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Summary
Every horror fan have a go at it the variety of play , terror , and despair that marks a good tale of hellish possession . But how does that story variety when the " obsess house " in interrogation is the White House … and the family being tormented belongs to the President of the United States ? The answer isThe Exorcism at 1600 Penn , the next laughable being added to the must - translate list for any horror fan .
The new book fromIDWarrives just in clock time for Halloween , withThe Exorcism at 1600 Penn#1set to launch on October 16 , 2024 . But for those horror devotee eager to hear more about this inspired incubus , Screen Rant experience the opportunity to speak with writer Hannah Rose May ( restrict Your Enthusiasm , Harley Quinn ) about the inhalation for the series , the raw First Family twist on a classic repulsion trope , the outstanding work of Vanesa Del Rey ( Constantine : The Hellblazer ) , and more . Read on for the full audience below .
The repugnance music genre has always been essential to comic books as a medium ; below are the 10 best , most acute horror series of all time .
Screen Rant : With the news officially out , the privacy surrounding THE EXORCISM AT 1600 University of Pennsylvania pee-pee perfect good sense ! Explain the premise ? " Brilliant , I ’m in . " Show that first cover by Vanesa Del Rey ? " Take my money now . " Was the initial idea for this story also that direct and instantaneous , or did it take prison term to develop ?
Hannah Rose May : Vanesa Del Rey was my dreaming get from the jump and I sincerely consider she ’s doing some of her best study on this serial publication . Just when I thought she could n’t possibly get any honest ! When I first saw that cover , I literally gasped because I had that precise epitome living in my head since the ideas first inception .
The estimate came sort of out of nowhere to be honest . It was back when Biden was elected and Ireland was very activated to have an Irish Catholic in the White House . It just goes to show how my mind works but the moment I think about Catholicism , I also think about exorcism . Then the claim run into me and from there it all set off to precipitate into spot . I love being able to put women in roles and places we have n’t visit them before through storytelling so it promptly became about the first female president and the First Family and what would happen if they had to execute an dispossession in the White House . After that , it hold a small piece of time to flesh out the residual of the populace , tonicity , and story but the core concept was pretty fully bake from the jump .
SR : Before getting into the specific details of this story , you ’ve described EXORCISM as " all - out horror " – is that your savour of horror ? How grueling is it for a sports fan of horror to have to indite repugnance up to their own standard ?
HRM : Horror and thriller are for certain my favorite genres and I knew I wanted to write a horror news report as my next original series . I ’ve always been drawn to horror that make its scares through the deadening burn of character developing rather than lean on jump panic and gore . That ’s why The exorciser has served as nightmare fuel for decades and is considered the gilded standard in horror . It ’s scare off stepping into the realm of repulsion but as a devotee I knew what I wanted to achieve with this story and used that as my guiding principle when writing the script . It ’s hard to get a sensation of the terror when it ’s just words on a varlet but it was n’t until Vanesa ’s hauntingly beautiful pages came in that I realized we had a real repugnance leger on our hands !
SR : Most revulsion sports fan are familiar with the assumption of ' a family being haunt , ' but how much does that level variety when it ’s the First Family ? How do you draw that line between the horror , and the political ( if you do ) ?
HRM : capital doubtfulness ! I really require to be mindful of the political implications of set up a story within the White House . I claim a page out of Top Gun : Maverick , which does an excellent problem of rest politically agnostical and never refers to the enemy res publica by name which lets the audience replete in the blanks . The Exorcism at 1600 Penn is distinctly a horror storey and not a political one despite the setting . With the First Family , I need to spotlight what it must be like for the Kid of these political figures when it come to have a crush or mete out with browbeat when your mom ’s the most powerful person in the world . I also want to rivet on the intensity of the 24/7 news bicycle and the reverberation chambers that have been make as a way to further explore how the events of the Word affect the First Family . Like that of varlet ' Gallery , The Exorcism at 1600 Penn utilizes social media as a story tool to magnify the repugnance elements of the Bible by rachet up up the tension .
SR : The first offspring does an great job of portray " The White House " as just a fresh house . Is that perspective only potential for a storyteller who is n’t wear in the United States ? Was that something you contended with in the developing procedure ?
HRM : uprise up outside of the United States , the White House has this perception of being a beacon of Bob Hope and freedom more so than a building . I ’ve long been obsess with the White House and as I begin to learn more about it after moving to the US , I realized it really is just as much a home as it is a symbol . I have it off the idea of run with that feeling of when you move into a new family and how it still does n’t palpate like home plate . It made me believe about what an rum juxtaposition that must be for the First Family , to live in this iconic building that represent so much to the world but it ’s also where mom and dad still come in and snog you goodnight or where you play Mario Kart on Switch . Could you suppose playing Mario Kart in the White House ? !
SR : This history is about a home and the fellowship living in it , but it ’s anchor on Kelly Doyle : how can you describe her , and the many hats she ’s wearing when we meet her in the story ?
HRM : When we meet Kelly Doyle she is in the thick of being inaugurated as the first female president . The reality is teetering on the edge of all out state of war and the return of the mysterious Havana Syndrome has ratched tension on the nursing home front . Kelly is a woman of faith and truly think in good versus iniquity . She sees her role as chairman to serve as a peacekeeper but with everything going on , she ’s struggling to get by the warhawks who are using the Havana Syndrome and the media to tree her into an aggressive reception . On top of being Commander and Chief , she ’s still mother to her teenage children which is no well-situated feat for any parent . Needless to say , she ’s got a lot on her dental plate , but what president does n’t ?
SR : When you ’re announcing a report that could be seen as " controversial " ( given the location ) , and thenSOMNAwins the Eisner Awardthe next day , does that embolden a writer like yourself ? Horror is a big genre , but that seems to send a prominent content to everyone within ken .
HRM : Somna deserve all the kudos and sexual love , exclaim out to Tula [ Lotay ] and Becky [ Cloonan ] on that well deserved win ! Such a beautiful leger . As a writer it confirms to me that the audience is thirsty than ever for these more avant garde , female tug , and female written big swings . I believe as creatives we perpetually have to toenail the demarcation between story that are deemed commercially feasible versus the stories we actually require to tell . Sometimes those two things do n’t align ( shocker ! ) and in the job of comics , you ’re only as unspoiled as your last series sales number . But what we ’re startle to see now with the like of Somna ’s Eisner profits is the desire for more stories that can dispute the status quo while still finding a great readerbase . I ’m only in my second year as a professional author in the comic industry but I finger like there ’s no better time to be a creator in this space . Whether your story is about the Salem Witch Trials and a sexual awakening at the hands of the Shadow Man or about the first distaff president protect her family from an foe nation or a supernatural entity , just get out there and compose that story you ’ve been itching to tell ! If you write it , they will make out :)
The Exorcism at 1600 Penn#1arrives on October 16 , from IDW Publishing .
