‘You’ll Do Bad Things’ Team Dissects Their Giallo-Inspired Comic

Mary Beth McAndrews |

Feb 18, 2025

Award-winning artist and writer Tyler Boss (What’s The Furthest Place From Here?), rising star artist Adriano Turtulici, and lettering legend Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou are teaming up to deliver the grisly new horror miniseries You’ll Do Bad Things. Drenched in pulpy Giallo film-inspired neon gore, You’ll Do Bad Things takes a deep dive into the worlds of true crime and serial killers, and the fandoms surrounding both. With a touch of B-horror camp, fans of Dario Argento, Stephen King’s Misery, and true crime will enjoy this six-issue miniseries, launching this March.

In You’ll Do Bad Things,

“It’s been ten years since the release of He Came in with a Smile, the true crime smash hit that chronicled the brutal murders committed by the Nursery Rhyme Killer. But in the decade since its release, its author Seth Holms hasn’t produced another title. He wants to write a story with a happy ending, but every time his fingers clack across the keyboard it always ends in his character’s death. Worse yet? These tales of blood and barbarity that flow so freely from Seth’s mind are starting to happen in real life.”

Boss said of the series, “Adriano and I are trying to make something that feels tactile and constant. It’s a love letter to the Italian slasher genre of Giallo, with all the blood and nudity you’d expect. It’s a critique of the True Crime genre, and our cultural fascination with serial killers. But mostly it’s a fun and nasty comic book, which are my favorite things in the world. I hope you’ll join us.”

Ahead of the first issue’s release, Boss and Turtulici have dissected the story’s first kill for Dread Central. They gave us an exclusive look at the script-to-pencil-to-page process and how they collaborated to create the vibe and horror of You’ll Do Bad Things.

THE SCRIPT

Just like a film, every comic starts with a script. In the script for You’ll Do Bad Things, Boss wanted to quickly establish the horror references of the first kill, while also setting up audience expectations for what they think is about to happen.

Boss explained, “We get a double classic horror movie reference here. I wanted this page to evoke the opening scene of John Carpenter’s Halloween, where the audience experiences the entire opening through Michael’s P.O.V. Doing that here on this page, looking out through the slats in Ronny’s closet, I thought it would give readers a similar experience of unease, thinking they know what’s going to come; the pretty blonde lady is going to get cut up.”

The Halloween references don’t stop here. Boss pointed out, “Another reference in the script that most horror fans would catch if they read it is that we call our slasher ‘The Shape.’ This is obviously what Michael Meyers was credited as in the end credits of the first Halloween. We’ve since come up with my own name for our slasher, but I still think calling your killer ‘The Shape’ is the most terrifying name for a movie monster.”

But Boss didn’t just want to reference Halloween. He added, “Doubling down on that idea, I wanted Adriano to have her change out of black lingerie and into white, a sort of reverse Marion in Hitchcock’s Psycho. When we first see Marion in her underwear, it’s white, pure and holy. But the second time we see her undress through Bate’s Peeping Tom perspective, she has changed into black lingerie. This is after we as an audience have learned that she’s actually a thief.”

THE PENCIL DRAWINGS

Starting with a kill was always Boss’ plan. “I wanted our first scene of the book to be a kill. Something that sets the stage in no uncertain terms that we’re making a slasher comic,” Boss explained. “But part of the fun of that is playing with the audience’s expectations. So, we set a scene where we follow the very horny Ronny back into her apartment, and horror fans think they know what’s going to happen. ‘Okay, they’re going to kill the pretty blonde lady.'”

So Turtulici got started and provided these initial pencil drawings to match the script, while also changing some things for even heavier impact.

Turtulici was even able to craft a jumpscare on page four. “Trying to get a jumpscare in a comic is hard because most readers tend to scan an entire page briefly as they turn to it,” said Boss. “That said, I think Adriano did an incredible job here of selling the terror in this first glimpse of him in panel 4. The reader asks themselves ‘Where did that guy come from?’ and as they turn to the next page, realizing he must have been in the car even when Ronny was in there. How long was he back there, waiting?”

Then, on page six, Turtulici decided to try something different than Boss’ proposed birds-eye view of the scene. “I chose this solution for a different perspective of the sequence to keep the tension high,” Turtulici explained.

“We’ve just witnessed a murder, and I liked the idea of introducing our killer as if he’s still hungry, still craving for more. I hope it creates an unsettling feeling,” Turtulici continued. “The story is just beginning and the danger is far from over. Also, this is one of the pages we did for the pitch—I felt it wasn’t the right moment to be too subtle or suggestive. I wanted each page to hit hard, to set the tone of the series.”