Cullen Bunn delivers Chilling New Tale With "A Foulness In The Walls" This November
A Horror Prestige Format One-Shock from the mind of Cullen Bunn!
After a tragic loss, George hopes to rebuild his life. He moves to a new house. He gets a new job. He starts dating the girl of his dreams. Sometimes, though, guilt can be as malevolent as an evil spirit. Sometimes, ghosts follow you. Something is rotting in the walls of George’s new house. Something hungry.
Written by Cullen Bunn (DARK ARK, UNHOLY GRAIL, Basilisk, Bone Parish) and illustrated by Rodrigo Zayas (Cyber Force: Rebirth), comes a story of loss, rot and hunger.
Mr. Bunn took a few moments to lay out a bit more detail on the book, including his inspirations for the story and some of the horror stories and media that inspire him. Take a look below:
“At its core, A FOULNESS IN THE WALLS is about the devastating power of grief and guilt. The story focuses on George, a guy who is trying to rebuild his life. For years, he has been the caretaker for his ailing mother. Now that she has passed, George finds himself on his own, really for the first time ever. He purchases a small house and tries to start over, but he doesn’t find it all that easy. There’s something in the walls of the house. Something that reeks of death. Something demanding. Something hungry. It’s a bit of a different kind of horror yarn for me, in terms of pacing and themes and general approach, and I’m really interested to find out what people think of it.”
“The story is personal on a lot of levels.
To this day, I deal with a lot of guilt about being so far away from my parents in their final days. I did the best I could. I know that, deep down. My parents knew it. But there are times when it just feels like I didn’t do enough. I also think of my wife, who dedicated her every free moment to her father and mother in their final days. She did everything she could to take care of them. There’s no question about that. And she still deals with guilt, as if she could have done more. That’s the first big inspiration for the book.
The other inspiration is the small, decaying house I lived in for several months while I was in college. I was thankful to have a roof over my head during that time, but the house was an awful, awful pit. I lived there over the summer. There was no air conditioning. It was infested with roaches and slugs. Slugs! They were everywhere! Homeless people would sometimes sneak into the attic to spend a few days. The worst thing, though, by far, was the stench. Something died inside the walls of the house. I could never find the source, but it was a maddening, horrible smell that lasted throughout the summer.”
“I hope readers find A FOULNESS IN THE WALLS both chilling and thought-provoking. I hope the book raises some questions about the pressures each and every one of us put on ourselves and on each other.”
“Horror, for me, is both hopeful and cathartic. Writing it helps me deal with some of my own fears, worries, anger, and questions in a healthy way. It’s hopeful because the heroes in a horror story, even if they don’t make it through, often fight for survival until the bitter, bitter end.
Favorite horror? For me, that’s tough. It changes all the time. My favorite horror movie would be a toss-up between THE THING and ALIEN. My favorite horror book would be SALEM’S LOT, though a lot of great horror anthologies like SKELETON CREW, BLUE WORLD, THE DARK DESCENT, or the BORDERLANDS series hold places of honor in my heart. When it comes to TV, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER is still near and dear to me, but I loved shows like DARKROOM and NIGHT GALLERY and TALES FROM THE CRYPT, too.”
A FOULNESS IN THE WALLS / $7.99 / 48 pages / Color / On Sale 11.16.22
Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Rodrigo Zayas
Colorist: Lorenzo Scaramella
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Cover: Sami Kivelä
Incentive Cover: Szymon Kudranski
