10 things concerning David Dastmalchian and Count Crowley: Amateur Midnight Monster Hunter

by Jarrod Jones. Horror hosts have it hard: you gotta have a Rolodex of monster puns at hand, make sure your makeup is on point, keep the ratings up, and know the best way to slay a werewolf. Sure is a tough racket—wait, hold up a minute…

Yeah, werewolves. Real ones. Luckily Jerri Bartman isn’t your run-of-the-mill horror host. She may be burning up the ratings as her local affiliate’s monster movie maven, but her responsibilities reach far past being camera-ready. Jerri’s one of The Appointed, an exclusive crew of monster hunters who have kept the ghouls and creeps who want to do people harm at bay for who knows how long. It’s a big job and a bloody business. More than werewolves, zombies, and vampires, though, Jerri is also at war with alcoholism, a more personal demon. As an amateur monster hunter, it’s a wonder she’s coping as well as she is.

The second volume of Count Crowley pushes Jerri into a broader, more dangerous world. Note the subtle shift in the title: Jerri is no longer a Reluctant Midnight Monster Hunter. As her relationship with former Appointed Hunter (and fellow former horror host) Vincent Frights grows more complex, as Jerri finds inner strength away from the bottle, more daunting threats have shifted their focus to this snarky tv fright show host. There is still much left for her to learn. Given that, Jerri has been appointed a new title—Amateur Midnight Monster Hunter—but at the rate monsters keep darkening her doorway, Jerri had better learn a quicker way to go pro.

“I wanted to really push the monster-hunting motif into a direction that challenged Jerri and forced the reader to really ponder the importance of bravery, courage, and tenacity in the face of these kinds of challenges,” says David Dastmalchian, actor and writer of Count Crowley. Dastmalchian’s noted before that his personal experiences have informed Jerri’s story, that his love for horror movies and comics and a reliance on other people helped him keep the uglier monsters that live inside all of us at bay. With this second volume, Dastmalchian puts Jerri through a severe stress test, say nothing of his readers and their hopes for Jerri’s well-being. “My battle with addiction, my battles with depression, my battles with self-loathing and fear and anxiety[, those] have never been won with a single silver bullet. I wanted this concept to ring true in Jerri’s journey.”

Count Crowley: Amateur Midnight Monster Hunter trade paperback is available now. To mark its release, David Dastmalchian spoke with me about the second volume in this terror tale, the fun he’s having with artist Lukas Ketner, and how the future of Count Crowley might boast far more vampires than you might expect.

Spoilers for Count Crowley: Amateur Midnight Monster Hunter are ahead. Beware.

1. I can’t tell you how grateful I am that there’s more Count Crowley in the world. With this second collected volume about to drop, how are you feeling about this whole “comic book writer” gig? Do you still get a charge out of seeing your name in comic shops?

David Dastmalchian: I can’t tell you how grateful I am! This entire experience is utterly surreal for me, and it’s a mind-blowing experience every time I walk into a comic shop and see Jerri Bartman—aka Count Crowley—staring back at me from the wall of issues!

Are there any lessons you’ve learned about the medium in the time since you began work on this story?

I’ve learned so much about the form of comic creation since I began this journey and I continue to learn with every single issue. I am driven to fill each page, each panel with as much story and drama and action as possible… but I’m learning to sometimes give the reader a breath, allow them to settle into their comfort, and lean into the story so that… wham! I can hopefully grab them on an unexpected page-turn reveal!

2. LIfe has gotten better—more complex, but better—for Jerri in this second volume: she’s going to Alcoholics Anonymous, she’s immersed in this monster-laden Barnes mystery, and her show’s a hit. I see Jerri’s producer brother Ben is finally shaving his stress beard. [Laughs] And I love how, as Jerri’s world is expanding, there’s an infernal offer to push Crowley into syndication—even if it’s just a ruse from this volume’s big bad, it’s clever. As Jerri’s world grows, so does the story. So how have you constructed the full saga of Count Crowley in your mind? Is there an endgame in sight, or could Jerri’s misadventures continue forever?

