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An Interview with Corinna Bechko: "I tend towards Folk Horror Films and Haunted House Novels"
- The Curator
- Mar 11
- 5 min read
An Interview with Corinna Bechko about 'Blood Type'
EC Comics and Oni Press have announced the very first spin-off series of Epitaphs from the Abyss entitled 'Blood Type.' First appearing in Epitaphs from the Abyss #3, Ada is an immortal vampire whose misdeeds have landed her on an idyllic Caribbean resort teeming with wealthy tourists and superstitious locals. As she begins to stalk the short-stay visitors at this resort, she becomes swept up in this terrifying game of cat-and-mouse as an older and much deadlier predator reveals its own thirst for hunger.
I caught up with series writer/co-creator, Corinna Bechko, to get a deeper insight into this new chapter of Ada's and to find out what Blood Type has in store for us.
My Kind Of Weird: Hey Corinna, thanks for your time today. You’ve been announced as the writer on the first ever stand-alone EC Comics series in many years, called Blood Type. Have you always been a fan of the EC Comics line?
Corinna Bechko: Thank you for speaking with me! I don’t think I can even express how excited I am to be the first person to do this. I’ve been a fan of EC Comics since I was about twenty years old and barely scraping by, living on the third floor of a walkup below Houston in Manhattan. In those days that area wasn’t exactly glamorous, but it was a fitting place to read the EC reprints my boyfriend and I would find at St. Mark’s Comics.
My Kind Of Weird: You’ve worked with some outstanding and famous comic book properties like Green Lantern, Once Upon A Time, Star Wars and Avatar. How did your approach in writing Blood Type change from those other works?
Corinna Bechko: I have to admit, I’ve been exceedingly lucky time and again in my writing career. I try to approach each property I write as a bit of a sacred trust: the tone and the universe are already established, and those mean a lot to a lot of people. So I look for what makes the original resonate with folks, and then preserve that while making something new. With Blood Type it’s a little different because, while every EC story shares traits in common, there’s not a throughline for plot or character.
This was simultaneously freeing and constraining: how to make something feel like EC Comics when the format is so different? I had to think hard about that, but, with the help of the Oni team and my formidable editor Sierra Hahn in particular, I feel we cracked it. Now, with Andrea Sorrentino aboard to handle the art, I think we’re really making something special. I just saw the first few pages of the first issue and they made me gasp out loud.
My Kind Of Weird: Let’s delve into your horror side, what’s your favourite sub-genre of horror and what works would you recommend of that sub-genre? Whether it’s comics, movies or otherwise.
Corinna Bechko: Difficult question because I like oddities, which isn’t exactly a sub-genre. I guess if you could set a slider between unsettling and slasher, I’d push it toward unsettling. That means I tend toward folk horror films and haunted house novels, but on the other hand I adore Suspiria and will watch or read pretty much anything someone recommends to me. As for my recommendations, I recently read Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley, and then watched the film of the same title. The film did some wild things that totally worked for me, but I know some people who hated it.
I also loved the comic The Nice House on the Lake by James Tynion IV and Álvaro MartÍnez Bueno. For novels, I’ve recently been reading Nat Cassidy. There are some wonderfully twisted interpersonal games going on in his books that get deliciously worse the more you think about them. All of that said, maybe the most frightening thing I’ve ever seen on a screen is Rabbits, the deeply upsetting yet completely banal David Lynch “sitcom.” Come to think of it, Rabbits might explain my reaction to Starve Acre.
My Kind Of Weird: Your character, Ada, is the first character and vampire to transition from a short story in Epitaphs in the Abyss to her own series. How excited were you when you got that call?
Corinna Bechko: Oh, I don’t think I can describe the elation! I learned it was a possibility at the big comic con in San Diego last year, during a breakfast meeting. I was so excited and ready to get to work that I forgot to eat my croissant. And this was at a French bakery, so you know that croissant would have been good.
My Kind Of Weird: In your own words can you tell us a bit about the Blood Type series and how it will build upon what we already know about Ada?
Corinna Bechko: From the start, I wanted to tell the story of a vampire in an unexpectedly sunny place. I’m from a beach community myself, so I know there’s a lot of darkness hiding in places that others consider paradise. What if we put an actual lover of darkness in such a place? And what if she was the most self-assured blood sucker you’d ever met? I think folks who enjoyed the short will recognize the acerbic Ada or the original. And I hope they will alternately thrill and cringe, and perhaps cover their eyes, as they learn about her secrets.
My Kind Of Weird: Talking about vampires, what is the type of vampire you gravitate to: suave and aristocratic or brutal and beast-like?
Corinna Bechko: I tend to like suave, but not too suave. I like to be reminded that vampires are predators. Humans are omnivores, and as much as they like crow about their hunting skills, they don’t have to eat other creatures to survive. Vampires are obligate carnivores, which means they are very different creatures indeed.
I find it odd that fact isn’t elucidated in the lore more often. Vampires are used as a metaphor for all kinds of appetites: carnal, chemical, and emotional. But they are rarely depicted in a way that showcases how their most basic biology separates them from humanity. I’m always excited when I see that kind of depiction.
My Kind Of Weird: Thanks for your time today. Where can my readers find and follow you online?
Corinna Bechko: I’m everywhere (except Twitter/X) under my name, Corinna Bechko. These days it's mostly BlueSky which is where you can find me.
Blood Type #1 goes on-sale June 18th, 2025 from your local comic book shop.
