At this year’s New York Comic Con, between the panels, signings, and cosplay flash mobs, we sat down with actor and writer David Dastmalchian. Mainly known for roles in The Dark Knight, Ant-Man, The Suicide Squad, Dune, Late Night with The Devil, Dastmalchian will soon add Street Fighter's psycho-powered terrorist to his credits. Outside of his Hollywood roles, he's been steadily carving out a space as a force in comics. Over the past few years, he’s gone from being a character actor and contemporary horror icon to the creator behind deeply personal, psychologically layered books like Knights vs. Samurai (Image Comics) and Through (Z2).
While fantastical on the surface, Dastmalchian's stories all orbit a core theme: trauma, identity, and control. And they aren’t just metaphors. “Everything,” he says, when asked how much of his own experience shapes his writing. “My imagination–since I was a little boy–has been a place where I could disappear for days. I’d come up with worlds, characters, imagery, and even tech. That part came easy.”
But early writing mentors kept asking the same question: What is this really about? “They’d say, ‘What’s the engine? Where’s the heart?’ And I didn’t get it at first. I was caught up in the cool stuff–car chases, monsters, crazy clothes, and action. But eventually someone told me: just write what you know. And what I knew–what I really knew–was addiction. I knew dependency. I knew what it felt like to be so afraid of losing someone or something that it felt like you’d die.”
That’s when the writing shifted. The worlds stayed weird, but the core became real. “I just realized I’m not gifted enough as a writer to just shoot out a cool idea. I have to be writing from some nagging pain or fear or obsession. Something unresolved inside me. Otherwise, it doesn’t mean anything. Through and Knights vs Samurai gave me that space to go there.”
With Knights vs Samurai, the idea started with archetypes–warrior classes he’s always found cool. “I knew I wanted a world of magic and honor, but underneath, I wanted to explore the way elites manipulate the working and warrior classes through misinformation and spiritual distortion. That’s been happening for thousands of years.”
He didn’t have every plot beat when he started writing. “But I knew what it was about: how people are kept separate, how we’re manipulated into being divided, how we might find connection anyway.” He doesn’t mince words about what inspired that. “We’re possibly living through the fall of Western civilization right now. And I think about these walls between people–this impenetrable wall where someone thinks harming trans people or zip-tying children somehow aligns with moral values. And I ask, is that just moral failure? Or is it elite manipulation keeping us angry at each other so we never look up and realize the power structure feeding off us?”
Through, his latest release from Z2, digs even deeper into the personal. A surreal, fantasy-tinged journey, it follows Alix, a female protagonist inspired by people close to him–and by his own inner life. “I wanted to explore what it means to be compulsive, controlling, dependent. I’ve struggled with all of that. I’ve exhibited a lot of borderline personality traits in my life.”
He points to his long-standing internal battle between intense productivity and burnout. “There’s this part of me that believes: if you control everything, you can make sure it turns out right. That energy’s helped me professionally. It’s why I finish plays, short films, comic books. But I also thought maybe that same energy could save my relationships. Maybe it could fix the world. And I kept smashing into a wall.”
That wall became the story: “Alix is someone who believes control is the key. That everyone saying ‘let go’ is lying. And then she has to realize–no. It doesn’t work.”
A big influence on Through was a therapy model called Parts Work, or IFS (Internal Family Systems). “It helped me understand how different parts of us take over in reaction to trauma. The controlling part. The addictive part. The anxious part. The avoidant part. They all think they’re protecting us from something. So I wanted Through to reflect that. On the surface it’s a person going through a looking glass, but really, it’s about going within.”
That tension between inner wound and outward journey is something Dastmalchian also brought to Venom: Black, White, and Blood, his upcoming Marvel story with artist Philip Tan. “It’s very inspired by [David Fincher's] Seven, actually. I thought a lot about rage as a parasite, this thing that starts with fear. Eddie Brock’s a guy full of bad luck and pain. But under all that anger is fear. Fear of being alone. Fear of failure. That’s what makes him the perfect host for the symbiote.”
He’s also demonstrated range with the lighter Web of Venomverse: Fresh Brains #1, featuring Venom vs. Power Pack. “Marvel gave me freedom to go deep with Brock. It was dark. But also fun. I love getting to do both.”
Still, for someone who’s part of multiple billion-dollar film franchises, comics weren’t an easy door to walk through. In fact, they were harder. “People just saw me as an actor with a vanity project. They didn’t realize I’ve been on the other side of the convention rope for years. I’ve waited in line for Kevin Eastman’s or Stan Lee's autograph. I’ve got longboxes in my closet from when I was nine.”
He tried pitching ideas early, but found resistance. “People didn’t take it seriously. So I came up with this idea for a TV show about a horror host who’s also a monster hunter battling addiction named Count Crowley. I pitched it to my boss Peter [M. Lenkov] when I was working on the MacGyver reboot. He said it sounded more like a comic. He introduced me to [founder] Mike Richardson at Dark Horse. I shit my pants! I’m a huge Dark Horse fan. And that’s how I got my first comic published.”
Count Crowley opened the floodgates. “Once people saw it had legs, more doors opened. I got to pitch Todd McFarlane Knights vs Samurai. I pitched DC and Jim Lee my idea for Creature Commandos. I talked to Marvel about my Venom story. Then I started working with Z2. Now I’ve got new projects with Image, Dark Horse, Panic...and I fucking love it.”
