John Carpenter helped create one of the most terrifying boogeymen of the 20th century, but he’s not stopping there. The Master of Horror who introduced the world to Michael Myers is about to unleash a brand new comic book about another of the most iconic villains in pop culture history: The Joker: Year of the Villain.

The new comic, in stores October 9, is part of the “Year of the Villain” crossover event in the DC Comics superhero universe. The press release describes the plot thusly…

“In this one-shot special, Lex Luthor – now a human-alien hybrid – has made his appeal to the world, asking its citizens to embrace doom and give in once and for all to evil, humanity’s true nature. In exchange, he will grant them the tools to ascend to their ultimate selves. While some DC villains (and heroes) are willing to hear what “Apex Lex” has to offer, the Clown Prince of Crime isn’t going to wait around until Lex gets to him. This puts The Joker on a mission to get his swagger back in a world gone bad by out-badding everyone else, proving that the greatest evil is always the one that leaves them laughing.”

John Carpenter writing a DC supervillain comic book sounds almost too good to be true. Bloody-Disgusting got Carpenter on the phone with his co-writer, Anthony Burch (Borderlands 2), to talk about how the project came to pass, how they worked together, and why the heck they wanted to write about not just the Joker, but also the Condiment King…

“In the immediate present, DC contacted me and asked me if I wanted to work on a Joker comic,” John Carpenter explains. “I immediately contacted Anthony [Burch]. He and I, Anthony and I, worked on Big Trouble in Little China, a series called ‘Old Man Jack.’ We’d done that a couple years ago. So I knew I wanted to work with him again, so I called and Anthony wanted to do it and off we went.”

It was an easy decision to make, because Carpenter is a big fan of the character, and Burch has very strong opinions about his favorite version of Batman’s arch-nemesis.

“The Joker is one of the great villains in comics. He’s one of the great villains, period. He’s just great. And Anthony is steeped in the lore of Batman, and he actually traverses in that world, so I’ll let him explain it,” Carpenter says.

“We’ve been massive fans of the Joker, and to me the depiction of the Joker that’s always been the most interesting one is the Joker from Grant Morrison’s Arkham Asylum, where Grant Morrison basically posited that the Joker is not insane. That he’s hyper-sane. He knows exactly what he’s doing and he’s [doing it] because it’s fun, not because he has any sort of mania or any sort of trauma in his past. And that he likes to manipulate people by using their trauma against them,” Burch says.

“That version of the Joker has always been the most terrifying to me,” Burch continues. “And I thought it might be really fun to put him in a story where we’re seeing him from the perspective of one of his henchmen, what it’s like to have this charismatic, terrifying, seductive guy put you down the wrong path in life because of the resentment you have for others.”

Joker: Year of the Villain is told not from the Joker’s point of view, but from his henchman’s, a young man called Six of Hearts. Throughout the comic we see Six of Hearts’ tragic childhood, his abuse at the hands of his father, and his estrangement from his mother. He’s struggling with mental illness, and he thinks he’s found a kindred spirit in The Joker… but Carpenter and Burch were eager to suggest that all kinds of people are susceptible to the Joker’s influence.

“Well, there’s a scene in the comic where Joker gets on YouTube and tells everybody hey, if you’re feeling really angry and you feel like you want to blame this woman who came to Gotham for all of your problems, you should come to this rally,” Burch explains. “So I don’t know how unbelievable it is that people would join a guy like that. But yeah, I think the alluring thing of the Joker is the idea that he can see your weaknesses and then pretend like they’re his weaknesses, even though they aren’t. He doesn’t have any [traumas]. Maybe he’s just seeing that you do and can use that against you.”

The Joker isn’t the only Gotham City regular comic book fans will find in the pages of The Joker: Year of the Villain. We won’t ruin all the surprises, but we did have to ask why – with all of the villains in Gotham’s rogues gallery to choose from – Carpenter and Burch decided to pit The Joker, briefly, against The Condiment King.

“He’s the saddest, most depressing supervillain in the history of DC comics,” Burch explains. “I love him. You’ve got to admire the gall of some guy to base his entire personality around puns for condiments, of which there are like maybe six?”

“Basically the idea of having a character like that, who is obviously the least intimidating villain of all time, meet the Joker is a fun impetus for Joker to feel like, ‘Oh, I should be a superhero. This would be fun, taking out idiots like Condiment King all day,’” Burch reveals.

Coming up with cool ideas for The Joker and Condiment King with horror legend John Carpenter sounds like a dream come true to most people, but it begs the question… how does co-writing a comic book with John Carpenter work, anyway?

“We communicate telepathically,” Carpenter jokes. “No, the idea and the script comes from Anthony. He came up with the outline and said, ‘What do you think of this?’ I read it and thought, that’s great! Let’s go. And strangely enough DC let us do exactly what he had in mind!”

“John’s got a great sense of story structure and what works and what doesn’t,” Burch explains. “I remember, even back when we were working on ‘Old Man Jack’ in Big Trouble in Little China, the whole setup for the story was, yeah, this was pretty good and ironclad. And then John said ‘Just change this one thing and make Jack an outsider rather than an insider.’ Oh my god, all of a sudden the story made a million times more sense. So I will never be half as experienced as John. He’s always a good dude to be collaborating with on any of this stuff.”

Their collaboration with artist Philip Tan, however, was less hands on. Not that it needed to be.

“He’s brilliant. A brilliant artist,” Carpenter says.

“I didn’t [talk to Philip Tan],” Burch says. “But I wouldn’t have had anything to say even if I had because every time we got any art back it was like, this is a million times better than it was just as the script. I couldn’t believe the stuff that he was doing. You could talk a little bit about how psychedelic the comic feels. A lot of that’s him, I think.”

If fans like The Joker: Year of the Villain and want to see more Carpenter/Burch comics at DC, they have some ideas.

“I’d love to do a Batman thing,” Carpenter says. “But the Joker is the best. It’s just best. We would love to do a big adventure with Joker. It would be great.”

But the writers are quick to point out that there are no plans for a follow-up comic… yet.

“We just did this one, dude!” John Carpenter playfully protests. “Hey, come on now…”

“Yeah, is one not enough for you?” Burch jokes. “Not at the moment but we’d obviously love to.”

“Not at the moment,” Carpenter confirms.

The Joker: Year of the Villain arrives in stores on October 9, 2019.