Horror Comes to Denver With True Believers

Josh Viola's Hex Publishers was born, appropriately enough, on Halloween. The company specializes in genre fiction, with horror, science fiction, crime, dark fantasy, comics and more. In other words: masks and chaos, that chill up your spine when something happens and you're not sure how, or why. It's about uncovering what makes us go into abandoned houses, see what's under the bed and open our eyes when we know we shouldn't.

That's the spirit behind Viola's new Kickstarter for a comic called True Believers, which continues a story that started at the Colorado Festival of Horror (COFOH) last year and will continue into the next, at least. The campaign describes the project as a "Slasher Cosplay Comic Series" from both Viola and New York Times best seller Stephen Graham Jones, as well as several other authors and creatives. The comic even includes official cameos by such classic horror figures as Jamie Lee Curtis, author R.L. Stine, heavy-metal band GWAR, Final Destination's Devon Sawa and Jeffrey Reddick, and more.

"I've got an entrepreneurial spirit," says Viola. When the rights to his first novel, The Bane of Yoto, reverted back to him, he was inspired to reprint it himself and learn the publishing game in doing so. "But I learned how tricky the publishing industry really is," he recalls. "I had some ideas, and I formed the company and gave it a shot."

Hex Publishers has now been around for nearly a decade, and is known primarily for its anthologies. The first was Nightmares Unhinged, which was a big success. So was a later followup, It Came From the Multiplex, which focused on 1980s thrillers and was Hex's first collaboration with COFOH. All of the anthologies published by Hex over the years are notable for Denver fans because they purposefully showcase local writers, making for some homegrown horror goodness.

While Hex was taking off book by book, Viola was also working in both comics and video games. "I've always been a big fan of both," he says, "and I wanted to try these video-game-comic hybrids. Putting a comic book together is no easy feat. It's absolutely collaborative, and each element is vital, so there's no room for error. And it's expensive, as a medium; the margins are not wonderful."

Viola connected with Boulder creative Tony Harmon, who'd worked for Nintendo for years and had a role in shaping super-popular titles including Donkey Kong Country, Grand Theft Auto, Crackdown and more back in the 1990s. Harmon went independent in the 2000s, and most recently created the Unioverse, which is billed as "the first community-owned franchise" video game experience. Viola was invited to play in that particular sandbox.

"I was one of the writers for that project, and that led to diving into developing comics, basically companion pieces, to that universe," Viola explains. "That was what I'd been waiting for. It's what I wanted to focus on, where I wanted to go." The result was that Viola found himself able to bring together his passions: comics, digital media, fantasy and sci-fi, and yes, horror.

That's also why Viola was quick to partner with COFOH originally, and now for True Believers. "We'd done the anthology with the Colorado Festival of Horror for their first year," says Viola, "and that went great. [It] really succeeded beyond the parameters of the con itself, which was good to see."

Viola says that he was sharing some wine with Bret and Jeannie Smith, two of the founders of COFOH, spitballing ideas for something special Hex could do for the con-goers. "Stephen [Graham Jones] had just come out with Earthdivers, and I knew I wanted to do a comic with him, so I suggested we just do a story that's set at the con," Viola explains. "Stephen was into the idea, and we started batting around concepts. It came together quick. It's a very meta slasher story set right at the con that's really about toxic fandom. That's where the title comes in — these "true believers" that think they know a character or property best, and everyone else's take is wrong. There's healthy fandom, and then there's seriously unhealthy stuff, too. Things go too far, and that's really what the story is about."

The current Kickstarter is for the second issue, but Viola assures horror fans who missed out on the first to fear not: The new campaign includes brand-new limited-edition prints of that first issue, with eight custom covers from which to choose. Of those covers, several feature the special guest stars, including inimitable Scream Queen Jamie Lee Curtis.

Not only is Curtis a special guest, but her charity, My Hand in Yours, which benefits Children's Hospital Los Angeles, will receive all the proceeds from her cover issue.

Between supporting a local fan convention such as the Colorado Festival of Horror and a charity devoted to assisting sick kids? Wanton violence may never have been such a positive community force.

You can support the cause — and enjoy some spectacular horror comics — by contributing to the True Believers Kickstarter, open through April 26. For more information on Hex Publishers, see its website.