‘I Was A Fashion School Serial Killer’ Is A Bloody Good Time

When sartorial dreams collide with murder sprees, the bloodbath ends up producing some outfits that are (quite literally) to die-for. Welcome to ‘I Was A Fashion School Serial Killer’ — a new comic book series co-created by Doug Wagner (writer) and Daniel Hillyard (artist) that debuts in April of this year.

The comic centers around Rennie Bethary, who just got accepted into the prestigious New York Fashion and Design Institute. She knows how cut-throat it all can be; so it means that whenever she gets stressed or triggered, her skin condition flares up — and much like an itch needing to be scratched — the ‘itch’ here is that she literally starts slitting throats. And of course, being the resourceful, self-care fashionista she is, she bathes in her victims’ blood then uses their human skin to make the most killer ‘leather’ garments with. And this is just the beginning of this dark humored and wild-eyed story.

Rennie’s character (whose last name, Bethary, is no coincidence) was inspired by the infamous Elizabeth Bathory: “I knew I wanted to write about a female serial killer and pored over every pieces of information I could find…I happened upon the legend of Elizabeth Bathory. She’s historically referred to as ‘The Blood Countess’. Rumors are she murdered hundreds of people and regularly took baths in their blood. I probably overthink things, but I couldn’t help but wonder what a modern serial killer would do with all those bodies,” Wagner explains.

That inspiration was coupled with him being drawn-to Native American culture, and how this community never wastes a single part of an animal they hunt for food. “That thought led me to thinking ‘why not just hide the bodies in plain sight, turn the skin into leather, carve accessories out of their bones, etc.,’” Wagner offers. With the meticulous attention to these ‘creative’ details, for him — it made sense that this character would be obsessed with fashion, “I assumed it would be the next logical step… also, I’ve always adored coming of age high school and college movies, so I thought ‘why not have her go to a fashion school’,” he says.

From these inceptive threads, it took a total of six months of research before he felt comfortable diving into the story. “In addition to loving (and referencing) Korean Street Fashion, I spent several weeks combing through magazines, thumbing through books covering various fashion periods, and watching all the episodes of every reality fashion TV shows out there like Project Runway, Queer Eye, and America’s Next Top Model,” Wagner explains. He also read into the history of women designers, such as Madame Grès. To amp up the sensationalism of characters that inhabit Rennie’s world (teachers, fellow students) he referenced larger-than-life TV personas such as Tim Gunn, RuPaul, and Heidi Klum, to enrich this sartorial environment.

He went as far as downloading fashion school program curriculum, course descriptions, and syllabi — to depict the student experience as authentically as possible, “… I was also able to lean on (my insights from) the four different colleges I went to (yes, I went to four different universities) and the decade of being an Associate Professor at an art university,” Wagner adds.

When the story was written, the art was next. Hillyard also drew from his background and it helped bring the stylistic elements of this comic book to life, “I went to an art and design college and a lot of the rooms were used for both the illustration and design classes and by the fashion students. So I treated it much like drawing the environments from my college days,” he says. Additionally, the synergy between him and Wagner was already established — having worked together for over a decade in the industry. The style of each character needed to be nailed down precisely and the duo took the time to match ‘visuals and vibe’ to each person as accurately as possible. This included lead character Rennie, ‘mean girl’ Constance, and cheerful BFF Sophie. “I also thank my wife for helping me build core looks for each character. There were a lot of things that I didn’t understand about fashion from a female perspective that I just don’t think I would have been able to pick up without her help. Simple stuff that would never occur to me as a man, like how having your hair up or down might inform the type of outfit you’d put together,” Hillyard says.

The most interesting character for Hillyard to draw was Rennie because her wardrobe transformation mirrors her mental/emotional state and what is happening in her life as the storyline progresses, “her vibe changes through the book. She starts off very closed, not wanting to really make any friends, but through the course of the book, we get to see her style evolve as she becomes more open to friendship and more accepting of who she is as an individual herself. In that sense, we kind of get to see her find her own personal style,” he explains.

The dark humor in all this as a thorough-line, murdering humans —bathing in their fresh blood, and using their remains to craft couture garments — all while hiding the ‘evidence’ in plain sight, is all addictively witty and wonderfully macabre. “She is a lot like Dexter or even Wednesday Addams. She’s odd, knows she’s different, a bit of a loner, and does not tolerate bullies. She obviously sees the world differently than most. If you’re a person that runs around with bad intentions and hurts others, well, to her, you’re only really good as a nice halter top or pair of leather pants,” says Wagner.

Ultimately, if you’re seeking murderous mayhem, witty repartee, and fashionista friendships — ‘I Was A Fashion School Serial Killer’ — is for you.