Cookies and milk. Cream and sugar. Jason and a machete. Some things are just meant to go together, and Will Penny shows us exactly that in his ridiculous and hilarious comic strips titled “Sex and Monsters.” We must warn you, fair reader, “Sex and Monsters” is by far the least frightening but potentially deadliest thing ever featured on this website. Be careful to not die laughing…
Penny’s comic strips are full of, well, sex and monsters, two of every true horror fans favorite things. He was the campus newspaper cartoonist in his college days, and though he works as a professional in law now, he uses his extra time to continue his passion for art and horror through his comic strips.
“I’m a big horror nerd. I’m a comic book nerd, but actually I was a horror nerd first. And I think that comes out of growing up on the old classic black and white Universal horror films,” Penny told LAHorror.com. Yet, movies alone didn’t do it. Penny was an avid horror comic book fan growing up and draws much of his inspiration from the comics that used to spook him. “And of course anytime you mention comic books and horror you always have to drop in the EC comics, you know, the first and last name in horror comics. So, of course, I was heavily influenced by ‘The Crypt Keeper,’ ‘The Vault Keeper’ and ‘The Old Witch.”
Other notable influences Penny taps into are “Cracked,” one of his favorite horror magazines as well as several writers/illustrators from Playboy. Together, these pieces are put together in Penny’s “R” rated comics in a ghastly fashion. (Speaking of which, “Sex and Monsters” was recently nominated for a Ghastly Award, which celebrates excellent up-and-coming horror comics).
Penny is not simply the writer of these strips, but also illustrates and colors each one in a process that can take over a week to complete. But that is only the tip of the iceberg for “Sex and Monsters.” Penny also creates hilarious “Crack-Ups,” montages of images from the very same horror movies he grew up watching with hilarious and unexpected punch lines. Penny has successfully transformed so many once-horrifying characters into the butt-end of some zany humor. Check out a couple of our favorites.
“Sex and Monsters” is without a doubt one of the silliest things we’ve had the pleasure of reviewing, but the true punch line of all of this is in how Penny came up with the idea for this strip. You see, “Sex and Monsters” was created by accident in a strange way only just over a year ago. Penny was trying to get tickets to last year’s San Diego Comic-Con, but they were all sold out. Determined to attend, Penny got creative.
“I looked online [and thought], ‘What are other ways to get tickets,’ and one of the ways they said you could get into the show, the convention, is if you were an actual professional. And you applied for a professional pass, but to do that you had to have an actual comic strip up on the web or a book published in your name. I was like ‘crap, I only have a few months to get something started so I could get tickets to this show.’ That’s basically the genesis of ‘Sex and Monsters,’” Penny told us laughing. For the record, it totally worked.
Check out Will Penny’s full collection of “Sex and Monsters” at www.SexandMonsters.com.