DF Interview: J. Holtham spins a different kind of horror comedy in ‘The Horizon Experiment: Motherfu*kin’ Monsters’ one-shot

By Byron Brewer

Esteemed TV writer J. Holtham (Emmy-winning The Handmaid's Tale, Marvel's Jessica Jones) and indie cartoonist Michael Lee Harris (Black Hitler, Choco Leche) present an Evil Dead for Black nerds, a modern spin on the action-packed horror comedy.

From Image Comics as part of the ongoing Horizon Experiment comes Motherfu*kin’ Monsters. Please join my discussion with scribe J. Holtham on this unique one-shot.

Byron Brewer: J., I think readers would find it interesting exactly how you the writer went from being “a scaredy cat kid” to “a hardcore Fangoria kid”, a young horror fan. Would you please tell us that story?

J. Holtham: It’s still a wild journey. I was scared of everything as a kid: the dark, strangers, underneath the bed, you name it. One time, I rented the old Universal Dracula movie and was too scared to finish. But somehow I wound up seeing Evil Dead 2 in an old grindhouse in Queens. And I loved it. I loved that poster. Something about the human eyes in a skull grabbed me. And after that, it was all horror, all the time. Fangoria every month, slasher pics, every Carpenter pic made. The gorier, the better. It’s like that thing where kids hate a food and then grow up and love it.

Byron: All these one-shots for the ongoing “Horizon Experiment” are taking tropes and re-imagining a genre. Motherfu*kin’ Monsters is a spin on an action-packed horror comedy ... BUT through a “Black nerd” lens, as you’ve written. Before we deep dive into your comic (and maybe we already are?), how did you go about taking those movies you are such a fan of and doing a fantastic twisting of tropes?

J. Holtham: I kind of started off from Cabin in the Woods. That movie breaks down a kind of “standard array” for the cast of a horror movie. The Jock. The Brain. The Fun Time Girl. I thought about those and how they would look today, and, in Black culture, how do those character types live. Part of what I like about genre movies is finding ways to both subvert and uphold the expectations. It’s a delicate dance.

Byron: Introduce us to your protagonist, JJ. Who is he when we first meet him and what challenges does he experience / explore in the one-shot? Without spoilers, can you hint at how he may – or may not – find himself affected by those challenges?

J. Holtham: JJ is our P.O.V. character and, let’s be honest, the one closest to my heart, really. (He got his name for a reason.) At the start of this story, he’s a real softboi, a big believer in the best in people. But everything he encounters in this story tests that. He’s going to have to find a way to hold onto his optimism and hope in the face of a world where that maybe doesn’t operate that way. That’s the core for me. How to operate in hope in a world that is full of fear. An existential question for me.

Byron: Can you here shine the spotlight on JJ’s cousin OG, her girlfriend Kaya, and their dippy friend Phoenix?

J. Holtham: I love a good Scooby gang. That was another big touchstone for me. What would a Scooby gang of kids from Brooklyn look and feel like. I wanted them to be fun, to be cool, to be super-fly. I wanted to see Black people that I rarely see in movies and comics. A wide range of styles, colors and attitudes.

Byron: Again without spoilers, can you give us an overview of Motherfu*kin’ Monsters’ storyline?

J. Holtham: It’s about a Brooklyn kid at a lily-white college. His friends come to visit him and he’s torn between his old neighborhood life and his new life. But all that gets tossed in the air when evil, frat-boy zombies show up. Now these Brooklyn kids are all that stand between the world and apocalypse.

Byron: What can you say about the amazing art of Michael Lee Harris?

J. Holtham: Lee’s work just stuns me and surprises me every time. He’s one of the most exciting and interesting artists I’ve seen. He took the horror comedy ball and ran with it as far as possible and into places that I never imagined. He’s a blast to work with.

Byron: J., what other projects, inside or outside comics, do you have coming up that you can tell readers about?

J. Holtham: I wrote on the next season of The Handmaid’s Tale and that lands in 2025. And I have a few stories coming out in the Oni Press EC books. I’m really stoked to see them in the world.

Dynamic Forces would like to thank J. Holtham for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer our questions. The Horizon Experiment: Motherfu*kin’ Monsters one-shot from Image Comics is slated to be on sale December 18!

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