An Interview with Jacoby A. Matott

Jacoby double majored in illustration and theater at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire in 2017. He works professionally as an artist at UW-Eau Claire. Being a jack-of-all-trades, he also works in a variety of artistic mediums, including but not limited to, illustration, writing, painting, carpentry, woodworking, sewing, acting, ballroom dance, and more. In his spare time, he enjoys cruising around in his hearse or riding motorcycle, working on his vintage car, cosplaying and attending conventions, reading comics, watching horror movies, and finding new ways to create and make art.

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Pumpkin Guts: Winner (First Prize, Graphic Novel) of the North Street Book Prize 2025

Read more about the award-winning work here!

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What inspired you to start writing this book?

I have always had the deepest passion for the Halloween holiday. I delight in the lights, the decorations, the costumes, and even the ancient customs and traditions that originated with the Celtic festival of Samhain. Additionally, I’ve long had an extreme fondness for horror movies. In my youth, you might often find me in the horror movie section at the local video rental store. On these particular occasions, it wouldn’t be uncommon to find me negotiating with one of my parents and begging them to let me see whatever gruesome horror flick caught my eye that evening. On occasion, they might relent, and privately I’d get to watch supernatural monsters and madmen chase down rambunctious teenagers and dismember them in various creative ways. These movies all had formulas, engaging characters, maniacal villains, and fantastic special effects. For whatever strange reason, my mind latched onto these macabre stories and scenarios. It wasn’t long before I started writing my own. When I first started writing this story, it was intended to be a screenplay for an indie horror movie I wanted to make. At that time, I was eighteen years old and the concept of Hollywood budgets and film-making recourses had yet to sink in. I had made a few backyard indie movies with my friends and an old VHS camcorder. Beyond that, all I had was a wild imagination.

About that time (roughly 2010), I had been cast as a scare actor at a local Halloween festival. It was a fantastic event. Our town hosted a small Renaissance festival that was converted into a Halloween carnival from hell during the month of October. The festival boasted multiple haunts and mazes populated by actors clad in Hollywood-esque make-up, masks, costumes, and prosthetics. There were different acts, food trucks, special effects, and games. The cherry on top was the carnival rides and attractions that were scattered around the grounds. The screams from the festival-goers on the rides blended with the horror movie soundtracks that played on the loudspeakers. Together, the music and screams created a cacophony of terror. It really created a perfect Halloween atmosphere. During the daytime, the festival was more geared towards family fun, but at nighttime, it got much darker and more grotesque. I was waiting outside of the make-up room, watching the families stroll in for an evening of Halloween fun, knowing that shortly all of us monsters would be out lurking around the grounds waiting to jump out and scare the pants off of our guests. It was at that moment that the idea for my story struck me like Mary Shelley’s bolt of lightning. I thought, “What if these people weren’t walking into a carnival? What if instead, they were walking into a slaughter? What if we weren’t actors in costumes? Rather, what if we were really bloodthirsty monsters?”

That thought was the catalyst for what would become my greatest work for the next decade. That’s when I went to work on this story. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been an artist. Whether I’m a “good artist” or not is entirely up to the reader. My drive to create art is always present. I went to the university to hone these skills. During that time, I became an avid comic book reader. Somewhere along the line, it occurred to me that if I really wanted to share my vision the way it was in my head, I’d have to tell it as a graphic novel. This way, it was a fully realized movie told on paper. In graphic novel form, there was no limitation to how fantastic my story could become. Why limit my story to a masked killer chasing disposable teens around when I could have an ancient evil sorcerer resurrect an army of monsters to give chase to a group of characters whose own story I was interested in? Telling this story in comic form allowed me to play with the traditions and tropes that were so dear to me. I was able to draw what I was seeing and fill in as much detail as I pleased. “A picture is worth a thousand words,” as they say.

