The comic’s next big horror series is here…and its beloved creator is in Emerald City Comics Cloth 2025, offering fresh details to excited fans. Exquisite Corpses is the new Issue 13 series from Image Comics, featuring unparalleled horror writer James Tynion IV (a lovely house on the lake where something is killing a child).
Speaking at the “Fireside Chat” at Seattle’s new convention center, Tynion IV and Walsh dived deep into a new collaboration of past works and exquisite corpses. Starting with a compliment, James Tanion IV highlighted Silvercoin, a gorgeous horror anthology portrayed by Walsh.
Shot immediately, Walsh praised the beautiful, stunning home of Tynion on the lake.
Speaking about their inspiration, Tynion IV explained that the X-Men: The Animated series and comic event Age of Apocalypse were the first steps in their love for comics. After that, after realising how unique and vast the comic world is with Vertigo’s diverse comics, he really influenced Tynion IV with his comic writing, and later became an intern at Vertigo’s office at the beginning of his comic career.
Tynion IV was asked to give an “elevator pitch” to the exquisite corpse. “Every five years, the 13th richest family gathers to play the game. Each chooses a very dangerous killer and releases it into a small American town. Anyone who wins the battle will start running the country for the next five years. This is the story of a small town in Oak Valley, Maine, where the people of Oak Valley try to live in this dangerous game.”
Tynion IV considers the series a “serial killer fight” and wanted an opportunity to create unique and attractive characters and beat each other!
Tynion IV and Walsh report that the first 13 issues in Comic are just a number of series, if possible. Because this killer game takes place every five years, Tynion IV said he could imagine a follow-up series called Exquisite Corpses 1985.
Walsh and Tynion IV loved designing an incredibly unique serial killer who acts as the villains of the series, but the true heart of the story is the town’s inhabitants, who begin to die very quickly, but will root you to survive as long as possible.
The first killer Walsh was a “Gamer Kid,” and “identified that a sociopathic, terrifying little kid killed someone in real life in a video game… After going through the process of creating a character, he created a Cub Scout for the Gamer Kid and swings a machine gun called Calvin.”
“The Fox Mask Killer” is a “Kill Bill” type assassin and believes Tynion IV will become a popular and iconic character for fans of the new series.
Hilariously, panel host Jazzlyn Stone, reading the latest version of the exquisite corpse on a recent airplane trip, said she needs to turn her back from those sitting next to her for her habitat and how brutal Walsh art is.
Tynion IV also revealed that while creating an exquisite corpse comic, their team has begun developing a real-life game inspired by the series. The artists that Michael Walsh first came up with began to create statistics for different characters, bringing a draft version with “killer cards” to the writer’s summit for the creative team…and they loved it. They played games all night! Walsh reports that they are playing test the game with a group of people and that they can’t really wait for people to get it, but details are still kept secret. Very exciting!
Personally, I can’t wait to dive into the exquisite corpse world that debuted on May 14, 2025 and debuted in a massive 60-page #1.
