First Comics News: How would you survive in the Dead of Winter world?
Kyle Starks: Oh nooooooo. Uh. Not very well, I don’t think. I mean, honestly, there’s no way I survive without the kindness of others.
1st: Why do you think people are so fascinated by zombies?
Kyle: Personally, I think it’s because zombies represent inevitability. They aren’t scary because they’re so formidable. They aren’t as difficult to kill like vampires or bloodthirsty killers like werewolves – they are the inevitable. We are all going to die and that is always stomping toward us, slowly, in a huge unavoidable wave.
1st: What do you enjoy most about writing Dead of Winter?
Kyle: I mean, Sparky is the best, right? I love a good zombie movie but definitely writing for a dog was the highlight for me. I could tell Sparky stories for a very long time and for that setting to be the zombie apocalypse or drawing from a tabletop game I genuinely adore, full of wonderful characters, that’s a treat, my dude.
1st: What do you think makes Annaleigh so special?
Kyle: Annaleigh’s tenacious. You don’t become a lawyer without a good head on your shoulder and desire. I think she’s just a real gutsy woman who’s not scared of much and 100% sure of herself.
1st: Besides zombies, which monster would you most like to write about?
Kyle: I’m not sure it counts, per se, but I would bend over backwards to do a Tremors ongoing series.
1st: How does writing Dead of Winter compare or differ to writing Rick and Morty or Kill Them All?
Kyle: It’s a lot of things that make it stand apart from those projects: it’s the only one that has a horror element, it’s the only one whose protagonist is a dog, it’s the only one that’s based on a tabletop board game and it’s the only one I didn’t do any illustration on. But, it was just as fun and just as fulfilling. I love a new arena to tell a story in and I think, additionally, Sparky is single-handedly the only REAL, honest to God good guy HERO in any of those three books, and that sort of purity and intent was a lot of fun to play with.
1st: What comic book would you like to write, given the opportunity?
Kyle: You know, right now I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to tell my own stories with Kill Them All and Rock Candy Mountain over at Image, to work on the absolute two non-comic franchises I would want to work on (Rick and Morty and Dead of Winter) and I’m not sure what is out there I’d rather be doing than what I’m lucky enough to be doing right now.
1st: Which comic books (besides ones you have worked on) would you recommend?
Kyle: This could be a super long list so I’ll just keep it to my hard recommendations for 2017. The two best books I’ve read, handily, are Zander Cannon’s Kaijumax and Matt Rosenberg’s 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank. They are both unique, clever and masterful works in the comics medium.
1st: Any words for fans of your work?
Kyle: Any time I get to say anything to my fans it’s always “Thank you.” Without the people who have supported and championed my work I absolutely wouldn’t be making comics for a living, and I’m just endlessly grateful. I can’t say thank you enough to anyone who supports me and my stories.
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