We chat with author and illustrator Emily Carroll about her haunting adult graphic novel horror A Guest in the House, which follows a young woman marries a kind dentist only to realise that there’s a dark mystery surrounding his former wife’s death.
Hi, Emily! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Sure! Hi, I currently live in rural Ontario, my wife is a video game artist, and I have two dogs. I’ve been watching horror movies since I was a kid, and I do a lot of gaming in my spare time. For the last ten years or so I’ve been making comics, a number of which are free to read online.
When did you first discover your love for writing and also for art?
Like a lot of people, I drew a lot as a kid, and looking back I guess I also was making comics at the time too, but I didn’t start sharing them with other people until my late twenties. A love of writing went hand in hand with a love of reading, so I can’t exactly pinpoint when that would have struck me, but certainly as a kid.
Your latest graphic novel, A Guest in the House, is out now! Where did the inspiration for A Guest in the House come from?
It was initially inspired by a dream about monsters coming out of the ocean (and then returning to it as fleshy ribbon worms), but suffice to say I dropped almost all of that, and now I’d say its major influences are “A Jest of God” by Margaret Laurence and “Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier.
Were there any scenes or characters you really enjoyed creating or exploring?
The sequences where we get a glimpse into the main character’s fantasy life were the most fun to figure out, as those are the portions of the book not only in colour, but also involving the most gore and body horror. I find that the most enjoyable and soothing thing to draw.
Lastly, do you have any graphic novel recommendations for our readers?
“Graveneye” by Sloane Leong and Anna Bowles, “Black Paradox” by Junji Ito, “Disorder” by Erika Price, are all horror comics I’ve read recently that have stuck with me.
