Meredith McClaren’s ode to teen horror TV shows, Meat Eaters, follows the afterlife of Ashley Moore, a nineteen year old creature of the night with real world problems.
Meat Eaters is part of Oni Press’ summer 2025 graphic novel lineup and it delivers the horror elements and the dark realities of life in equal parts.
We spoke to McClaren about Meat Eaters and monsters in our exclusive interview with the creator.
Where did the idea for Meat Eaters originate for you?
Meredith McClaren: I’ve been wanting to do a book with an undead character for a long long time. One of the less glamourized monsters. And with a character who is maybe a little more practical than the teen dramas I saw growing up.
At first, the lead Ashley’s, problems were more an extension around some of my own disordered thoughts around food. But as I get older, and my health continues to throw me curveballs, I realized there was also a really good story here about fighting the reality of your conditions.
You call Meat Eaters an “..ode to all the teen horror television I lovingly consumed over the years”. How do those influences work their way into your story?
McClaren: I think it comes out in Ashley’s pragmaticism. I loved those stories growing up. But by their own nature they exaggerated the teen experience and reactions in ways that were not real to me. So as much as I enjoyed them, there was a disconnect that caused me some consternation.
Monsters were fine. Everyone trying to be popular or partying or hooking up? Not really the life I grew up with. So I wanted to tell that story.
A lot of the stories I do come from a place of “I loved this thing, but this part was not true for me.”
You populate Ashley’s world with a lot of supernatural creatures. How did you go about selecting them and do you have a favorite to write about?
McClaren: I think we stuck with mostly the basics. Ashley’s a bit of a diversion as she represents a ghoul and not a zombie. Motley and Harrison, her hangers-ons, represent the werewolves. And then we’ve got a small smattering of vampires. The classics, you know?
There is at least one other monster in there though that I was delighted to bring into the story. A little known American cryptid. I love those.
I love each of them for different reasons. The forever tired ghoul. The feral werewolves. But I do delight in my ‘less than suave, kind of dipshit’ vampires, Gus and Dmitri. There’s a line in a B-Movie called Spaced Invaders that I always recall when I think of Gus and Dmitri.
They’re not evil. They’re just stupid.
You handle both the art and writing on the series. What have you learned from previous writers that you’ve worked with?
McClaren: Oh. I’m kind of a slow pacer. And I try to watch some of my writers closely for how quickly they hook an audience and how they keep the action steady. I may not always implement it. I like my quiet breathing moments. But it’s fascinating to try and reverse engineer some of my writer’s kinetic storytelling.
Reflections on Black Cloak and working with Kelly Thompson on it?
McClaren: I really leveled up with Black Cloak. Any time I work with Kelly, she asks for the best and I try to deliver. I’m really proud of it.
Future projects?
McClaren: I’ve got a travelogue that’s set for self-publishing before the end of the year called Enjoy Endure. It covers a trip last year taken to Vietnam that I thoroughly enjoyed. After that I have either another travelogue or another horror fiction lined up, but I’m not sure which one I’ll pick first.
And in the distant far off future of 2029 I’ll have another middle grade fantasy coming out called The Rift. It’s about two half sisters, one human, the other a little more than that. And what happens when one is ready to go out into the world, and the other maybe is a little less prepared for that.
I’m looking forward to both of them.
Meat Eaters will be available at your local comic shop on July 8.
