‘Loving, Ohio’ Writer Matthew Erman On How Surviving A Cult Inspired His New Graphic Novel
Cults have always been a societal obsession, especially with the true crime boom that shook our podcast apps and Netflix watchlists. While you may think you’ve seen it all when it comes to cults both real and fictional, then you need to read Matthew Erman and Sam Beck’s upcoming graphic novel Loving, Ohio. More of a coming-of-age drama than pure horror, this book is a psychedelic and melancholy look at growing up in the confines of cult.
Read the full synopsis for Loving, Ohio below:
After the mysterious suicide of their friend, Sloane, Elliott, Cameron, and Ana are just trying to get through the rest of high school. They live in Loving, Ohio—a town built around The Chorus, a new-age cult with members firmly planted in positions of power and influence throughout the community.
Through their grief, a series of murders throw these friends into a mystery connected to everything around them. Sloane and her friends have to escape a roaming murderer, figure out their place in the world, and deal with loss all in the looming shadow of The Chorus. But through it they will find the true cost of friendship and the adulthood they seek.
We spoke with Erman about growing up in a cult, praying to a guy named Steve, and the horrors of Midwest gothic.
Dread Central: Can you briefly tell me and readers about Loving, Ohio?
Matthew Erman: It’s an upcoming graphic novel through Dark Horse. The illustrator and the co-creator is Sam Beck, who’s done Songs of the Dead for Vault and Renegade Rule with Ben Kahn at Dark Horse. She also does a very popular webcomic called Verse, which has been published by Vault a couple of times.
Loving, Ohio is our book coming out on August 7, 2024. It’s about four teens who are recovering and dealing with the loss of their friend, and they live in this town that’s controlled and populated by this cult called The Chorus. So they have to navigate their grief and this roaming murderer who is stalking teens in the town. It’s your classic, I mean, I don’t know if it’s classic, but it’s a horror story in the emotional sense and in the actual sense. too.
DC: You’ve shared a lot on Twitter about this being a pretty personal story, right?
ME: Yeah, it is. I grew up in a cult. Yeah, I know. The thing that’s really interesting, and the thing that I think that Loving, Ohio does, is show the boring side of being in a cult. There are aspects to these organizations that trap you that are very mundane. Not all cults are sex cults and murder cults and death cults. There are some really insidious, boring Excel spreadsheet-type dudes running cults.
DC: I’ve learned that cults are more boring than you think. Not good by any means, but still more boring than you would expect.
ME: For sure. One of the things that is consistent among cults is that they’re very litigious. So I will go without any very specific details, but the guy that I prayed to at night to keep me safe from Freddy Krueger, his name was something generic like Steve. I was like, Steve, please keep me safe. When you look back as an adult, you realize how these things need to be so ridiculous to trap people in them and perpetuate that cycle of belief into money. I never really believed in it, but I think I was free and clear of that stuff by the age of 12 or 13.
DC: What was that like to tap into that for a comic?
ME: Oh, super fun. I absolutely loved it. [Laughs] I mean, I have a pretty good attitude about it. Again, my experience was just kind of stupid. I don’t know how to put it, but it definitely affected my trust in religious organizations. I can definitely point to that and be like, that’s basically why I’m an atheist. But the ins and outs of it were you get to look back at it as an adult and be like, this is so silly.
I don’t want to be so blase about it, reflecting on that time and growing up was funny in a weird, dark sort of way. It’s still weird to think about.
DC: It’s got to be, especially when you’re like, it didn’t super affect me, but it did. It wasn’t terrible, but it was still weird
ME: Going to the seminars, was it really any different than going to a boring church as a kid? And you’re just like, this sucks, I’d rather be playing video games at home than anything like this. So that was my experience. I really relate it to just growing up in your standard church, but they just believed such outlandish shit.
Loving, Ohio takes those sorts of rituals and the things we do every day if you’re in a religious organization and looks at them suspiciously. It always gives me the heebie-jeebies when I feel something is a little too culty. I guess I have an extra sense of it because of all the stuff that happened to me as a kid.
DC: Oh, absolutely. And so in writing this comic particularly, obviously you used your experience, but were there any other organizations or cults that you pulled from in shaping this story in particular?
ME: In part, yeah, absolutely. I’m a real big fan of Alan Watts as a philosopher and just listening to his seminars and whatever you would call them. I pulled a lot from how he speaks about the universe, how he speaks about the body and the mind. So he was a big influence on how I wrote Loving, Ohio.
Other influences, I would say would probably be Eastern philosophy. I think one of the things that the book dives into is the white colonialism of Eastern philosophy and Eastern religions and how a lot of these cults that the book is based on, take those things and repackage them for a white American congregation.
DC: I also really love the art style in Loving, Ohio. Can you tell me more about it?
ME: The artist is Sam Beck, an incredible artist and illustrator, and I’ve worked with her in the past. There was a short anthology piece we did for Everything Is Going Wrong, which was a mental health and punk comic that came out five or six years ago now. Mark Bouchard put it together, he’s really great editor and writer as well. That’s how we hooked up and that’s how we started collaborating.
I think if you see the cover or the interior art, it’s immediately impressive. Sam is so unbelievably talented. One of the things that we worked on was really making the interior art look unique. Sam had done a lot of tests for colors. There’s a version of the first five pages that’s totally different, which is super cool.
One of the really cool things is her implementation of Risograph, or her digital recreation of what Risograph looks like when you print something. So I’m really grateful that Sam experimented and found this unbelievably cool style within her own style to do for this book. None of her other work looks like this, and I’m unbelievably grateful that she felt comfortable and trusted as a collaborator to do something that was a huge stretch. It’s very different, I think even from other books that are getting released. I think it looks really cool.
