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If you're wondering what James Tynion IV is scared of, look to his comics

Well, that and E.T. (Yes, the Extra-Terrestrial)

Cropped poster for The Deviant featuring a man in a Santa costume in the snow — Image credit: Image (Joshua Hixson)

Features by Tiffany Babb, Contributing writer

Published on Mon Apr 29 2024

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What horrifies a horror writer? Especially one who writes all types of different kinds of horror comics with titles including Something is Killing the Children, The Nice House on the Lake, and The Deviant? During C2E2 2024, this question was well discussed when James Tynion IV took the stage to chat all things horror alongside colleagues and collaborators Soo Lee, Sam Johns, Tate Brombal, Fernando Blanco, Martin Simmonds, Joshua Hixson, and moderator Jazzlyn Stone.

The very first question that Stone asked the panel was: What are you afraid of? This is what Tynion had to say: “All of my writing comes from the things that terrify me the most. That all comes across in the body of my work. You can see throughlines. Theres a fear of where we are as a society. There are systems that were designed to protect us that aren’t working.”

He later added, “Me exploring each and every one of those fears is what drives me to work on the comics that I work on with these lovely people,” gesturing at the panel.

As for the first terrifying moment when it comes to film, Tynion chose one that resonated a lot with this writer, "The most terrifying movie in Steven Spielberg's repertoire, which is E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," Tynion said. “When Eliot runs into E.T. in the cornfield and screams… the scream itself is was one of the most unsettling, unhuman noises ever put on film. I would just start sobbing, it was like every single time it happened.”

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