Tell us the story of your book’s current title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

When I started writing the story, I didn’t fully know what my book would be called. I thought about naming it after the Halloween festival I was a part of, but it didn’t quite pop. I really wanted this story to scream “Halloween!” in every way possible. For me, the single most important tradition of the holiday that I looked forward to every year (outside of wearing costumes and trick or treating) was carving a jack-o’-lantern. In my earliest childhood memories, I always had to scoop all of the “pumpkin guts” out of the pumpkin with my bare hands (getting them all gooey in the process). “Pumpkin Guts”—doesn’t that phrase sound gooey and gross? Doesn’t that drip and ooze the very feeling of Halloween? In a way it almost feels like some forgotten splattery 80s gross-out horror movie. That word struck a chord with me, and it seemed to tie into one of the core themes of the story involving the monster’s blood. To double down on the Halloween and horror themes, I subtitled the story. Another word also resonated with me, “Hellbound,” I lifted from the title of the second film in the Hellraiser series. To me, the phrase Hellbound carries a power and a weight with it. It is definitive, and it is foreboding like a death sentence. It also had a lot in common with the goals of my primary antagonist. I also felt having the almost taboo word “hell” in the title would give it an edge that would tell readers, “This isn’t your toddler’s funny book. This is gonna be dangerous. Dangerous like all those horror movies I wasn’t supposed to be watching in my youth.”

Describe your dream book cover.

As a passionate artist, I haven’t noticed a lot of striking variety in mainstream novels as of late. It’s almost like everyone is trying to have a similar look or theme to one another so that a book collection has a uniform aesthetic (with the exception of comic books, which often depict dynamic action sequences nearly jumping off the page at the reader). Even in film, Hollywood has long since abandoned the painterly masterpieces of legends like Matthew Joseph Peak and Drew Struzan in favor of generic Photoshopped floating heads or still images on movie posters and covers. I encourage readers to look up the iconic paintings done by Matthew Joseph Peak, Drew Struzan, and others like them. You will undoubtedly recognize many of their famous posters. While my artistic skills pale in comparison to these great masters, I still wanted to invoke the feeling you might get from one of these classic action/horror/adventure film posters.

My main goal in designing my book cover was to make it reminiscent of the box art as seen on the old horror VHSes that I’d rent from the video store (complete with genre sticker and film rating). The cover needed to make a statement. “Several teenage friends band together to take on a powerful, otherworldly antagonist amidst a carnival on Halloween night.” The keen-eyed horror movie buff might notice inspirations and themes lifted from Peak’s Nightmare on Elm Street movie covers. Most importantly, this book needed to bleed the feeling of the Halloween season. For that, I truly must compliment the work of my colorist, friend, and colleague, Andrew Walde. Andrew has masterfully flooded the book and its cover with the rich and vibrant oranges, purples, and greens that are so closely tied to the identity of Halloween.

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

If my book had a soundtrack, it would have to be fun and energetic like many of those 80s horror movie classics that I can’t get enough of, like The Lost Boys (1987) or Trick or Treat (1986) among others. If it were a major motion picture, I’d love for it to have its own metal theme song like “Dream Warriors” by Dokken, “Killer Klowns from Outer Space” by the Dickies, or “Pet Semetary” by the Ramones. I would kill to have the theme written and performed by Tobias Forge and the nameless ghouls of the Swedish Rock band “Ghost.” The film/book score would ideally be composed by the legendary John Carpenter, Alan Howarth, and Cody Carpenter.

But for simplicity, if I were to use a few existing songs, I’d pick “Bad Moon Rising” by Creedence Clearwater Revival. “The Monster Mash” as performed by the Misfits. “Power of the Night” by Terrence Mann. Maybe I’d work in a metal cover of Castlevania’s “Bloody Tears” by Kenichi Matsubara. You can tell that my taste in music is a retro mash-up of rock and roll, punk, and metal, and it’s entirely spooky.

What books are you reading (for research or comfort) as you continue the writing process?

Illustrating takes uninterrupted hours and even days to complete a single page, so I often get caught up on my reading by listening to audiobooks provided by my local library system. Stephen King will always be an inspiration. I’m a huge fan of books like Christine, Pet Semetary, and From a Buick Eight. I’ve also gone through the classics like The Invisible Man and The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. H.P Lovecraft really nails the cosmic side of horror. Although, when it comes to some of the comics that have inspired me, I have to credit the old EC Horror comics and pulps from the golden and silver age of comics. Ultimately, I have to credit the very first ever comics I tracked down and bought with my own saved-up quarters and nickels during my youth. They were a huge inspiration for my panel styling. In the mid-2000s, Wildstorm and Dynamite teamed up and released the comic sequel to the film Freddy vs. Jason. The comic featured Ash Williams of the Evil Dead franchise and was appropriately called Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash. I really liked how each panel was framed in its own box. That style stuck with me, and I framed the majority of my panels in a similar style.

