Alan Robert started as a comic artist, dreaming of publishing his own graphic stories. In his senior year, life threw a curveball: his band Life of Agony signed with Roadrunner Records. What he expected to be a six-month detour became a thirty-year run on stages worldwide. Throughout it all, he never set down his pencil.
On a recent Altwire Podcast, Alan Robert sat down with Derek Oswald to trace that journey. He reveals how his life went from studying illustration to music, and back to his line of horror comics and coloring books.
He unpacks Ghouliana’s backstory and offers a sneak peek at Ghouliana’s Sanctuary for Monsters—a hybrid storybook–coloring book arriving this August.
Watch the full interview below to catch unscripted stories about his horror art, best-selling books, and Ghouliana’s next adventures.
Scroll past the video embed for a bonus Q&A that didn’t make the recording.
ALAN ROBERT BONUS QUESTIONS
AltWire: Ghouliana has always been a big part of The Beauty of Horror series. What’s next on board for the mascot of your best-selling Amazon series?
Alan Robert: Ghouliana is definitely the face of The Beauty of Horror universe, and there are some exciting new developments that really put her in the spotlight over the next few months. First up is The Beauty of Horror: Ghouliana’s Sanctuary for Monsters, hitting shelves in August. It’s a horror-themed storybook you can color—something completely new for the series. It’s actually the first time we’ve told a full narrative that connects all the illustrations together, which brought me back to my graphic novel roots. It was a blast to dive deeper into Ghouliana’s world and expand her universe with dozens of new characters—some familiar from folklore and others completely original.
The story centers on Ghouliana discovering a hidden underground Sanctuary for Monsters, a place where the world’s most mysterious creatures live safely away from humans. But when that sanctuary is threatened, she has to guide them all to a new safe haven.
Then, coming this Fall, NECA is releasing an all-new Ghouliana action figure that’s fully articulated and incredibly detailed. She’s dressed in a soft-goods bat-wing dress and comes with her loyal skeleton pup, Poppet—both figures glow in the dark. This version is a big step up from NECA’s Toony Terrors release a few years back, with more articulation, size, and sculpted detail.
AltWire: Your art is so heavily based in pop culture, definitely music in particular. Any plans for more movie-magic like the licensed book you crafted around the Beetlejuice reboot?
Alan Robert: Absolutely—pop culture has always been a huge part of my creative DNA, especially when it intersects with music and movies. Working on the Beetlejuice coloring book was an absolute blast, especially getting to revisit Tim Burton’s world from the original film that made such a big impact on me growing up. I can’t say much just yet, but I’m currently working on another really exciting, officially licensed project with publisher Insight Editions that fans of horror—and the supernatural in particular—are really going to love. It’s packed with eerie atmosphere, iconic characters, and some seriously chilling scenes. More news on that one will be coming very soon.
AltWire: What does 30 years of ‘Ugly’ mean to you as a member of Life Of Agony? What sorts of involvement have you had in the creation of art for the band?
Alan Robert: Ugly was a very emotional album for us to make—for me, it was bittersweet. We were going through a lot internally as a band at that time. There was tension, pressure to follow up the success of River Runs Red after touring for two years, and a real struggle to hold things together. But somehow, all of that made its way into the music and gave the record its raw honesty.
We recorded it at Systems Two in Brooklyn, the same studio where we had done River Runs Red, so there was this full-circle feeling, but the energy was very different. We used different producers, and I still remember those sessions vividly. There was a heaviness in the room, but also a deep desire to evolve and say something meaningful.
For the artwork, I illustrated a concept that reflected the record’s core theme—feeling like an outsider. It shows a kid wearing a blank mask, completely isolated, while other children play around him, excluding him. That became the foundation for the actual photo shoot, where we posed real people to match the illustration. That image still haunts me in a way—it perfectly captured where we were emotionally.
Performing Ugly front to back on this upcoming tour is going to be powerful. Some of these songs have never been played live before, including our Simple Minds cover, ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me).’ The response has already been incredible—some dates are sold out, which tells me that this record still resonates. I think a lot of people feel what we were going through, even all these years later.
AltWire: What else can you share with us in regards to your 2025?
Alan Robert: 2025 is shaping up to be a really exciting year. There’s a lot happening behind the scenes that I can’t quite talk about yet, but I will say this—fans of my work have a lot to look forward to. I’ve got new illustrated books in development that continue to expand the spooky universes I love to create.
On the music side, I’ve been collaborating with some amazing gear gurus on signature bass equipment that I’m really proud of. And in the film world, there are a couple of live-action feature projects in motion that aim to bring my comic book properties to the screen. It’s all still under wraps for now, but I can’t wait to share more when the time is right.
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