Tyler Boss And Adriano Turtulici Share The Bloody Details About "YOU'LL DO BAD THINGS" (INTERVIEW)

Here at Macabre Daily, we love a good Giallo, and if you weren’t following us in January you missed out on a host of articles celebrating the proto-slasher genre of Giallo (check those articles out here) in celebration of Giallo January. The thing is, Giallo isn’t just a month but a state of mind, or rather a genre that isn’t bound to be enjoyed in just one out of the 12 months each year. Thankfully, the team over at Image Comics knows what genre fans want, and is releasing the first of a six-issue story, “You’ll Do Bad Things” from comic creators Tyler Boss and Adriano Turtulici (see our previous coverage).

Tyler and Adriano were generous enough to indulge us with a Q&A about the upcoming series you can read below, and we will be bringing you our review of the first two issues in the coming weeks ahead of the release of the first issue on March 26, 2025!

One of the variant first-issue covers, Image Comics

Macabre Daily: You both have mentioned that You'll Do Bad Things is inspired by Italian Giallo films—what kind of references did you both use for the narrative and visual look of the book?

Tyler Boss: I think Giallo movies lend themselves really naturally to comics. The genre itself was born much in the same way a lot of comics were, originating from cheap pulp novels at newsstands—dime-store murder mysteries featuring a leather-clad, knife-wielding lunatic, with buckets of neon-colored blood, and nudity. All of that sounded like a lot of fun to bring to the table while also trying to tell a clever mystery. 

MD: Tyler, Seth is a writer who is finding it hard to break away from the material that made him famous, and feels guilt. How has your own experience as a writer, and the challenges you've faced while writing, influenced Seth's journey? 

Tyler: I feel for Seth, I really do. I also draw comics full-time and when I’m doing that, I wish I was writing. But when I’m writing, I don’t know why I’ve voluntarily chosen to do this to myself, when I could be drawing. So, the writer's block he’s experiencing—the unknown terror of “is what I’m doing of any value?”—is a feeling I empathize with all too well. That said, working with Adriano and on this project has made that anxiety just a low hum, instead of a roar. If nothing else, the book is drop-dead gorgeous. 

MD: Adriano, the style of the art harkens back to classic silver age style composition, but with a uniquely warm color palette offering something that is new, but feels vintage. What informed your use of color here, particularly the orange, purple, and pink shades?

Adriano Turtulici: When I was approaching the color, one of my goals was to translate that dreamy, unreal, and strongly emotive vibe that Giallo movies have. I was looking for a strong direction that would, hopefully, make the book pop for readers' eyes. So, I went with the “no local color” idea where the sky is not blue, the grass is not green, and everything is colored to suggest an emotive feeling, or condition of our character, or the situation. My first point of reference was the work of John Higgins on Watchmen, Kevin Nowlan on his Man-Bat story, and of course Richmond Lewis on Batman: Year One. They gave me a graphic vocabulary of solutions that I constantly pick from. The choices I make are extremely focused on the narrative side of color. I feel like issue #1 of You’ll Do Bad Things is still exploring this concept, but the following issues have a more clear idea from start to finish (and a more judicious use of red).

MD: The first issue alludes to Seth being inexplicably linked to the killer, but we aren't quite sure how yet. How will this relationship evolve throughout the six-issue spread?

Tyler: Hopefully it’s a fun one for the reader. The narrative takes some twists and turns, and while we’re trying to make a straight-up nasty slasher, we’re also trying to tell a compelling mystery story. I’ve tried to really balance the horror with the procedural in equal measure. But I don’t want to say too much, as that’s a big part of the fun of these kinds of books—readers trying to be one step ahead of what you’ve told them. 

MD: The first issue also includes some scenes of violence, with a particular image on the final page really sticking with the reader. What else either in the narrative or artwork will shock readers?

Adriano: I can’t say exactly what will shock them, but one of my focuses working on this was to make every scary moment compelling to the reader. Tyler did an awesome job depicting all the victims in the story—sometimes in short descriptions, but always in an effective way. My goal was to make their deaths as heartfelt as possible, but also to try to create some well-choreographed action scenes. I also hope readers will be as shocked as I was by every idea Tyler has had during the process! Every time he told me the direction for the next issues, I’d spend some time thinking about how it would actually read in the script, but I never really guessed it. When the script comes in, it’s always way better than anything I had imagined! 


Tyler: When I sent the second issue script to Adriano, the first email I got back was something along the lines of “I had to use my girlfriend for reference in the first scene!”—and that first scene is just an awful kill scene. While Adriano assured me that she and him had fun shooting the reference for the scene, it reminded me that “oh yeah, people are going to read all the horrible things you’ve written.” So first, please apologize to your girlfriend for me again, Adriano. But second, a lot of the kills or scary things that happen in the book are just my own tears and fears at things that go bump in the night. There's a kill in issue #4 that is a thing I have had nightmares about for three years, and Adriano made it even more awful than I’ve been imagining. 

MD: Do either of you have a personal favorite Giallo film, even if it has nothing to do with You'll Do Bad Things?

Tyler: The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Torso, Red Queen Kills Seven Times, Four Flies on Grey Velvet, and The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail all come to mind. I did a Giallo movie marathon with Jesse Gouldberry (director of The VelociPastor 2) when we were both in the concepting phase of our respective Giallo outings, and that was a lot of fun. Jesse is a bit of an obsessive collector of films, so we were popping in beautifully restored Blu-rays of some of the worst movies we’ve ever seen. It was a great day. 

Adriano: One of my favorites is A Bay of Blood from Mario Bava. Speaking of You’ll Do Bad Things, The New York Ripper was particularly helpful for reference, and same with Blood and Black Lace.

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