How do you create a Toxic Summer? Add 1950’s teen beach movies, Mad Magzine, H.P. Lovecraft, the Archies, and Creature from the Black Lagoon to a tiki mug, shake well, and serve hot or cold at your next beach bash.
The actual recipe is one concocted by Eisner Award-winning cartoonist Derek Charm in his new Oni Press series Toxic Summer.
The first of the bi-monthly, giant-size issues arrive on May 1, and promise all of the ingredients listed above when best friend Ben and Leo stumble upon a toxic spill at their local beach effectively ending their dreams of the “best summer ever”.
We spoke to Chew about all aspects of Toxic Summer and his previous work on Marvel’s Squirrel Girl in this exclusive interview.
Where did the idea for Toxic Summer come from?
Derek Charm: Toxic Summer really came out of wanting to do something silly and funny with a horror/sci-fi angle. It’s two idiot best friends having the worst summer imaginable, which happens to include toxic spills and mutant monsters.
Plenty of 1950s horror takes place at the beach. Is this the vibe you were going for in the new series?
Charm: In a way. I was kind of thinking of them separately. Like taking ’60s Beach Party movies, and then mashing them up with something like HP Lovecraft’s Dagon seemed really funny to me. There’s a lot of influence from movies like Jaws, Weird Science, Mars Attacks—anything where people who are completely unprepared get wrapped up in otherworldly occurrences.
Did your previous work on the Archie line prepare you for a teen-centric horror tale?
Charm: I actually wasn’t consciously thinking about my own work on Archie when I was working on this, but definitely earlier Archie comics by artists like Harry Lucey and Dan Decarlo and the series Archie’s Madhouse, which was a great horror comedy series.
Toxic Summer builds to a big reveal at the end of the comic, so how did you build the suspense and intrigue throughout all 48 pages?
Charm: That’s one of the things I loved about getting a double-sized first issue, there just wasn’t a place in the story for that reveal to happen any sooner. I think you really had to get to know the characters and the situation before you throw something like that out there.
Toxic Summer is part of Oni Press’ commitment to a bunch of new series from a variety of genres. Thoughts on being part of the team?
Charm: It’s awesome it worked out that way, and I’m honored to be part of such an amazing lineup of artists and writers doing really cool work.
Squirrel Girl has become a beloved Marvel character. What is her secret and any memories of working on the title?
Charm: The team on that book was one of the best I’ve ever worked with. Our editors Wil Moss and Sarah Brunstad loved the series and were so involved in making it as good as it could be. Rico Renzi elevated every page with his colors, as did Travis Lahnham on letters. I’ve gone on to work with all of these people multiple times over the years and it’s always the best experience.
The secret sauce is Ryan North though, who can write a group of friends in weird situations better than anyone. His current run on Fantastic Four that presents them through this Star Trek/Twilight Zone filter is my favorite comic out right now. We got the team all back together a couple years ago for a Squirrel Girl Radio Show podcast, and got to do some comics and art related to that, and it was so great to revisit those characters.
What do readers have to look forward to in future issues of Toxic Summer?
Charm: More dead fish, more plans gone awry, and more beach secrets revealed.
Look for Toxic Summer #1 will be available at your favorite comic book shop on May 1.