It’s really exciting to start helping Jerri make her baby steps into this new life that she’s trying on… the AA, the new gig, the new relationships. Of course, with all of these new steps forward in her life come new challenges and new risks. I have always known in my heart where I want and need some of the large arcs for Jerri to take her—and us—on this journey. I have a vision for some of the major rising crescendos in this story. But remember: Count Crowley is merely a mantle. There was a Svengoolie [Jerry Bishop] before there was Svengoolie [Rich Koz]. Being an Appointed Hunter is a tradition with a lineage that goes back thousands of years. So there is no guarantee that Jerri is the only hero on this journey. And you just never know who is going to meet the unfortunate end of a pair of garden sheers or an axe’s blade in the world of Count Crowley!

3. A big element of Count Crowley is that all the stories we’ve read about how to deal with monsters—stake through the heart, holy water, silver bullets, etc.—are just that: stories. Planted by the demons and beasts of the world to make us feel secure, “fake news.” It’s a great hook for the comic; it tests Jerri, and there’s also a metaphor at play. When we war with real-life monsters—in whatever form they take—there isn’t always a silver bullet, so how does Jerri’s monster hunting disrupt her still-precarious recovery?

I wanted to really push the monster-hunting motif into a direction that challenged Jerri and forced the reader to really ponder the importance of bravery, courage, and tenacity in the face of these kinds of challenges. In many monster battles that we’ve seen through film and comics, there are usually all-powerful weapons—the crossbow of wooden stakes, the machine gun of silver bullets, the massive UV spotlight—that can wipe out an entire nightclub full of baddies in a single bound. I wanted these battles to be much harder in Count Crowley. I want it to be nearly impossible to stop a monster in this world.

What does “one day at a time” mean when the stresses of life are vastly more extreme for her than the usual Joe?

My own personal monsters have been almost impossible to battle… my battle with addiction, my battles with depression, my battles with self-loathing and fear and anxiety. Those have never been won with a single silver bullet. They have been a long and involved process that often involves relying upon the assistance of powers outside of myself. I wanted this concept to ring true in Jerri’s journey.

4. I’m interested in the way characters live in creators’ minds; how there is a multitude of paths a character could take, but only a few of them ever see print. Are you more protective of Jerri Bartman now than you were at the beginning of this process? Are there places you can’t wait to take her—and places you know you never will?

I am so protective of Jerri, but there is nowhere I won’t take her if the story demands it. I need to put Jerri through hell if this story is going to mean anything to our readers. I need to take her to the basement of her greatest struggles if her victories are going to ever matter to the Creepy Crowlies out there!

5. Waiting to see if Jerri finally opens up at her AA meetings is a crucial part of her arc—whenever her turn to open up comes around, she goes “Grateful to be here” and leaves it at that. As she gets her bearings as an amateur monster hunter Jerri’s recovery occurs subtly, though her support base comes from pretty wild corners: Vincent Frights’s chauvinism pushes her to, if nothing else, shut him up, and then there’s Barnes’ cat, who seems wise in a way my cats most certainly are not. [Laughs] What’s the most important part of Jerri’s recovery to you, and how might her struggle inform later volumes of Count Crowley?

Well, I hate to correct you but… ALL CATS ARE WISE! [Laughs] The most important part of Jerri’s recovery to me is going to be the challenge of reliance upon others. Reliance upon a “Higher Power” can mean much more than just praying to an abstract concept of the creator. It can mean relying upon the group dynamic for strength, it can mean working with a sponsor to help navigate the 12 steps, it can mean looking to doctors, professionals, and spiritual leaders for information and opportunities to grow. I hope Jerri will be able to wrestle with her ego and overcome this archaic notion that asking for help is an indication of weakness.

6. I’m a big vampire head, and I’m stoked that you’ve worked a network of ancient blood-suckers into the narrative — plus, you’ve made them a part of how people believe the wrong things about killing monsters. Vampires are dangerous creatures in fiction, but here they’re practically unstoppable — and not just physically, either; there’s a memetic element to what they are in this story, too. What about the vampire myth appeals to you, and is it possible that Jerri may infiltrate the nightlives of these vamps in a more substantial way in volumes to come? I need more vampires, David!

