A Letter from Author John Lees

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the THE NASTY: The Complete Series by John Lees & Adam Cahoon Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

About The Book:

Title: THE NASTY: The Complete Series

Authors: John Lees & Adam Cahoon (Illustrator)

Pub. Date: May 28, 2024

Publisher: Vault Comics

Formats:  Paperback, eBook

Pages: 200

Find it: Goodreads, https://books2read.com/THE-NASTY-The-Complete-Series

The Ring meets Empire Records in THE NASTY, a coming-of-age horror story splattered with dark comedy, as a group of horror movie-loving teens bites off more than they can handle when the most sought-after video nasty ever slips through their fingers, and they are forced to film their own video nasty slasher movie – where evil, screams, and nightmares bleed into reality

Keep telling yourself: “IT’S ONLY A MOVIE!!!
Isn't it?

Scotland, 1994.
Eighteen-year-old Graeme “Thumper” Connell still has an imaginary friend: the masked killer from his favorite slasher film. Thumper is obsessed with horror and always has been. He fills his time with scary VHS rentals and hanging out with his friends and fellow fans, The Murder Club. But everything changes when his local video shop acquires one of the notorious films known as “video nasties” — films so scary they’re the target of the British Moral Decency League’s crusade to ban and burn.
But it’s only a movie, right?
It’s all just imaginary, isn’t it?

The Nasty is a story about the perception of evil, the power of genre, the love of fandom, the need to create art, oh, and crap-your-pants TERROR! Become a bonafide member of The Murder Club: pick up this book!

For fans of Stranger Things, Stand By Me, IT, The Monster Squad, Donnie Darko,Empire Records, My Best Friend’s Exorcism and other books by Grady Hendrix, fans of Stephen King and Neil Gaiman, Little Monsters (Jeff Lemire & Dustin Nguyen), The Closet (James Tynion IV), The Me You Love in the Dark (Skottie Young & Jorge Corona), Giant Days, Afterlife With Archie, Killadelphia (Rodney Barnes & Jason Shawn Alexander), and Proctor Valley Road.

PRAISE FOR THE NASTY:
Horror Comics To Watch For in 2023 - Fangoria

“There is no other title I have been more excited about than this because it is a love letter to horror while tackling the conservatism we are seeing rise in pop culture today..." - Fangoria

“The Nasty is a bloody valentine to slashers and the outsiders who love them.”– AIPT

“The Nasty is a love letter to slasher flicks and a generation of kids who loved them. Tender, funny, surprising, endearing, with an emerging horrific twist. We had Faces of Death as the taboo underground horror tape that was whispered about but it wasn't cursed. The Nasty takes a fun nostalgic trip down memory lane and elevates it to a new level of horror. – Lotusland Comics

From JOHN LEES, writer and co-creator of THE NASTY:  

Do you like scary movies?  

I do. Anyone who knows me, or is familiar with my writing, will likely have a fair idea that horror is one of my great loves and obsessions. It has been for as long as I can remember. And some of the earliest lessons in my horror education came from my local video shop. This wasn’t a Blockbuster or a Global Video. It was a little local independent business, located on the street where I lived as a little kid, a 5-minute walk from my house. 

That place is long gone now, so I’m hopefully not getting anyone in trouble here, but I will say that this video shop was… permissive in what it let young me rent out. I’d walk along to the video shop, and come home with copies of Peter Pan and Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence. Child’s Play 2. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. House. The Puppet Master. Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight. The Monster Squad, which my cousin hired out on loop so constantly that the shop, eventually sold him their copy since no one else was getting a chance to hire it out anyway. 

There are so many films that I remember fondly to this day due to that early exposure on video tape, paired with a supportive home environment that encouraged the blooming of my imagination, no matter how weird or morbid the direction it may have been taking, while also assuring me that it was all make-believe and movie magic. It’s likely because of these fond memories that horror, for me, isn’t necessarily something dark or scary. It’s my comfort food, my safe place, associated with feelings of warm nostalgia and happy memories of a childhood spent sitting in front of the TV in the dark, scaring myself silly.  

I’m going to make myself sound like an old fart now, but it makes me sad that video shops are gone. There is a lot of ways in which the world of the 2020s really isn’t all that different from the world of the 1990s, but kids of today just have no experience of something that was such a ubiquitous part of the pop culture landscape and which played such a formative role for me. There must have been barely a week that went by in my pre-teen years where I wasn’t visiting that video shop. It was a library of films, both mainstream and obscure, brought almost to my doorstep.  Before home streaming, before the Internet, this was the pipeline connecting a kid in Scotland to the wider world of movies, and to the wider world of horror.  

