INTERVIEW: Introducing Count Crowley, the reluctant midnight monster hunter
Photo: David Dastmalchian is the creator of the Count Crowley comic series from Dark Horse. Photo courtesy of press rep / Provided by Persona PR with permission.
Actor David Dastmalchian has been making quite the name for himself these past 10 years, ever since his cinematic debut in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. He regularly appears in multiple movies and TV shows every year, and now he can add comic book creator to his long list of accomplishments.
Dastmalchian’s new creative project is called Count Crowley: Reluctant Midnight Monster Hunter, available now from Dark Horse. The series, featuring art by Lukas Ketner, follows Jerri Bartman, a TV journalist who is down on her luck and has recently been relegated to hosting the midnight monster specials on the network, according to press notes. However, this new job has a few surprises, one of which is that Jerri must actually battle real monsters, much like her predecessor in the role, Count Crowley.
“I have been collecting comic books since I was 12, and I grew up in Kansas City where I was also fascinated by and had a deep fandom and love for classic horror cinema,” Dastmalchian said in a recent phone interview. “We had a really great kitschy horror host in Kansas City who would come on TV on Friday nights and introduce all of the old Universal movies and the old Hammer films. I have love for all of those things, and over many, many years all of that just continued to swirl through my imagination as I created this character and this world that I wanted to build.”
He added: “And so now that I’m standing here as a grown adult who works in such a fun and cool job, and I’m getting to have this comic book be published, it grew out of all that. It’s an incredible moment, and the response has been so positive. People have been so wonderful and kind, and I’ve gotten messages from all over the country and even some from the U.K. where the comic is being sold. And I’ve had people already starting to dress up like my hero character. I’ve seen some photographs of Jerri/Count Crowley cosplay, and it’s just a walking dream right now.”
The first three issues of Count Crowley are now available from Dark Horse, with the finale coming next month. If it were up to Dastmalchian, there would be many more adventures of the midnight monster hunter. He has been building this world and these characters for quite some time, and he cannot wait to see what the future holds.
The actor, who has appeared in everything from Hulu’s Reprisal to CBS’ MacGyver to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return, actually made the connection to Dark Horse thanks to his work on MacGyver.
“I got so lucky,” the actor said. “The guy who is the brains behind these reboots of MacGyver, Magnum P.I. and Hawaii Five-O is a man named Peter Lenkov, and Peter has a great, amazing history as a writer and a producer and a creator. So I had this idea for Jerri and for Count Crowley, and I actually was imagining that it would make a really neat television series because I love the old Kolchak: The Night Stalker. And I love the old Twilight Zone’s, but I also love the renaissance we’re living in now with shows like Glow on Netflix. And tonally for me Count Crowley feels like a mashup between Universal monster movies and old Creepshow-style comic books with a show that is like Glow.”
So Dastmalchian pithched the idea to Lenkov. He wanted the showrunner’s advice on how best to present the story and its characters to a studio.
“I’ve made independent films,” the actor said. “I’ve sold my independent films before. I’ve been able to pitch some of my more arthouse projects, but as far as a bigger project like this, I don’t even know where to begin.”
Lenkov apparently loved the idea and got excited about its potential. After a few weeks, the actor met with a few more people from Lenkov’s company, who all seemed similarly excited by the idea. Their suggestion was that Dastmalchian should talk to Dark Horse, one of the preeminent comic publishers in the world.
“So they set up a meeting,” he remembers. “Over the years, I created a bible of my Count Crowley world, which had plots and stories and clipart and videos that I compiled. It was as if you were putting together a presentation of what you thought this would be. The Dark Horse people looked at all of that. They read my outlines and my scripts, and they said, ‘This is right up our alley. We want to give you an opportunity to do a run of comic books, and we’d like to do a trade paperback, a graphic novel and see where it goes.’ They just gave me the keys to the castle.”
Those keys to the castle came with access to editors and Ketner as the artist. They both understood the world that Dastmalchian was trying to build, ditto for the colorist, letterer and design team.
“The last year and a half has been just truly one of the most rewarding creative experiences I’ve ever had in my life, if not the most rewarding creative experience I’ve had in my life,” he said. “And that’s how it all came together. I’ve been so lucky in my career as an actor, and I’ve hit the lottery so many times. With this, I feel just like, wow, I got Powerball. It’s really amazing.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Count Crowley: Reluctant Midnight Monster Hunter, by David Dastmalchian, is now available from Dark Horse. Click here for more information.
