we’ve run out of ideas. Quite the opposite. The world of I Love Apocalyptic Zombie Misfits is huge, and while we gave readers everything we had for this story, there’s still a lot left to explore. If readers want to spend more time with these characters, Daniel and I would love nothing more than to climb back into the truck and hit the road again.
You’ve built an entire read of unlikely elevator pitches — furry cannibals, a fashion-school serial killer, a narcoleptic murder suspect. If someone’s coming in cold off Plastic or Fashion School Serial Killer, what’s the one-breath pitch for I Love Apocalyptic Zombie Misfits?
Doug Wagner: It’s about a nerdy pacifist from 1985 who wakes up in the body of a serial killer, jumps into a zombie-driven death truck with a bunch of supernatural misfits, and goes on a road trip to save the world… while being protected by murder chickens.
Honestly, the fact that I can say that sentence with a straight face makes me ridiculously happy.
Beyond this book, what do you want The Fourth Leaf to represent for other creators trying to get something this weird made?
Doug Wagner: I hope The Fourth Leaf becomes known as the place where creators can bring the stories they’ve always wanted to tell. You know, the ones that don’t fit neatly into a box and maybe wouldn’t get made anywhere else.
Every creator has at least one passion project. It’s the story that’s been living in the back of their mind for years, the one they’re almost afraid to pitch because it’s too personal, too weird, too ambitious, or too different. I want The Fourth Leaf to be the place where those projects finally get to exist.
To me, that’s the most exciting part of what Clover Press is building. They’re giving creators the freedom to unleash their full creative voice without asking them to sand off the edges or make something safer. If The Fourth Leaf becomes known as the home for bold, unapologetic creator-owned books, then I think that’s a win not just for creators, but for readers too. Those are usually the stories that surprise us the most.
Last one — of everything packed into this book, is there a specific detail, an Easter egg or a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, that you’re most excited for readers to stumble onto for themselves?
Daniel Hillyard: Okay, I don’t want to spoil anything, but there are some montage double page spreads, showcasing some Halloween mask stores as well as some fights with strange factions, and there are some cool nods here and there for the keen-eyed horror fan to find.
Doug Wagner: Daniel took the words right out of my mouth. We are both unapologetically pop-culture nerds. When you get to the Halloween store pages, slow down! Take a look around. You might get a surprise or two that will hopefully bring a smile to your face.
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