With The Nasty, I want us to open up a portal into that lost world. A time when you could walk into a shop on Main Street and be greeted with a shelf packed with films you’d never heard of, with no Letterboxd or Rotten Tomatoes to tell you if they were good, nothing to go by but what video cover caught your eye the most. And also, a time when horror could still be mysterious and forbidden, when, in the UK, there were banned films you couldn’t get at your local video shop, whose reputation would grow through hushed word of mouth in their absence. The video nasties.  

I’m so excited to be working with Vault Comics to be bringing this story to life. In a relatively short time, this publisher has deservedly established a reputation for quality comics storytelling, and it is an honour to join the prestigious ensemble of talent who have worked under this umbrella. And I am especially pleased to be working with Adam Cahoon, an artist I admire and who has brought a charm and vibrancy to this world that makes it thrive.  

The Nasty is my love letter to horror, and to embracing your passion in life, whatever it may be. You might find it a little bit funny, a little bit scary, but I hope that, most of all, that love with which this story was crafted shines through.  

The Nasty is a horror story, not just in terms of it featuring a hulking masked slasher and a cursed video tape, but in that it’s a story about horror, about what it means to us and the impact it has on us. Horror, for me, isn’t necessarily something dark or scary. It’s my comfort food, my safe place, associated with feelings of warm nostalgia and happy memories of a childhood spent sitting in front of the TV in the dark, scaring myself silly. And a lot of why I have such fond recollections is because of my local video shop, where as a kid I accessed a treasure trove of films, both mainstream and obscure. It makes me sad that this video shop and just about all like it are long gone, a memory of a bygone era. With The Nasty, I want us to open up a portal into that lost world. 

 

About John Lees:

John Lees is an award-winning comic book writer from Glasgow, Scotland. He is best known for his work on acclaimed horror series AND THEN EMILY WAS GONE, with artist Iain Laurie, and hard-boiled Glasgow crime saga SINK, drawn by frequent collaborator Alex Cormack. Currently, Lees is the co-creator and writer of THE NASTY from Vault Comics. John's other credits include superhero drama THE STANDARD, serial killer thriller OXYMORON: THE LOVELIEST NIGHTMARE, psychedelic nightmare quest QUILTE, and a story for TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES UNIVERSE. His latest projects are MOUNTAINHEAD, a snow-
swept thriller from IDW Publishing, working with artist Ryan Lee, and HOTELL, a horror anthology series from AWA Upshot, featuring artist Dalibor Talajic.

Newsletter subscription: www.deep-ender.johnleescomics.com.
Patreon: www.patreon.com/johnlees

 

Website | Twitter | Instagram

 

About Adam Cahoon:

Tuffs, Origin House: Spa and Retreat, and Anomaly, as well as his design work with Second Rocket Comics. His other credits include the fan comic Silver Surfer Grey, and the forth-coming I Was A Teenage Ghost Rider. He has design work as well as short comics in the forthcoming books Everything Is Different Now from Justin Richards, Morsels by J Donahue, and Dead Blood by DB Andry.

Website | Twitter | Instagram

 

Giveaway Details:

2 winners will receive finished copies of THE NASTY: The Complete Series, US Only.

Ends June25th, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

5/27/2024	Two Chicks on Books	Excerpt/IG Post
5/28/2024	The Momma Spot	Excerpt
5/29/2024	@darkfantasyreviews	Excerpt
5/30/2024	Fire and Ice Reads	Excerpt/IG Post
5/31/2024	Sadie's Spotlight	Interview Adam Cahoon/IG Post
6/1/2024	Writer of Wrongs	Excerpt

Week Two:

6/2/2024	@thepagelady	IG Review
6/3/2024	GryffindorBookishnerd	IG Review
6/4/2024	Comic Book Yeti	Interview John Lees/X Post
6/5/2024	Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer	Review/IG Post
6/6/2024	@evergirl200	IG Review
6/7/2024	@stargirls.magical.tale	IG Review
6/8/2024	@sparks_books	IG Review

Week Three:

6/9/2024	Books and Zebras	IG Review
6/10/2024	The Book Critic	Review/IG Post
6/11/2024	FUONLYKNEW	Review
6/12/2024	Country Mamas With Kids	Review/IG Post
6/13/2024	nerdophiles	Review
6/14/2024	Brandi Danielle Davis	IG Review/TikTok Post
6/15/2024	A Blue Box Full of Books	IG Review/LFL Drop Pic/TikTok Post

Week Four:

6/16/2024	@enthuse_reader	IG Review/TikTok Post
6/17/2024	@dana.loves.books	IG Review/TikTok Post
6/18/2024	@jaimes_mystical_library	IG Review
6/19/2024	jlreadstoperpetuity	IG Review/TikTok Post
6/20/2024	Two Points of Interest	Review/IG Post
6/21/2024	Lifestyle of Me	Review