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At this point, the James Tynion IV-written, Werther Dell’Edera-drawn Something is Killing the Children is an absolute staple of horror comics, to say nothing of the spinoffs and even cross-company collabs it's inspired, However, there was a time when the world of Erica Slaughter was just a draft in Tynion's mind, and just this past weekend, we lucky comics fans got a peek into the original (very different) plans he had for a comic of the same title.

Specifically, we got that peek at C2E2 2026, where Tynion was the guest of honor on the Slaughterverse comics panel, hosted by Sami DeMonster. After touching on subjects like the Something is Killing the Children movie and their upcoming crossover with the DC horror icon Swamp Thing, Tynion wound the clocks back to before Dell'Ethera was even attached, when the idea was still new.

"The title was still Something is Killing the Children," Tynion said of the concept, "But it was more like me trying to do a Twin Peaks kind of thing. You did have this detective character who basically was an insomniac, so she had these deep rings under her eyes."

SIKTC readers know, of course, that the deep rings did carry into the creation of main character Erica Slaughter, as you can see in the above art for the comic. Also carrying over was the idea of the series being a story about children dying at the hands of supernatural creatures. But the next bit...

"Then, she would have this stuffed octopus."

Well, that's new.

"She was absorb all the cases," Tynion continued, "All the mysteries, and then finally, when she had poured everything into this octopus, she would go to sleep and. speak to the octopus. [They'd] speak together, put together the whole thing."

Supernatural detective and her octopus comic? I mean, that sounds like a winning comic to me. So why didn't Tynion's idea make it out of the proverbial Black Lodge?

"That wasn't really an idea," the author admits, "It was more of a scene. It was just like there were a lot of raw pieces there that I took account of and it didn't end up being part of the series."

Fair enough, James. And we're not gonna argue with your sales. Still, if you ever get another idea for a Lynchian Octopus story, we're here to listen.

Popverse's favorite convention, C2E2, is back and we've got all you need to know ahead of time:

• No excuses: Watch the C2E2 Main Stage panels in our free livestream
• Where to find Popverse at C2E2!
• The C2E2 Artist Alley booths you gotta visit
• The must-see C2E2 2026 panels
• The C2E2 Booths we're looking forward to most