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

I’ve worked in a variety of professions over the years; I’m very fond of learning new skills that I can use throughout life. I pride myself on being a jack-of-all-trades. The more things you can do, the less you have to rely on others to do for you. This attitude makes you become a more self-sufficient person who can problem-solve most any situation. More often than not, I enjoy jobs that allow me to create or be expressive in some artistic way. For a time, I worked at a movie theater where I did many window paintings to help promote upcoming movies. After that, I worked independently as a mural artist. Being skilled in the arts also landed me theatrical jobs as an artist working on sets and performing in theater. Theater taught me how to “act big” for the people in the back row. I think this translates into my book. Oftentimes, it’s essential to draw characters acting and reacting to situations in larger-than-life ways to convey emotion and movement.

Really, I tend to keep myself busy working multiple jobs at a time. I’ve worked in the trades as a carpenter. I’ve taught ballroom dance. I’ve worked in management, outdoor recreation, service, driving, farming, cleaning, maintenance, toiling and grunt labor, and so much more. The list really goes on and on, but I’m proud of each job I’ve ever worked because with it I’ve taken away valuable skills that have helped mold me into the multifaceted and versatile individual I am today. It seems each job opened up the doors to new and exciting opportunities that furthered my career as a working artist.

One of my skills that I am most fond of is woodworking. I can express my joy working with my hands to build things. Today I’m a working artist at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. I manage and supervise the wood and metal shops in the art and theater departments. It’s my job to oversee the construction of the sets for various theatrical productions and help students learn how to use all kinds of machines and tools to make art.

Outside of work, there are a couple of things you might not suspect about me. Firstly, I’m a competitive cosplayer who is always eager to design and hand-sew or build my next costume. Who would have thought that the guy who lives for Halloween needs more than just one day a year to dress in costumes and act like a buffoon? I absolutely love attending conventions that celebrate pop culture, comics, sci-fi, and horror. Really, any event where costumes are celebrated and encouraged. Secondly, I’m a car nut. I adore vintage car shows, and I love getting my knuckles dirty wrenching on my own vintage machines. My first love was my 1992 Cadillac hearse named Nancy. Yes, I drive a hearse. Yes, it was used by a funeral home; yes, it had dead people in it. No, it’s not haunted…or is it? At least, I hope that was the sound of a ghost and not something wrong with the engine. My current motor-head passion project is a 57/58 Plymouth Fury. To those in the know, she is “Christine,” the infamous car Stephen King wrote about, and yes, she is haunted. Cars certainly have personalities and minds of their own. You just have to show them love and hope they don’t show you trouble. I know what you’re thinking. “How does he find the time for all these hobbies, and jobs, let alone the time to write and illustrate a book?” The answer… “Heck if I know. I never have any free time! Why do you think it took me 13 years to write one book?”

Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

I think what ultimately inspired me to write this book was my desire to write and direct movies. Making a movie takes a village of people, or just yourself and a camera. Pumpkin Guts was a story that I didn’t have the resources to make into a major Hollywood production. But my desire and determination to tell the story helped push me to get it out there in one form or another. Utilizing all of the skills I’ve acquired in the arts, I set out to visualize the film on the printed page. It was my love of film that pushed me to show the readers a movie in the form of a graphic novel. It is the effort of thirteen years’ worth of hard work, collaboration, and perseverance. Everything was done traditionally and digitally by the human hand. There was absolutely no AI used in its creation. As an artist, I strive to continue the tradition of human-made art and storytelling. Writing and illustrating this story was a passion project of mine. After having learned everything that I have during the writing process, it has only inspired me to pick up the pen yet again and tell a new story. Hopefully, I can complete the next book in a few short years instead of the better part of another decade.

Where is your favorite place to write?

I like to write without distractions. I typically set myself up on the dining room table, but sitting too long can take a toll, so I also have a standing workstation. On average, once a page has been planned and laid out, it will take me roughly 16 hours or so to pencil and ink a page.

What advice would you give your past self at the start of your writing journey?

If I could travel back in time and talk to myself when I was first starting this adventure, I’d just say, “Buckle up, kid, you’ve got a long road ahead of you. Longer than you think. It’s gonna be a big adventure. You’re gonna learn a lot of lessons along the way. Just persevere because it’s all gonna be worth it in the end.”

What’s one thing you hope sticks with readers after they finish your book?

Really, once readers have completed this story, I hope they feel the same passion for the Halloween season and the love of horror movies that I do. I hope they enjoy this book well enough to pull it off the shelf once every October to get in the spirit of Halloween. I hope they recommend it to their friends and anyone they know looking to share that same holiday passion. And hopefully…they call for a sequel.

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