With the Kickstarter campaign now live for I Love Apocalyptic Zombie Misfits! graphic novel from Clover Press’s The Fourth Leaf, we are delighted to be joined by Doug Wagner and Daniel Hillyard. They are the creative team behind Plastic, Plush, Vinyl, I Was a Fashion School Serial Killer, and Narco.
Hi Doug and Daniel, it’s so great to have you both here with us.
WAGNER:Â Totally my pleasure. Thank you for having us.
HILLYARD: Yes, thank you for having us, looking forward to it.
Could you please introduce yourselves?
WAGNER: Well, I’m Doug Wagner, a comic book writer who’s been telling weird, deranged, and hopefully entertaining stories for a little over twenty years now. Readers might know me from Narco I Was a Fashion School Serial Killer, Plastic, Vinyl, or Plush. My longtime partner in crime, Daniel Hillyard, and I have a habit of taking bizarre ideas and trying to find the heart inside them. Our latest project is I LOVE APOCALYPTIC ZOMBIE MISFITS, the launch title for Clover Press’ new creator-owned imprint, The Fourth Leaf.
HILLYARD: And I’m Daniel Hillyard, a comic book artist and other half of Doug and I’s creative shenanigans. People will best know me by all the above titles.
Can you tell us about the origins of I Love Apocalyptic Zombie Misfits?
WAGNER: Believe it or not, this one actually started with Daniel. I asked him what he’d like to work on next, and without missing a beat he said he was itching to do something supernatural. Then he started rattling off a list of things he loved – supernatural slashers, angels, ghosts, vampires… all the fun stuff.
I let that simmer for a few days, and then I remember thinking, “Why not all of them?”
I put together a quick pitch with this bizarre collection of supernatural misfits, sent it over to Daniel, and thankfully his response wasn’t, “Doug, you’ve finally lost it.”
The funny thing is that was just the spark. The real story didn’t reveal itself until San Diego Comic-Con in 2024. During the show and on the twelve-hour drive home, I finally figured out who these characters really were, where they were headed, and why they needed each other. By the time I pulled into my driveway, I had the entire story living in my head.
HILLYARD: From my side, it was a pretty easy sell. Doug knows exactly the kinds of monsters I love to draw, so when he came back with a pitch that somehow had slashers, angels, ghosts, zombies, and… murder chickens… I was all in. At that point, my only concern was how many chickens I was about to have to draw.
Who is Cecil?
WAGNER: Cecil is, at his core, just a good guy.
He’s a nerd from 1985 who believes in doing the right thing, believes people deserve a second chance, and would rather solve a problem with kindness than violence. The only problem is… he’s been resurrected inside the body of one of the most infamous serial killers the world has ever known.
That’s a pretty rough hand to be dealt.
I think that’s why I relate to him so much. He’s constantly looking in the mirror and seeing someone he isn’t. The world judges him by the body he’s trapped in, while all he’s trying to do is prove that who you are on the inside matters a whole lot more than what people see on the outside.
To me, Cecil is just a big, lovable nerd caught in a world he doesn’t fit into… until he realizes he does.
HILLYARD: From the first moment I read Doug’s description of Cecil I was struck by the image of this huge hulking monster of a man acting like a complete coward. I just kept seeing this mix of Jason from Friday 13th and the Lion for the Wizard of Oz.
Can you describe what the process is like when you are collaborating on a project?
WAGNER: Honestly, it’s become incredibly natural over the years. I’ll disappear into my office and daydream about a story until it won’t leave me alone. Once I think I’ve got something, I don’t just hand Daniel a finished script. I bring him along for the ride.
It usually starts with a one-paragraph summary. If we’re both excited, I’ll expand that into a scene-by-scene breakdown. We kick that around until we’re happy with it, and then I start scripting. Even then, Daniel prefers getting one scene at a time instead of the whole script at once because it gives us a chance to bounce ideas back and forth while the story is still evolving.
It’s less like passing a baton and more like we’re constantly handing the story back and forth.
The biggest thing is that neither of us is trying to “win.” If one of us has a better idea, that’s the idea that ends up in the book. After working together for this long, you stop worrying about whose idea it was and start worrying about whether it’s the best version of the story.
