Pictures and story available to buy from the Bizarre Archive

Even if you haven’t heard of Roman Dirge, you might recognise his most famous character – Lenore, AKA ‘The Cute Little Dead Girl’. The 2-D cadaver has been delighting fans with her guilelessly murderous exploits for 17 years. What an achievement!

“I know!” laughs Roman, “I really wasted my life! I joke about it but it’s almost creepy, because she seems like a real person. She’s my baby. I’m really tied into her character, so when I’m writing, I kind of go crazy for a bit. I have to ‘become’ her and, because her dialogue is harder to write than it seems, I have to put myself in a really strange frame of mind. My friends get nervous; it’s like being an actor, but I’m playing a serial killer.”

For a girl full of good intentions, 10-year-old Lenore has certainly done a lot of killing. As the star of comic books and flash animation shorts, she’s butchered a box of hamsters while looking for a toy and murdered a magician while helping with a trick. Her adventures have been so popular that publisher Titan is re-releasing them in new, full-colour form.

Lenore lives in a run-down gothic mansion, but Roman’s period bungalow in Hollywood is unassuming. Inside, he’s witty and sincere as he discusses his life – he’s worked for Disney, written videogames and paints beautifully: “I wouldn’t call it lowbrow art,” he muses. “It’s more classical. I don’t have a classical painter’s skill, but I have the same aesthetic.”

He’s currently hard at work colouring his comic books for Titan. “I have such an insane schedule right now,” he says. “I’m colouring Wedgies (an original Lenore collection), which is 108 pages, I’m halfway through writing the second Lenore series and I’m working on a iPhone game, plus stuff for my website and pitching a TV show to Comedy Central – and I’m trying to get the Lenore movie made.”

His daily routine is long, but mixes work with lots of play. “I’ll get up at 3pm and work for 15-18 hours,” he explains. “I play a lot of World Of Warcraft, so I’ll try to get my warlock higher...

Then I’ll do some really frustrating stuff called ‘work’, which I really hate but have to get done. Then I’ll play some more videogames, then I’ll work, then I’ll feed the cats, then I’ll probably play some more videogames. And I always allot myself at least an hour and a half to go out and ‘indulge’. I like the pub.”

Despite his modern lifestyle, Roman’s work is hugely influenced by Edgar Allen Poe. He took his surname and the idea for The Cute Little Dead Girl from the poem Lenore, which reads: ‘A dirge for her, the doubly dead/In that she died so young’.

He also loves old cartoons from Rankin/Bass, Dr Seuss, and would “love to claim (late American illustrator) Edward Gorey as an influence, but I didn’t know who he was until I read a review saying that I must love his work!” Tim Burton’s name is always brought up, too: “That bugs me; I think he’s a brilliant man but not a very funny man.”

Closer to home, he’s been affected by having German grandparents. There are heaps of references in his life: his Nazi doll collection, the words on his paintings – even his hair can be disturbingly Hitler-esque.

One artwork declares, ‘Einmar Ist Keinmar’ (‘Once Is Never’), while another says, ‘True Friendship Is A Rare Bird’. Roman explains, “I like how you can say the sweetest things in German, like, ‘The birdie is hanging with the puppy’, and it sounds like the evil-est thing ever!”

Roman lives by a phrase on his home page, ‘Vincere Aut More’, which is Latin for ‘Conquer Or Die’. “I use it ironically because, although it’s a ridiculous saying, it reminds me that you have to keep moving forward,” he says.

“I seem to be a magnet for the most horrible shit ever – once a mugger tried to stab me, a ceiling collapsed on my head, and I’ve fallen off a cliff – but I’m still going! I got a cool scar out of the ceiling incident, so it’s all good. The ladies love it. It’s down my eyebrow ridge and looks like an evil villain scar.” He ponders for a second, “I think it was a year ago but I have no concept of time, as I rarely leave the house.”

But he does go out to get tattoos. He has 75 and his next will be Star Wars TIE fighters across his fingertips. When asked what he thinks of fans who have his work inked on them, he says, “That’s the most flattering thing ever and I love it and it makes me feel immortal. If someone comes up to me with one of those I’ll take all the time they want.”

Ask Roman what he’d do with Lenore if she had one more day on Earth and he says, “She’s my daughter so I’d be horrified about that, but I’d take her to Disneyland to my favourite ride, The Haunted Mansion. We’d have a great time but probably get kicked out because she’d molested a squirrel with a corn dog.” Naturally.

OUR DAY WITH ROMAN; Mark Berry visits the artist's creepy Hollywood home

Inside Roman’s bungalow, dead eyes loom with ominous intent as two blinking black cats – Rommel and Lily (after Lily Munster) – stand guard. In one corner, a rotting stuffed fox rests atop a dentist’s chair; in another, there’s a cabinet of curios filled with specimen jars, animal skulls and vintage medical paraphernalia.

A stream of wartime dance tunes accompany the low faux candlelight and aromatic incense to create a mysterious ambience. No family snaps break the illusion; the lone photo is of horror icon Vincent Price, tucked next to a Liz McGrath bunny and a raccoon in a pirate hat.

“I fixate on this look,” says Roman. “I want 
to live in a 1940s oddity museum, basically. I’ve collected taxidermy for ten years now and I love animals, though I know it sounds hypocritical!  
I just find it really comforting to have them around like this. Most of them are falling apart but that gives them character. “I feel like I’ve found a nice homey spot. Not homey as in ‘gangsta’ but, you know, homey.”

Never miss out on an issue of your favourite magazine. Try 3 issues of Bizarre for £1 today!