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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: “WHERE MONSTERS LIE: CULL-DE-SAC” writer Kyle Starks on his brand-new sequel

Thursday, July 17, 2025 | Comics, Featured Post (Fourth), Interviews

By BILL REICK

Kyle Starks is one of the foremost names in comics today. With series like Peacemaker Tries Hard!, Rick and Morty and Marvel Unleashed, Starks has taken established characters and added depth and humanity with stories that explore rich, previously unprobed inner worlds.The writer and artist truly shines with his original horror work, as his award-winning Image Comics release, I Hate This Place, and his Dark Horse comic book, Where Monsters Lie, have become instant fan favorites.

Now, Starks is back, revisiting Where Monsters Lie with a sequel. In preparation for the brand new WHERE MONSTERS LIE: CULL-DE-SAC, RUE MORGUE had the pleasure of speaking with Starks about the story’s inspiration and what lies ahead for the monsters and heroes of his exciting, familiar universe.

“The origins of Where Monsters Lie and WHERE MONSTERS LIE: CULL-DE-SAC is that I was watching a Saw marathon,” said Starks. “I think it was the one where he has the pit of syringes. I was like, ‘That old guy’s not digging that pit!’ And (Jigsaw) doesn’t have any friends. If he does, we’ve never seen them. I don’t recall seeing a blueprint for that thing that makes your jaw (rip apart). I don’t remember seeing a screwdriver anywhere. He’s not talking to local contractors and engineers, saying, ‘What if we made a spring-loaded thing?’ Someone would have to be helping him, right? How do you do that without getting in trouble?”

Fans of horror’s biggest franchises will delight in tracing Starks’ characters back to their source material. While Saw was a big jumping off point, there are plenty of figures in these books that point to more recognizable genre icons, while still being original enough to surprise even the most hardcore horror devotees. “I was thinking, when Chucky’s with his girlfriend,” Starks continued, “they’re on the road in between their sprees. Do they stay at hotels? Are they getting cable TV? Is Jason just standing in the woods for like four years? And I thought, ‘No, I bet they have this weird support system, and I bet they have some place they go.’ Thinking about this world, it was like they’re still people, they’re not getting special treatment. Jason still has to mow his lawn, you know what I mean?”

WHERE MONSTERS LIE: CULL-DE-SAC falls into the Halloween II category of sequels, which pick up directly after the events of the previous entry. While part one is an absolute delight for any horror fan looking for an engaging read, Starks has done the work to make sure nobody will be lost if they pick up CULL-DE-SAC first. “The story of volume one is there’s this place where all the monsters go in between their killing sprees, and they have to sort it out as if they’re all just people. They get discovered by this special agent who is basically Batman. If Batman’s parents were killed by Jason Voorhees, if Batman had spent his entire life training to fight monsters instead of crime, he would be the special agent who has now found one of these gated communities.”

Starks also ensures that CULL-DE-SAC would be entrenched in all the best that horror sequels have to offer, taking into account what works with some franchises and understanding what flops. “You want the same thing, but a little worse,” he said. “That’s what you want it to be. You just want to be fed the same thing. I think horror is so good at that. And the ones that have five (entries in the franchise), they’re all pretty good until, like, four or five. Then it’s, ‘Well, it’s good to see those guys again.’”

Like any horror fan, Starks understands the laws of diminishing returns. However, he’s tempting fate and announcing that a third volume of Where Monsters Lie is coming down the pipeline. While he remains tight-lipped about where his characters are off to next, Starks revealed a certain sequel trope his book will not partake in: “I said from the beginning, I don’t want to jump ahead, but we’re doing volume three. They’re not going to space.”

For more information or to pick up your copy of WHERE MONSTERS LIE: CULL-DE-SAC, visit Dark Horse Comics, or be sure to keep an eye out at your local comic book store.

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