Deadly Dolls page 1 with Margot Robbie by Lou Russo

Deadly Dolls from Outer Space! My friend Dino suggested this story a while back when he said "Baby Dolls are really creepy looking. You know, we've seen them possessed, magically animated, scientifically created, haunted, and imbued with artificial intelligence. But we've never seen them come from outer space." With that conversation, I was hooked! Dino had a rough outline of events that he later turned into a panel-by-panel script. I give him the difficult task of trying to tell a story in 4 pages, two of which are almost entirely a single frame. Dino's idea started out as a parody of the frenzied Cabbage Patch Kids craze of the '80s. His "baby dolls" became the Pumpkin Patch Pals (we like alliteration!) for this story.
In typical EC fashion, my hostess, Valentina Von Frankenstein provides some levity. I've always envisioned her as a plus-sized model, since she is made up of the parts of other women. By contrast, she is joined by the ultra-thin, real-life Barbie, actress Margot Robbie. I enjoy "guest appearances" and crossovers, plus it gave Valentina a "straight man" to play off of. I might try to work in other actors, writers, and poets in the future.
I then used the script to pay homage to some of my favorite horror films. The most obvious being "Killer Klowns from Outer Space," which like this story, takes a fixture of childhood and turns it sideways. Next, in a nod to "Halloween 3: Season of the Witch," I included a children's commercial that is meant to create a consumer frenzy prior to a big holiday event. "Halloween 3" has always been my favorite in the franchise, so this was especially fun for me. That movie also has an ambiguous "we're all doomed" ending similar to another one of my favorite movies, "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956). For those unfamiliar with that film, it is about: "Alien plant spores that have fallen from space and grown into large seed pods, each one capable of producing an identical copy of a human." Their ultimate goal, of course, is to take over the human race! This gave me the idea to make the dolls in our story plant or pumpkin based, rather than just plastic toys.
Finally, we needed an ending. Similar to those latter two films, Dino and I agreed that no one would believe our protagonist. We came up with three possible solutions. I chose to illustrate the one that was the most graphic, with the thinking that my "audience" – readers of horror magazines, would expect something more visual and less subtle. This might not have been the "best" ending, but it was the most fun to draw and I tried to circle back to an earlier part of the script in the process. I also liked the idea of the dolls emerging from the alley trashcans, similar to the '80s parody trading cards, the Garbage Pail Kids, which were often seen in trashcans. Thanks to Dino for his idea and written words. We have one more story planned together, our third and my tenth, before I shift gears for a while. Enjoy!