How Boulet Brothers, Alaska 5000, Yvie Oddly made Heavy Metal Hallowen

If it’s one thing the world needs, it’s a more open embrace of the queer, whether in the sense of sexuality or in the sense of bizarre. Producers, performers and drag legends The Boulet Brothers can do it all. Heavy MetalThe #311 is also known as the Halloween Takeover

Filled with stories written by some of the most fabulously ghoulish talents in the business — such as Haunting the Bly Manor director Axelle Carolyn, comic writer Steve Orlando, the Boulet Brothers themselves, and many other fearsome queens — the issue, out now, is notable high point for ghastly glamour and timely scares.

“I’d already kicked off Starward at Heavy Metal, and had been friends with Drac and Swan for a while when that started,” Steve Orlando explains. “We’d been trying to find a way to work together since we met, and the project took on many forms over the years. But once I had landed at Heavy Metal for a story of my own and seen the broad canvas they offered to tell subversive, provocative stories, I knew I’d found the home for my first collaboration with the Boulets. Heavy Metal is a sci-fi institution, and knowing Drac and Swan’s tenets of drag, horror, filth, and glamor, the merging of the brands for Halloween just made perfect sense. They are both brands who have approached creativity in similar manners: Be provocative, bold, and answer one. So, I knew bringing them together would be lightning in a bottle.”

The Boulet Brothers echoed Orlando’s statement in the issue’s feature interview, conducted by none other than George C. Romero. “I’ve been a fan of [Heavy Metal Magazine] since the 1980s,” said Drac, “when I would see it in comic stores growing up. The covers were always so iconic and some of them have actually inspired drag looks of ours.”

After establishing a connection between Horror Drag and Heavy Metal, the team was ready to start preparing for major drag artists and creators to appear in the issue. It was all about who you know between Orlando and the Brothers.

“Once we knew the Halloween Takeover issue was going to become a reality, we both pressed our contacts for creators that both knew the iconic legacy of Heavy Metal, also had that specific Halloween charisma,” says Orlando. “With that in mind, we pulled together this all-star cast of creatives from across the drag, filmmaking, comics and pro wrestling worlds.”

Brothers Dracmorda and Swanthula Boulet act as hosts in the spooky takeover issue (a la Warren Publishing’s horror hosts for the vintage anthologies Creepy and EerieElvira, Mistresse of the Night) guides the reader into bizarre and haunted places from the mind of RuPaul’s Drag Race Katya Zamolodchikova stars, Yyvie Oldly and Alaska Thunderfuck 5000, Steve FoxeParty & Prey; Cheater Code) and artist Isaac Goodhart (Catwoman American Horror Story director Axelle Carolyn. The creators spoke to Polygon about how this meeting of minds, with their shared love of drag and horror was like a match made for heaven.

Nathan Noyes, Photo

“I’ve known the Boulet Brothers for years and I think they’re greatIt is. We even went out and had pie one time,” Alaska Thunderfuck 5000 tells Polygon. “When they asked me to be a part of this project with Heavy MetalYes, it sounds great. When I was a little boy, comics were a favorite pastime of mine. I found it a way to create long, complex narrative stories. This was far more entertaining than writing. It was a time when I really got to know the characters. I know many of them still today. I think comics are beautiful, thrilling, and sexy, and they make reading fun.”

Alaska’s story revolves around Honor, a sex worker in 1985 who finds herself as the host for an otherworldly and gruesomely deadly parasite that promises to help her extract revenge on the many men who have hurt her or taken advantage of her profession. While Honor is happy at first to harness her newfound power and feel truly in control of her body and fate, there comes a point — of course — where she must question whether she is truly in control of herself, or just driven by another outside invader. The story, which features art and letters by Przemyslaw Klisin is twice as vile and timely as it is beautiful.

“No matter what I do, or what story I tell, there’s always a strong woman at the center of it,” Alaska says, “and making her a sex worker was a no brainer because hookers have the best clothes and shoes. It’s easy to get caught up in the act of revenge, and trying to make amends with those who wronged her. It eventually reaches a point when the revenge starts eating at her, and she must conquer it. It is possible, I believe. [readers] think it’s cool and pretty. Yes, I do. And I hope it makes them hire sex workers and treat them very nicely.”