HILLYARD: I live in Spain and so Doug and I can’t directly work side by side, but working scene by scene is a close second. Like Doug said, we bounce the story back and fourth and push each other to do our best work with each one. Our aim is to tell the kind of stories that we would love to read and to have the best time doing it.
What can you tell us about I Love Apocalyptic Zombie Misfits?
WAGNER: I can tell you it’s probably the biggest swing Daniel and I have ever taken together.
On the surface, it’s an over-the-top supernatural road trip packed with slashers, skinwalkers, psychics, archangels, cults, immortal murder chickens, and just about every other weird idea we could cram into one book.
But underneath all that insanity, it’s really about a group of outsiders who slowly become the family they never knew they needed. That’s always been the story for me. The monsters, the mythology, the horror, and the comedy are all there because they’re fun, but they’re really serving the characters.
I also think it’s our most ambitious world to date. We built an entire supernatural mythology that extends far beyond this one story. Readers are only seeing a piece of it, which is exciting because it feels like this world existed long before page one and will keep going long after the final page.
Most of all, I hope people have fun. Daniel and I made the kind of book we’d be excited to discover at a comic shop. A book that’s constantly surprising you – making you laugh one minute, making you cringe the next, and occasionally sneaking in a little heart when you least expect it.
HILLYARD: From my side, it’s probably the most fun I’ve ever had drawing a comic. Every chapter gave me something completely different to sink my teeth into. One minute I’m drawing an emotional scene around a campfire, the next it’s a zombie truck, skinwalkers, archangels, and an army of murder chickens charging into battle. I also drew more chickens than I ever imagined I would in my career… and somehow I still wanted to draw more.
What can comic fans expect from the Kickstarter campaign?
WAGNER: I think fans can expect a campaign that was built by comic fans.
Obviously, the centerpiece is the hardcover graphic novel, but we wanted every reward to feel like it belonged in the world of I Love Apocalyptic Zombie Misfits. We weren’t interested in just slapping our logo on a bunch of merchandise.
For collectors, we’ve got beautiful editions, including a deluxe slipcase and an incredible Chris Bachalo dust jacket.Â
For creators and aspiring storytellers, we’ve got the Creator Edition with the complete script and Daniel’s layouts, so you can see exactly how the book came together behind the scenes.
And then there’s the thing I still can’t believe is real – the Murder Chickens card game. What started as a joke during a talk with Hank Kanalz at Clover Press escaped into the real world, and now people are actually going to be able to play it with their friends. I absolutely love that.
More than anything, I hope people come away feeling like they got something special. Daniel and I poured everything we had into this project, and Clover Press did an incredible job helping us build a campaign that celebrates that.
HILLYARD: I think that’s what excites me the most. Every reward feels intentional. Whether you’re picking up the standard hardcover or going all-in on the deluxe editions, it all feels like it belongs in the same world. And honestly… I can’t wait to see people playing the Murder Chickens game. I still smile every time I say those words out loud.
Any message for the ComicBuzz readers?Â
WAGNER: First, thank you for taking the time to read the interview. There are so many incredible books competing for your attention these days, and the fact that you’d spend a little of your day learning about ours genuinely means a lot.
I’ve been making comics for over twenty years now, and I still feel incredibly lucky that I get to do this for a living. Every single reader who picks up one of my books makes that possible, and I’ll never take that for granted.
I hope you’ll give I Love Apocalyptic Zombie Misfits a chance. It’s the biggest, weirdest, and most ambitious thing Daniel and I have ever created, but at its heart it’s just a story about finding your people in a world that doesn’t always make sense.
HILLYARD: I couldn’t agree more. Thank you for supporting comics, supporting creators, and supporting sites like ComicBuzz that continue to shine a light on independent books. We genuinely hope you enjoy the ride.
And if nothing else… we sincerely hope we’ve convinced you that every comic could be improved with immortal murder chickens.
We would like to say a big thank you to Doug and Daniel for chatting with us, and we wish them the best of luck with the I Love Apocalyptic Zombie Misfits! campaign.
Feel free to check out the I Love Apocalyptic Zombie Misfits! Kickstarter campaign.
