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In the past few weeks, Charles Forsman has become an unlikely teen idol.
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This must have been a weird few weeks for you.It has been.
Im starting to finally feel normal again after all the excitement and attention.
You know, everything.
What are people telling you on social media?Its funny.
Because I cant say my comics sell to teens atall.
Its not a group of people I interact with a lot, with my art.
Someone even had a Kickstarter going for enamel pins of drawings they made of James and Alyssa.
Part of me is like, Hey, wait, thats who I am.
Im supposed to be making that stuff!
But then Im like, No, this is amazing.
This is really great that people are so in love with it.
I was doing a lot of crosshatching.
They were taking a long time.
Just sort of an excuse to do quick pages and take a little bit of the stress off.
I was doing that thing that people do where they say, I gotta make great art.
Putting all these ridiculous expectations on myself, and halting myself in the process.
And to not dwell on pages.
It really started out as an experiment, really improvisational.
Thats the very first drawing I did in my sketchbook.
I took that image and I was like, Okay, whos this kid?
I was probably watchingDexterat the time, too, so I had serial killers on the mind.
It crept in there.
I dont know if I knew what the ending was going to be until I got there.
He was starting to pitch it and wanted to make it into something.
I remember writing up a document about where it was going and I probably just made stuff up.
Im not even sure if I followed it or not.
That was the spirit of the whole thing.
I dont think I would finish anything if I was sticking to a plan that was very rigid.
The characters oftentimes will take over and dictate things as they grow, you know?
Thats the fun part for me.
Thats what makes it worth doing, I think.
Are we supposed to take the ending of the comic as being deliberately ambiguous?
Or are we supposed to believe that James is dead?In my head, its ambiguous.
Yeah, I didnt really want to say one way or the other.
I like to leave things up to the reader.
Thats a big thing.
at the end of it.
That line James says about turning 18 is still …
I think that hits a moment of closure.
You say you were in contact with Entwistle before the comic was even done.
How did that happen?The mini comics were … And a shop in London, Gosh Comics, they carried it.
I was like, Oh, you know, I dont know.
Maybe this could be something cool.
And we just started talking.
And yeah, it kind of went from there.
He said he watches baseball and stuff.
Tried to name comic books he liked and I was like, Eh, theyre okay.
I think that was the very original plan.
And then it was going to be a webseries, and then all these things.
At what point did become real for you that this adaptation was going to happen?
I got bolts of electricity through my body.
That was like, Oh my God, this is really real.
Oh, how fitting!Yeah.
That was a real treat to get to see that be filmed.
Thats one of the best scenes in the whole thing.
It was so cool.
I dont know what they call it.
And we bought all these British snacks and sodas.
They were showing us everything.
I had my firstIrn-Bru, which is a soda over there thats really good.
She is very outgoing, and shes very much like Alyssa in real life.
I mean, shes complicated, of course.
But she is sort of like that on set.
Shes wild and shes not afraid to talk to anybody.
Alex is a lot more quiet, subdued, thinking, reading the script.
But those two, you could tell they were having a real blast together.
They really connected, which I think shows onscreen.
My girlfriend is even better friends with Jess than I am.
They text all the time about stuff.
Im so glad shes getting the attention shes getting right now, because its well-deserved.
Ive never wanted anyone to be a star before.
But I was like, She needs to be huge.
Because she really has something amazing.
How involved were you in the creation of the show?
I didnt really want to be hands-on.
Its tough, especially if its the first thing youre getting adapted.
You dont really have a lot of say.
Which, I think they did a pretty good job.
I was surprised at how closely it followed my story.
I didnt expect it to follow it so closely.
Thats interesting you say that, because I thought that there were a lot ofpoints of divergence.
I only had hints of their backgrounds.
And Eunice and Teri, the detectives, theyre just incredible.
She didnt get any of that from my book and that stuff is so good.
I wish Id thought of it.
Do you think it changes the story now that its set in the U.K.?I dont know.
I dont think so.
Even though its British, it still felt like a British version of an American story.
Like the idea of a road trip.
Thats not a thing, maybe, in England as much as it is here.
Probably just because of the size of the countries.
Have you heard anything about a second season?Not yet.
The people at the top are still talking.
I havent heard much lately, but Im sure theyre all seeing the begging of people online for it.
Well see what happens.
Much of your work deals with the plight of adolescents.
I was pretty depressed when I was a teenager.
The thing that spurred that on was that my dad died from cancer when I was 11 years old.
I always felt like I grew up a lot faster than my peers.
I got sick of high school really quick, and I dropped out in 10th or 11th grade.
I was in such a rush to grow up that I think I missed a lot of it.
And its just such a frustrating time in everyones lives.
Its just something I keep coming back to even when I try not to.
It seems to pull me back in.
Oh, wow.All the distributors were out.
And they were like, Oh my God.
It seems like a lot of people are like, Oh my God, its based on comic.
Im going to read it.
I see that online a lot.
Lets hope the teens dont necessarily readSlashernext.Yeah, yeah.
But they can handle it.
What kind of response did you get forSlasher?It was good.
It was better than I expected.
It was the first time I did full-color pamphlets on the shelf on Wednesdays.
And it didnt do gangbusters.
People really were into it.
I was trying to do a Brian De Palma.
I always say thats my Brian De Palma movie.
I didnt officially end it, but I pretty much have.
I just got burnt out on it.
I love doing it, I love publishing and production and design and all that.
Im just getting started on my new book right now.
Im in that stage, but Im slowly getting there.
Im feeling better about it now.
Its just automatic with the end of the word cut off.
I dont want to spoil it, but its sort of a … Oh God, I dont know.
Im not going to say anything.
No, Im not going to do it.
You try different things.
IsAutomagoing to be in yet another visual approach?Yeah.
Thats what Im working on now, figuring out visually what its going to look like.
And its going to be black and white.
Yeah, well see how it turns out.
It never turns out as I plan it.
I imagine that your teen fans will start asking you how they can break into making their own comics.
What advice would you give them?The main thing is to give yourself permission to do it.
You dont need an editor or a teacher or a publisher to tell you to do it.
You gotta just start making stories.
When Im not worrying about what other people want, thats when I do the best work.
I always get the best reaction.
Thats whatThe End of the Fucking Worldwas for me.
That was the book I felt like I did for myself, wholly and totally.
That was a new feeling for me.
I think thats important.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