Alaska’s contribution isn’t alone in blurring lines between horror, glamour, and filth with startling effect; each story in the special issue mixes the camp of drag with some truly grotesque scares. Orlando says that the bonds formed between members of the team have helped to improve their work together. Heavy Metal These stories are a mixture of subversive storytelling and creative guest writing.

“Heavy MetalIt has amazing connections across comics, science fiction and horror. As with everything else in the Halloween Takeover, this was a mashup of maniacal talents, this time behind the scenes,” he says. “So what you have with these incredible art teams is a melding of contacts and relationships built up over both the Boulets’ and Heavy Metal’s time in power. With both being so well established, and meeting on the page for the first time, it wasn’t a question of finding folks to join in. If anything, it was a question of finding space for them all!”

Image: Heavy Metal

Director of The Haunting of Bly Manor Horror journalist and comic writer Axelle Carolyn also was available to share her thoughts on the contributions she made to this issue. Halloween TakeoverThe stories, which are very similar to horror’s traditional tales of love and death, are called “The Horror Story”. Similar to Candyman, Mike Flanagan’s Oculus, and the Bloody Mary myth, Carolyn’s story invites an unsuspecting twist to a harmless mirror game. Drawing on the fear of the unknown and the unsettling nature of early “party games,” Carolyn goes on to describe her inspirations for such a classic but newly revived concept.

“The inspiration came from those awesome, spooky vintage Halloween cards from the early 20th century, and the games that they depict. It’s an idea that’s been floating in my head in one shape or another for years; originally, I came up with it for an anthology movie I produced, Halloween TalesWe were directing another project. It was great to have the chance to finally see it come to life,” Carolyn says. “As for mirrors … I’ve always found them terrifying, especially at night. Something about seeing someone else reflected in your place, or revealing something about you that you weren’t aware of. Eek!”

In many different ways, Reflection is a common theme in all of the stories within the book. From the very first page of the book, queer concepts are present. This gives readers an easy and enjoyable way to explore the concept of self-identity. These concepts also reflect anarchism, which is the basis of horror and drag. Both are equally rooted in the concept of transgression from the “norm,” the blending of the two becomes something seamless. Both represent rejection of society’s status quo and link to rebellious forms of existence that do not require permission. Queer rebellion and horror fundamentalism are the core of queer rebellion.Halloween Takeover

“Horror is at its best when it pushes boundaries, makes you playfully uncomfortable, and gives you something gorgeous to look at. The same, I believe, is true of drag,” Carolyn offers. “So those two art forms seem very complementary, and I’m so glad the Boulet Brothers have brought that killer combination to a wide audience!”

“I think Drag is kind of terrifying,” adds Alaska. “I used to be scared of Drag queens. Even though Drag is now a very family friendly product, many people remain afraid of them. Drag represents the absurdity of commercial beauty. And that can be scary.”

Scotty Kirby

According to Orlando, “Much like horror, drag is storytelling in a loud, big, provocative mode that demands attention and will not allow itself to be ignored. And it’s rooted in the same subversion of societal expectations as, of course, queerness, but horror as well. I think that’s why you often see crossover between the mediums in the form of horror queens like the Boulets. Drag demands a reaction, horror demands a reaction, and both force you to leave your expectations in the dust.”

With Heavy Metal’s penchant for pushing the envelope and creating a new kind of conversation — and the nightmarishly beautiful concepts of some of modern drag’s most highly crowned — it’s undeniable that audiences of all backgrounds will find big laughs and even bigger thrills in this buxom Halloween treat.

“We’re going to deliver all the exciting gonzo storytelling you expect from Heavy Metal, with that added bit of drag, horror, filth, and glamor,” promises Orlando. “We of course want the scares and surprises, but I also hope they see connections between the genres they didn’t expect. These are the creative matches of our afterlives between the Boulets. Heavy Metal. Please come as either a fan of one or both and enjoy the ride. Heavy MetalYou will love it! Because across mediums, print to television, they’re both delivering content that takes you right to the edge of your expectations and dares you to step over that line. I want everyone, no matter why they get this issue, to be unsettled, aghast, and overjoyed, in that order.”

Courtesy of Heavy Metal Magazine, you can check out the first five pages of the Heavy Metal Halloween Takeover issue’s feature interview, between George C. Romero and Dracmorda and Swanthula Boulet below.

Check out this page to get the Boulet Brothers Experience. Heavy Metal#311.