You are now listening to Pokedmortem with Mick Garris where the most influential voices in horror cinema will spill their guts, literally, to the renowned horror director, writer and producer.

Now here's your host, Mick Garris.

From nice guy productions overlooking the glamorous San Fernando Valley, I'm Mick Garris and this is Pokedmortem.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a cartoonist more than anything. I had inherited some artistic abilities from my father who was a very gifted artist who had trained at art college in Los Angeles.

But it was a dream. Despite his talents, my father never got a chance to make a living or even a scent off of his artwork.

He worked full time as a draftsman at the massive Lockheed Aerospace Center in Burbank, drove a cab at night and worked hard to raise four kids while trying his best to serve his creative abilities.

Unfortunately, it was too much for him. He had a breakdown and basically gave up his artistic dreams and settled into working a more typically prescribed life in the San Fernando Valley.

So I really wanted to take up where he had left off. He created two comic book series that were never published, Hap Nelson TV wrestler and Hap Hogan TV reporter. He was, as he said at the time, Hap Hapy.

As I look back on his work now, I'm impressed by how modern it is, but it also really reminds me of the Filipino EC comic artist Joe Orlando more than anything.

My parents split up when I was around 12 or so and that might have had something to do with the change in my priorities at the time.

I started writing more than drawing and soon that was my new dream, my new passion.

As I read Ray Bradbury and Richard Matheson, I realized that writing had hooked me even more than drawing had.

I never studied art, never pursued it beyond the kids, Hapy, and I put down my pencils and learned to type.

But I read books and comics voraciously, consumed television and movies and became, like most of us, a child of the media.

Though comics have not played as much a part in my adult life, they have grown in popularity to amazing heights, and I'm still impressed by the remarkable artists who create them.

One of the premier writers whose career combines comics and horror is Steve Niles.

Yes, he has worked in the superhero world as well, is it possible to write comics well and not visit the land of capes and cowls?

But no one has staked a claim in the horror comics world deeper than he has.

And of course, that has led to working in film and television as well.

Let's put him on the slab and see what makes him tick.

Steve, haven't seen you in a couple of years, and it's so great to see you again.

And just eager to catch up.

...