Artwork from Proof

Like monsters? Then you should read Proof. Alexander Grecian and Riley Rossmo’s new Image horror comic follows the exploits of FBI agent Ginger Brown and John Prufrock, a gruff (but gentle) sasquatch. The pair is enlisted by The Lodge, a secret organization that hunts down the rarest of animals — “cryptids,” mythical creatures who exist among us. The series’ initial story arc has the two on the hunt for a murderous chupacabra, butchering hikers in the Minnesota woods.

Grecian balances the comic’s humour and horror with nifty “cryptoids,” bite-sized facts on everything from pharmacology to fairy encounters. Rossmo’s distinctive visuals, like EC’s Tales from the Crypt hero Graham Ingles, bounce between hilarious and grotesque, all jagged lines, blood and stitches, complemented by Tyler Jenkins’s rich colouring. It’s a style unlike anything in most genre comics today (that of the soft and dull anonymous heroes).

Fast Forward chatted with Rossmo on working with Image and what inspired his ghoulish creations.

Fast Forward: What was the first comic you ever read?

Riley Rossmo: A Voltron comic I found in a hotel. I also read Spider-Man and G.I. Joe. Later, I loved Bill Sienkiewicz’s New Mutants and Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s Daredevil. And Berni Wrightson, Mike Mignola, Gene Colan….

What inspired you to get into comics?

I just drew because I loved it, and my grandma would send me art stuff since I was a kid. It’s a really hard medium — interpreting a story with illustrations — like a movie on paper, working with 2- and 3-D planes.

How did you get involved with Image, and what has it been like working with them?

We pitched to Image about a year ago, with about one-and-a-half issues done. It’s different there — you self edit, and the work is 100 per cent us. They’re good for creators, particularly if you’re really self-motivated.

How does the collaboration work between you and writer Alexander Grecian?

Our first book we did, Seven Sons, was really fun. He has this “idea box” (that I make fun of) just full of ideas. This time, we wanted to do something more kinetic. He told me the idea (for Proof) and I showed up at the San Diego Comic Con with pages full of sketches.

Proof is full of wild creatures. How did you approach character design?

We both like ’70s horror comics (like Swamp Thing) and monsters. They were easy to design — they wrote themselves (laughs). We didn’t want the usual looking protagonists but to make everyone distinct as possible. Like the Sheriff — he just gets more extreme as the series goes on.

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