Oh… Trust me. The Vampires are coming! I am working very hard to create a network of vampires who are incredibly complex and who each have very specific personalities and motivations, some of which will hopefully shock and surprise you when you least expect it. There is a hunger for power and dominance from the leaders of the vampire community because they are near the top of the monster totem pole, but they are not “the top.” Envy is a scourge of these bloodsuckers, and that can often lead them to make very destructive decisions. Usually, that destruction is wrought upon others, but sometimes… those Vampire Egos get the better of them. And remember… in the world of Count Crowley, a vampire’s immortality means just that. They are immortal! There is no way out, not even for a morbidly depressed vampire who wants to kill themself. A vampire can merely be immobilized by the removal of its immortal heart. But once that heart is returned to the body… that vampire is coming back!

7. When we last spoke, you said you believed in “bad” monsters and “good” monsters. Jerri comes up against a werewolf named Steven who is more than just a snarling beast; he’s a man struggling with addiction and this horrible internal battle at the same time. Jerri and Steven are in the same boat, just on different ends of it. This complicates the “monster hunter” narrative that Jerri’s walked into, right? As the latest in a long line of monster hunters, is Jerri the one who’s meant to finally draw lines between what’s good and what’s bad?

Jerri just doesn’t understand why the tradition of The Appointed is “Destroy all Monsters.” It doesn’t feel fair to her. In spite of all her misgivings and self-destructive behavior, Jerri actually has a very strong moral compass, and she knows that there must be something more purposeful than merely the destruction of every poor soul who is cursed with lycanthropy or other afflictions. We’ll see if she’s right.

8. Further complicating this war between the Appointed—monster hunters—and the beasts they pursue is the story of Vincent Frights, a retired Appointed who fought Nazi beasts in WWII. His tragic story articulates how these private battles can take casualties from unexpected places. This fight isn’t in black and white, however, even if Vincent still throws around terms like “evil.” What does Vincent’s story mean to you, and—maybe I’m reading too much into this—are there parallels to Vincent Price here, not just in terms of horror iconography, but in Vincent’s private life, as well?

You’re not reading too much into this at all. There is so much pain and tragedy in the tradition of normative paradigms in our culture and society. I want Vincent to reflect that pain and demonstrate the devastation that secrecy and self-shame can have on the human psyche. Jerri is someone who wants to shatter all of the normative paradigms of the past, and perhaps she will be the person who finally gets Vincent to look in the mirror and see himself fully, to love himself fully. He’s a pretty surly bastard, though, so here’s wishing her luck!

9. Lukas really slays all the period color in this book: the smoking on airplanes, the hairstyles, the advertisements—in fact, one ad stood out to me that I remember from the mid-80s: the “drinking and driving can kill a friend” billboard in issue #1, the one where a man’s hand shakes the hand of a skeleton. I remember thinking it was cool, not really grasping what the ad was telling me; I just thought its horror imagery was something I shouldn’t be seeing and that rocked. [Laughs] In this issue, that billboard overlooks a car accident brought on by a vampire attack, though his victim had been drinking earlier. Can you tell me about this scene? Was this jet-black moment a bit of inspiration between you and Lukas, or was this just an instance of ironic serendipity?

[Laughs] I’m so glad you caught that! I loved that billboard when I was a kid. The image just burned a hole in my mind and my memory so I wanted to bring it into the world of Crowley at some point. I always imagined it would somehow involve a scene where Jerri was doing battle since her biggest enemy is alcohol at the moment, but when I was writing that scene I thought to myself… “Oh, this is the perfect spot!”

10. I’m always interested in the kind of stuff creators read that gets them excited about making comics. What horror comics get you amped up?

I love everything Rodney Barnes is writing and that Jason Shawn Alexander draws with him. I love books like Something is Killing the Children, I love Colder, Harrow County, Strays, Blood Stained Teeth; I love the work of Mignola and Niles and Lemire and Tynion. I love Bendis and so many more! When I need some inspiration I also dip into my growing collection of classic horror comics from the 50s to the 80s. I think the work that really touched me the most in recent years was Emil Ferris’ My Favorite Thing is Monsters. What a fucking masterpiece!

Count Crowley Volume 2: Amateur Midnight Monster Hunter TPB is available now. To get your claws on a copy, visit your local bookstore haunts where all ghoulish tomes are sold, or click this.

Check out this 10-page preview of Count Crowley: Amateur Midnight Monster Hunter TPB, courtesy of Dark Horse Comics: