About Haunted Pizza, LLC
Haunted Pizza LLC is an independent comic book publishing company based in New Jersey, founded by father-and-son creators Mark Poulton and Chase Poulton.
Built on a love of comics, storytelling, and larger-than-life adventure, Haunted Pizza is dedicated to creating what it proudly calls “The Most Fun Comic Books Around!”
The Full Story-
Company co-founder Mark Poulton began his professional comics career in 2006 with his creator-owned title Koni Waves, published by Arcana Studio. His talent and dedication quickly led him to become Vice President of Production at Arcana, where he oversaw the development and publication of numerous acclaimed projects, including Kade, Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom, and Don Bluth’s Dragon’s Lair.
Our Sacred Timeline
2006
The First Wave
Mark Poulton’s professional comics career began with Koni Waves #1, published by Arcana Studios. The supernatural detective series introduced Koni Kanawai, a private investigator in Honolulu pulled into monsters, mystery, and island danger — and gave Mark the creator-owned foundation that would later feed directly into the Haunted Pizza catalog.
2010
A Cat with Range
With A Cat Named Haiku, Mark swerved from action comics into all-ages poetic storytelling, creating a children’s graphic novel about a mischievous cat told through haiku. It proved early that he was not boxed into one lane — he could build creator-owned worlds for horror fans, superhero readers, and kids.
2011
An Eagle Award Nod
A Cat Named Haiku earned a Best Single Issue Story nomination at the 2011 Stan Lee Eagle Awards, turning a quirky children’s poetry concept into industry-recognized work. That nomination gave Mark a clean awards milestone before Haunted Pizza ever became a publishing brand.
2011
A Liefeld-Level Co-Sign
Rob Liefeld selected Mark to help relaunch Avengelyne at Image Comics, calling him “the writer for the gig” and “a natural for AVENGELYNE.” For a creator raised on bold 1990s superhero energy, getting tapped by one of Image’s founding voices was not just another credit — it was a career-defining endorsement.
2012
The DC Breakthrough
Mark entered the DC Comics record through The Savage Hawkman #9 during The New 52 era, adding a major Big Two credit to a resume that already included Arcana and Image Comics. That DC milestone matters because it proves the same creator behind Haunted Pizza’s indie catalog had already been trusted inside mainstream superhero publishing.
2017
The Pizza Tree Takes Root
Pizza Tree, created by Mark Poulton, Chase Poulton, and artist Ryan Onorato, landed as a father-and-son horror-comedy graphic novel where a backyard slice of pepperoni grows into something monstrous. It is the perfect Haunted Pizza origin point: weird, funny, family-built, and impossible to mistake for anyone else’s brand.
2017
A Father-Son Publisher Is Born
Haunted Pizza formed in 2017 after the success of Pizza Tree, transforming Mark and Chase Poulton’s family passion project into an independent publishing company. That same year, Chase became the youngest author ever to sign at San Diego Comic-Con at age seven — exactly the kind of story most publishers would kill to have in their origin myth.
2018
Award-Winning Family Horror
Pizza Tree became a Best Kids Graphic Novel nominee at the 2018 Ringo Awards and won a Bronze Medal at the Moonbeam Awards. That gave Haunted Pizza a rare two-part validation: it was not just a fun father-son experiment, it was an award-recognized all-ages comic with real marketable credibility.
2018
The Graveyard Shift Ignition
Mark and Jon Malin’s Graveyard Shift launched on Indiegogo and quickly became Haunted Pizza’s first major crowdfunding detonation, funding within minutes and crossing six figures. The concept — “What if the Universal Monsters were the X-Men?” — gave the company a killer elevator pitch and proved its audience would show up with money, not just likes.
2018
Ringside Storytelling
Mark expanded into licensed sports-entertainment storytelling with Anything Is Possible: The Eddie Edwards Story, working with IMPACT Wrestling star Eddie Edwards on a children’s book about perseverance and championship ambition. It showed Haunted Pizza’s creator could translate real-world personalities into accessible, family-facing stories.
2019
The Six-Figure Sequel Engine
Graveyard Shift Volume II turned the first book’s success into a repeatable engine, ending its campaign near $175,000 and confirming that the series had moved beyond novelty into franchise territory. This is the year Haunted Pizza’s crowdfunding story stopped looking like a lucky hit and started looking like a system.
2020
The $265K Horror-Superhero Surge
Graveyard Shift Volume III closed above $265,000, proving the horror-superhero concept could scale across multiple volumes while keeping backers engaged. For an independent comics operation, that kind of sequel performance is the difference between having a book and having a business.
2020
USAssassin Enters the Mission
USAssassin Book I: Old Habits introduced Joe Knight, a former government super-agent pulled back into action, and gave Haunted Pizza a hard-edged action franchise built from ninjas, covert ops, betrayal, and 1980s/1990s combat energy. It became one of the clearest examples of Mark’s ability to turn nostalgic genre fuel into a modern creator-owned property.
2020
Earth’s Greatest Hope
SeaDog and Codename: Killswitch Book I brought Chase Poulton deeper into the Haunted Pizza Universe with a superhero adventure built around the pitch “Earth’s Greatest Hope is Man’s Best Friend.” The campaign’s $22,718 from 397 backers showed the family-friendly side of the catalog could stand beside the darker horror-action titles.
2021
The Most Metal Comic of 2021
Viking Wolf arrived as a horror-fantasy campaign with Mark Poulton, Matt Dalton, Renzo Rodriguez, Dexter Weeks, and Eric Weathers, raising $32,090 from 500 backers. Its mythic blood-hammer energy pushed Haunted Pizza beyond superheroes and monsters into dark fantasy — expanding the catalog without diluting the brand.
2022
The Universe Expands
Black Owl, Graveyard Shift: Omega Storm, Loose Threads, and new Koni Waves movement made 2022 feel less like scattered launches and more like the architecture of a shared publishing slate. Omega Storm alone pushed Graveyard Shift into a 140-page chapter while Loose Threads added an 80-page meta-comic about canceled characters clawing their way into the real world.
2022
A George Pérez Piece of History
Loose Threads gave Haunted Pizza one of its most emotionally powerful collector hooks: what was promoted as possibly the legendary George Pérez’s final cover. That is not just a variant-cover bullet point — it is a genuine comics-history artifact attached to a creator-owned indie book.
2023
A Witch-Hunting Father and Daughter
Writhe & Payne entered the Haunted Pizza orbit with a website-exclusive 16-page preview book featuring a foil cover and the unlikely superpowered team-up of a witch-hunting father and his teenage witch daughter. It was another smart brand move: a compact preview product that let fans sample a new property before a larger push.
2024
The Million-Dollar Indie Catalog
By 2024, Haunted Pizza had crossed more than $1,000,000 in crowdfunding across titles including Graveyard Shift, USAssassin, SeaDog, Viking Wolf, and more. That milestone is the cleanest business-proof line in the entire timeline: this is not a hobby shop pretending to be a publisher — it is a family-built indie comics operation with real revenue behind it.
2024
Roddy Piper Joins the Mission
USAssassin IV: Dogs of War brought the legendary Roddy Piper into the USAssassin universe for a 72-page graphic novel, supported by collectibles including trading cards, ashcans, a collected edition, and a hardcover artbook. It turned a creator-owned action title into a pop-culture crossover built for collectors.
2025
The New-Heroine Underground
Gun Goth: She Is The Hot Topic #1 pushed Haunted Pizza into a heavier, sharper lane, mixing cyberpunk grit, high-octane action, collector covers, and a no-apologies heroine with a deadly mission. It signaled that the catalog was still creating new icons, not just extending older wins.
2025
The Universals Signal Goes Live
Universals Initiative opened a new cosmic lane for Haunted Pizza, reuniting Graveyard Shift legends Mark Poulton and Jon Malin for a 64-page graphic novel featuring a Rob Liefeld cover, variant covers by Malin, Joe Bennett, and Debora Carita, and 50 pages of Jon Malin interior art. It positioned the company for a larger superhero-universe play instead of another one-off launch.
2025
An Epic Partnership
Haunted Pizza announced Bounty Hunter and the 2Xtreme Monster Trucks, a high-octane partnership with Jimmy Creten and the 2Xtreme Racing Team that brings Bounty Hunter, Scarlet Bandit, Shark Bite, and Roarin’ Rex into a superhero-style graphic novel universe. It is the exact kind of brand expansion that makes sense for Haunted Pizza: loud, visual, family-friendly, merch-forward, and built for fans who already love larger-than-life machines.
2026
Monster Trucks Hit the Page
Bounty Hunter and the 2Xtreme Monster Trucks is scheduled to debut in 2026 with Mark Poulton writing and Fredson Oliveira on art, turning world-famous monster trucks and drivers into a comic-book superhero team. If executed well, this becomes more than a book release — it becomes a bridge between comics, arena entertainment, kids, collectors, and motorsports culture.