True Believers Comic: Cosplay Slasher Horror on Kickstarter

True Believers comic: what it is and who made it

The True Believers comic is a three-issue series that treats a horror convention as the setting for a horror story. Stephen Graham Jones and Joshua Viola co-wrote it, Ben Matsuya draws the interior pages, and the first issue was previewed at the Colorado Festival of Horror in Denver. According to the official press release, a full-color, four-page ashcan preview of issue 1 was available only at that festival, which ran Friday, September 15 to Sunday, September 17, 2023. The first completed issue went up on Kickstarter alongside the festival.

Jones is a Bram Stoker Award winner whose recent work includes the comic Earthdivers, which is being developed as a television series at 20th Century Television, and the novel The Only Good Indians, which reached the New York Times bestseller list. His other slasher novels include My Heart Is a Chainsaw, Don’t Fear the Reaper, Night of the Mannequins and The Last Final Girl. Viola is a Colorado Book Award winner and Denver Post bestselling author of Denver Moon, Nightmares Unhinged and It Came from the Multiplex. Matsuya’s credits include Jupiter Jet and Midnight Massacre.

The pairing makes sense for a project that is both a slasher and a commentary on fandom. Jones has written a shelf of slasher fiction, and Viola writes horror and fantasy. The comic gives them a shared playground: a convention in costume, where everyone is wearing a mask already.

Who is Killr?

The villain is Killr™, a new slasher built in the manner of Ghost Face from the Scream films. Killr started as the star of a cult short film that spawned a trilogy, and the franchise’s popularity has led fans to dress as the killer at conventions. The trademark symbol is a joke of its own. Viola says it playfully satirizes the franchising of horror properties.

The idea is that a mask can mean different things to different people. A cosplayer can wear Killr to join a community, to feel safe or to see who they might be under a different face. The comic’s question is what happens when the costume stops being a costume.

It is a familiar move in meta-horror, and the press release itself draws the line to Ghost Face from the Scream films. True Believers pushes the idea into the convention hall, where the costume is part of the culture. The difference is that the fans here are not victims in a film. They are the ones choosing to put the mask on, and the comic wants to know what that choice says about them.

The story

The story follows Rip and Kit, two fans who call themselves true believers, at the Colorado Festival of Horror. Kit is the guide and Rip is the follower, and the two begin a process of self-discovery that blurs the line between fiction and reality. As the boundary slips, they have to ask what it means to idolize something evil. The series is a meta-horror tale about identity, obsession and the pull of a character they love.

The Kickstarter edition collects the first 24-page story in the series. The setting is also real: the festival’s co-founder Bret Smith has said the comic is set at the festival’s own convention, with a psycho killer stalking the hallways of what the event calls its Slasher Hotel.

True Believers variant covers and creative team

Source: the official press release for the series.

True Believers Kickstarter rewards and soundtrack

The campaign was already live when the release went out. Every backer at a physical level gets a copy of the first issue. Other tiers add variant covers, signed books by Jones, Viola and Matsuya, signed prints, patches, a latex mask from Oktober Studios, a chance to appear as a character in issue 2 and a three-day pass for two to the 2024 Colorado Festival of Horror. A CD and digital soundtrack is also part of the offer.

The soundtrack is titled “Kit’s Playlist,” and it is written into the story as the music of one of the characters. It comes from the record label FiXT and features Celldweller, Essenger, Circle of Dust, Cantervice, Young Medicine, Scandroid, PYLOT and The All Things. Seven tracks make up the playlist, and several of them are covers: PYLOT’s remix of Scandroid’s version of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” Celldweller’s take on “Cry Little Sister,” the theme from The Lost Boys originally by Gerard McMahon, a cover of John Carpenter’s Halloween theme, and Young Medicine’s version of “Somebody’s Watching Me,” the 1984 hit by Rockwell featuring Michael Jackson.

Several of the acts bring distinct sounds. According to the release, Celldweller, Circle of Dust and Scandroid are all projects of the musician Klayton, Essenger blends alt rock, EDM and synthwave, PYLOT mixes synthwave and cyberpunk, Cantervice is a concept-based electronic rock project about dystopian futures, Young Medicine are synthwave rockers and The All Things are a three-piece rock band from New York.

Matsuya has said the team hopes the series offers thoughtful commentary on what it means to be a devoted fan. Jones puts it more simply: the book is for the readers who like the masks, the machetes and the grins.

Anyone who wants to back the project should look up the live Kickstarter page and check the reward tiers directly, since the details in the press release reflect the launch and not any later changes.