My records are spotty – and my memory spottier – but I’ve interviewed AHOY Comics’ Grand Poobah-in-Chief Tom Peyer at least seven times counting this here piece. Why so often? Like the publisher’s line, he’s a balm for a cantankerous soul, a decidedly unique character in the world of the funny pages. This particular episode was presaged by the incoming Wednesday return of AHOY’s Edgar Allan Poe-inspired anthology series Snifter of Death, but if I’m being honest, I’d talk to Peyer any time – it’s just a fuckin’ hoot, and he puts up with my bullshit.
Please enjoy this seventh serving of horse hockey with its few, actual accompanying questions.
It was my pleasure.
Will Nevin: This has been … a season of baseball for the Yankees, swinging wildly from excellence to mediocrity, from big dang dongers to not being able to collect a hit to save Hal Steinbrenner’s third vacation home. But as we enter the final weekend of the season, the Bombers currently have the first wild card spot and face three games against the Rays, a team that almost ran away with the division. This team could flame out in the wild card game or go to the World Series – nothing in between. Some kind of year, wasn’t it? At least Stanton and Judge mashed like the big monster men they are. Also, if they fuck up this weekend, I’ll fix this question in post.
Tom Peyer: They’re hard to love. If they were to win it all this year, it would prove once and for all the random and arbitrary nature of the tournament structure. The regular season means so much more, and the Yankees made it a living hell.
Will’s note: The Yankees lost two of three over the weekend, setting up a trip to Boston tonight for the right to face the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Division Series. This won’t end well.
Will: So Snifter of Death for the new volume title, huh? I’m a little hurt that you didn’t take my suggestion of Snifter of Bile. It’s at least a liquid. You could pour it. Poe probably wrote about it and the “humors” and whatever other dumb science they had. It works, I’m telling you.
Tom: What’s the matter with you? Snifter of Bile is gross. Ugh. Yellow. Snifter of Humors, maybe. But Snifter of Death has that quality of sheer, dumb meaninglessness that perfectly encapsulates what we’re going for.
Will: I’ll set my disappointment aside for a moment to talk about Mark Russell – he’s got another one of his “Breakfast Cereal Graphic Universe” stories in this first issue. How great are these? I love how Russell plays it absolutely straight aside from the townfolk who literally say “Shit, just burn the vampire already” while the town is debating what to do with Count Chocula. These would not work without that great tone. Any chance these stories might get collected (perhaps in a box set of some sort) or expanded?
Tom: I don’t know who this Count Chocula is that you refer to. He’s certainly not on our list of protected intellectual properties, but maybe he’s on someone’s. Or not. I’m going to have to assume he doesn’t exist. As for the future of Monster Serials, conversations have taken place.
Will’s note: Does AHOY have a legal team? *thinking emoji*
Will: Also, I read that Russell has a new AHOY book coming out, My Bad. What’s that about? I could google it myself, but since I’ve got you here…
Tom: My Bad is a funny, original, and unpredictable superhero spoof created by Mark, Bryce Ingman and Peter Krause, based in part on a short story by Bryce that we ran a few years ago. It largely deals with Emperor King, a very clever supervillain who should pay more attention to the fine details. Details like, did you put the right hero in the death trap? Bryce’s original prose story appeared in Hashtag: Danger #4, so there’s only the slightest risk that you read it already.
Will’s note: Hashtag: Danger was some good shit. I need to crack open my trade sometime.
Will: Last question on Russell since he’s got the second volume of Second Coming wrapping up in addition to this new series. Did you envision working so much with him when he brought that book over, or is this a partnership that’s slowly grown over these past couple of years?
Tom: That as great and popular a writer as Mark has written so much for AHOY is a testament, I think, to my own personal magnetism and infallible business principles. You can learn more in my new book, Living Ted: What Sen. Ted Cruz’s Washington Journey Can Teach Us About Family, Spirituality and Personal Finance.
Will’s note: I don’t think that’s a real book. But I could be wrong.
Will: Back to Snifter of Bile. (Come on — you have to admit that sounds better.) The first issue of this new volume also has poor Poe’s origin story and a dig at Baltimore as the “future home of the world’s shittiest ball club,” a slight I’d say was unfair if the team wasn’t already staring at 107 losses on the season. Why are the Orioles so terrible, and why is it Poe’s fault?
Tom: Again with the Bile.
Despite our cheap shot against the Orioles, I have nothing but good wishes for the team and its fans. The American League East is a family. Sure, we argue, but in the end we come together and play the games.
Will’s note: I would not consider Boston to be family. I mean, maybe if we’re talking about that cousin who can’t stay out of jail, they’re family. Fenway is a dump. Those new yellow jerseys are an affront unto the Lord. May all of the bad things in the world happen to the Red Sox and the Red Sox alone.
Will: You’ve got five more issues in this volume, and #1 hints at more Kirk Vanderbeek stories, which were fun as hell. What else do we have to look forward to in this run?
Tom: Werewolves, a mummy, a Dracula and a Frankenstein! I’m not kidding!
Will’s note: Someone said you were kidding?
Will: Ages ago, I meant to do one of these things and ask you about Snelson, but I got busy or depressed or some combination of the two and it drifted away into the timeless abyss of pandemic life. ANYWAY – Snelson. What a timely, smart fuckin’ book. I love the idea of a David Cross or a Bill Maher (minus an HBO deal) pathetically floundering around for some relevance. But is Snelson himself someone to feel sorry for? Complex feelings about thar guy.
Tom: Paul Constant and Fred Harper have made a character you can root for and against. A genuine person. I’m really going to miss Melville Snelson when it’s over.
Will: You’ve wrapped the latest chapter of The Wrong Earth since the last time we chatted. How does it feel having one more volume of that in the can? And there are still more stories to tell, I hope.
Tom: I love any chance I get to work on The Wrong Earth. We ended the last series on kind of a mild cliffhanger because Jamal Igle and I just want to keep going back there.
Will: Finally, what’s a confusingly vague teaser you can drop for what’s next for AHOY? The less helpful, the better.
Tom: AHOY will continue its commitment to numbered pages.
Will’s note: Finally – a publisher with a dedication to the things that matter.
Will Nevin loves bourbon and AP style and gets paid to teach one of those things. He is on Twitter far too often.
