Westfield: How did you come to revive Creepy?

Shawna Gore: When our publishing partners New Comic Company bought the publication rights for Creepy and Eerie from Jim Warren, resurrecting the title to showcase new stories was always part of the plan. We decided to focus on getting the Archive series up and running before launching into the new material and began work on the new series gradually as we wrapped the first Creepy Archive.

Westfield: Will this be in a similar format to the original Creepy?

Gore: The new Creepy will be the size of a standard comic, but with 48 pages. And in the classic tradition, we're also keeping the art black and white. It's been really fun looking for artists who work well in black and white, and we were lucky to find some great people we want to work with. Another difference between our new series and the original is the schedule. At least for the first year, Creepy will be a quarterly release.

Westfield: Who are some of the creators you're working with on the series? Anyone lined up for future issues that you can share?

Gore: The first issue features stories written by Joe Harris, Neil Kleid, Dan Braun, and Mike Woods, and art by original Creepy contributor Angelo Torres, Jason Shawn Alexander, Brian Churilla, Bernie Wrightson, and newcomer Saskia Gutekunst. Eric Powell painted the cover for the first issue and also did the illustration we're using as the variant cover. I've been talking with a lot of other great artists for later issues, for everything from full stories to single pages, including Gene Colan, Mike Mignola, Steve Lieber, and Gary Gianni. I hope to have more to say about that by the time we launch the first issue during San Diego Comic-Con.

Westfield: Is this a fun series for you to put together?

Gore: It's been a lot of fun, but initially it was a little terrifying - only because I am such a lifelong fan of the original material, and I couldn't take the work lightly. It was honestly incredibly stressful at first, reading dozens and dozens of pitches looking for the right kinds of stories, and also trying to communicate to writers what we were looking for. With every passing week I'd hear from a dozen more writers and get more and more pitches, while also fielding lots of requests from people who wanted to pitch for Creepy, but who also took that moment of editor's attention to pitch me three other series while we were talking. So the communication and correspondence alone has been ridiculous to keep up with. But once we selected the stories and started working on the nuts and bolts of the first issue, I started feeling really excited. It's a really great lineup for launching the new series, and there are strong stories lining up for the entire first year.

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