Death of Elvira: Cassandra Peterson & David Avallone Talk Killing an Icon (Interview)
After forty years of looking on the lighter side of horror, Dynamite Comics is preparing to kill a horror icon in The Death of Elvira for the character's fortieth anniversary, beginning a murder mystery that delves into the character's past in a search for her killer.
The comic is written by David Avallone — Dynamite's returning Elvira scribe, who also handled the Elvira Mistress of the Dark series and the upcoming Elvira Meets Vincent Price — with input from Cassandra Peterson, who created the character and has played her in everything from the original Elvira's Movie Macabre to recent reality-show contest The Search for the Next Elvira. The comic's artist is Silvia Califano, who fans will know from Elvira in Horrorland and 2000 AD.
Related: Horror Icons Elvira and Vincent Price Team Up to Stop the Apocalypse
Screen Rant spoke with Cassandra Peterson and David Avallone about The Death of Elvira. The co-writers talked about why they chose their subject matter, the surprising real-life influences on the story, the unique benefits of working in comics, and the choice to connect with fans to fund the project via Dynamite Entertainment's Indiegogo campaign.
I’ve had a chance to read the book, and it’s a really fun adventure that obviously begins with a major event. How early did you know you wanted the Fortieth Anniversary Special to be about the death of Elvira?
David Avallone: Pretty much right away. I knew we wanted all Elvira’s friends sitting around talking about her life. So the natural progression to why are they all sitting around telling stories, what would create that? And that led me to the death of Elvira, and to give it even more of a plot, the idea was… originally I think she was run over by a truck with sex
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