by Mike Favila, Editor

I went to Baltimore Comic-Con this weekend and had the chance to pick up a lot of new books that I hadn’t caught before. When Emil and I stopped by James Tynion IV and Eryk Donovan’s table, I asked them how they started working together. Eryk said that they were introduced by Rachel Deering, when they first worked on In The Dark: A Horror Anthology, which she had edited and assembled.

Never one to let a good suggestion go, I decided to track her booth down and see if it was worth the read. Not only did she edit it, she wrote a few of the stories inside the collection. Although Rachel was up for an Eisner that evening, she was very easy to talk to and made picking up the book an afterthought. It seemed like a good idea to pick her brain…

ComicsOnline.com: How did you break into comics?

Rachel Deering: I started out writing for a local horror anthology here in Columbus, OH called Nix Comics Quarterly. I did a few stories for them, then did a ton of work for the Womanthology project. From there I did the Kickstarter thing for my creator-owned series, Anathema. Took my few books to a lot of conventions and eventually editors got wind of what I was doing and started to hire me. The rest is history.

CO: How did you come up with the idea of putting together In The Dark?

RD: I cut my teeth on horror anthologies when I was a kid, so I’ve always had a massive love for the format. When I found myself with a career in comics and lots of friends in the industry, I thought it would be great to work up a sort of homage to all the great horror comics from my past. I set out to make the very best horror anthology I could, and In the Dark is what came of it.

CO: Very cool. Now, what led you to publish it at IDW?

RD: They offered to hook me up with a printer and deal with the distribution and let me do everything else. I’m a control freak, so that was the best deal for me. I didn’t want a bunch of other editors tampering with my vision, so I needed someone who would take my finished book and get it into the hands of readers. IDW was the ticket.

CO: How did you assemble the creative teams? Did you know a lot of the contributors beforehand through other work?

RD: Pretty much everyone on the book is a personal friend of mine. The few people who came on as strangers to me were recommended by my very close friends.

CO: Well, it’s definitely commendable that you decided to pay the creators beforehand with the Kickstarter funds. What led you to do that first, as opposed to afterwards?

RD: I don’t believe anyone should have to work for free, or for speculative funds. I’m not a fan of backend deals myself, so I couldn’t ask other creators to work for the promise of a dollar. It’s just me staying true to myself.

CO: What are/were your favorite comics (horror or otherwise)?

RD: I loved and still love everything from Warren, including Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella. I am a big fan of the Skywald comics, Nightmare, Psycho, Scream. The few fantastic issues of Web of Horror.  EC, Charlton, and Gold Key horror titles. I could sit here and list comics all day, haha.

CO: What are you working on now?

RD: My first prose work is coming in December through Thunderstorm Books. I am writing three books for various publishers, which can’t be named, and I’ve been asked to pitch another. I’m doing more work for Creepy at Dark Horse. And, of course, you’ll see my lettering work all over the place.