DC: I was going to say, I’m looking at it right now and just the color that she uses is so different and there are especially cool ways that she uses that almost woodgrain pattern.
ME: Yeah! There’s also a pattern based on when there’s a gasoline spill that ripples. I absolutely think that was so beautiful.
DC: The opening pages look like psychedelic wood grain.
ME: Yeah, Sam designed all of that too. Sam did all of the layout, the text, and the design for the book. She did every visual aspect.
DC: How nuts. I have recently in the last couple of years started interviewing more comic writers and artists and I can’t believe anyone makes any comics.
ME: That’s the consistent thought too. How do we do this? How does this get made? It’s a miracle, a true miracle. I’ve worked on books that have had five editors. There are so many collaborators, so many people that work on a comic, it’s unbelievable. And Sam, the fact that she did all of this herself is a true testament to her talent. I’m lucky to have been a collaborator of hers is basically how I feel.
DC: There’s a particular page that feels like a very much like a Twin Peaks reference…
ME: Oh yes!
DC: Ok, so it was inspired by Bob’s scene climbing over the couch! Here, this creepy man is coming through the window. I hate him, his scary face. The illustrations capture that uncanny feeling right off the bat that there’s something fucked up and weird happening. I love how you and Sam capture that.
ME: Thank you so much. I’m so glad that came through. Sam did a beautiful job. That’s actually the second version of that page. The dude’s face looked totally different when we were pitching it around. It might be in the back part of the book when it gets printed. We haven’t really talked about stuff yet. But yeah, I love that page. I think that was the page that sold the book to Dark Horse if I’m being real with you.
DC: Oh, cool! That does make sense. It’s got a Twin Peaks meets home invasion vibe. This guy looks like a scary fish.
ME: Yes, absolutely. I love Twin Peaks. David Lynch’s work is an inspiration full stop on everything that I make. I don’t necessarily try to make things that are Lynchian, but I think that what he embodies as an artist or a writer is to trust your artistic instincts. That takes a lot of bravery to do. I’ve always looked up to David Lynch for his unflinching originality, if that makes sense.
DC: Well, he’s so good at capturing suburban ennui.
ME: Oh, absolutely.
DC: Even though not all of his films are supernatural or paranormal, there’s always that sadness. And I feel like your book has a lot of sadness. There’s a lot of sadness in Loving Ohio.
ME: There is. I’m from Ohio, I grew up there, and Ohio is a sad place. I mean, I still live in Ohio, and I feel like this place is so horrible and good at the same time. It’s so hard to articulate. I don’t think I’ll ever leave this place.
DC: That’s the Midwest gothic vibes I feel like.
ME: Absolutely. There was another movie that was a big inspiration for this, It Follows, which is also Midwest gothic.
DC: It feels like it takes on the margins of society in a weird way. Not totally broken down, but it feels like it shouldn’t be around anymore.
ME: That’s a lot of places in Ohio, a lot of small suburban towns that time forgot. I used to live around the corner from an abandoned strip mall. The parking lot was always empty, the windows were all blown out. There was nothing ever there. And it was like that for almost 20 years. That’s the middle of this country, most of it. It’s these abandoned capitalist monuments that have been forgotten. I swear to God, in 40 years they’re just going to be overgrown. Nothing is ever going to replace these things.
DC: My final question: Was Slenderman at all an influence on Loving, Ohio?
ME: Absolutely. I think I grew up in an age where Creepypasta and 4chan horror stories were just blossoming and becoming a thing. In the past decade, they’ve really become their own form of fiction. So yeah, absolutely. I love those online cryptozoological creatures like Slender Man or any of the SCP stuff. It’s so interesting and fascinating to read other people’s fiction in a way that is unburdened by publishing.
DC: Did you grow up a horror fan? I know you mentioned praying to your prophet to save you from Freddy Kruger.
ME: I did, yeah. Horror has been ever-present in my life in a weird sort of way. I remember my parents watching The X-Files and being fascinated by the theme song and being scared and wanting to see it, but not wanting to see it.
Horror video games were a huge part of where I started loving horror. The very first Resident Evil game, I was probably like seven or eight when that came out. I dunno why it was purchased for me or why I was playing it. It really fucked me up.
DC: No one really understood what video games were and they were like, it’s probably fine.
ME: It leaves so much more to the imagination. As a kid, you just extrapolate that further and further. It was terrifying. Horror really fucked me up as a kid. And as much as I like it now, I’m an absolute scaredy cat. I saw Skinamarink when it came out in theaters and it was so difficult to watch. I loved it, but it really messed me up.
DC: I watch so much horror and finally getting scared is such a nice feeling.
ME: Oh, I know.
DC: Want to really screw yourself up for fun one night? Watch the short film it’s based on, called Heck.
ME: Yeah, I literally did after I watched Skinamarink. I went on YouTube and I found the director’s other work and I watched Heck. And then, yeah, I’ve really got into, in the past five years, indie horror cinema and low-budget, eighties trauma? I watched Spider Labyrinth last week, which was wild. Highly recommend it
DC. I’ve never heard of it, but I love it. I think.
ME: It just got a release in the US as a restoration. I want to say it’s Italian, but I could be wrong though.
DC: It sounds like an Italian movie.
ME: It’s got an unbelievable scene at the end. Highly recommend it. A baby turns into a spider. That’s not even a spoiler. I can’t even articulate how crazy it is.
Loving, Ohio hits shelves on August 7, 2024, from Dark Horse Comics.
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