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Writer Scott Snyder is a master of horror comics, having cut his teeth on the long-running title American Vampire, and he's got a bit of advice for Marvel Comics as they set to launch Marvel Midnight, a new line of horror titles starring some of the publisher's biggest characters.

For Snyder, the essence of great horror and scares comes down to making sure that the concepts are speaking directly to the fears and anxieties of the audience by playing on the terrors of the modern world.

"I don't know what [Marvel Midnight] is except for what you guys know. The one piece of advice I'd give is, I really hope the horror in that, the scares, should come from things that feel of the moment," Snyder explains in an appearance on ComicPop Returns. "That's what we're trying to do, and what I'd say to everyone out there."

"Whatever you're making, if you're trying to think about the success of the Absolute Universe, you know, we get a lot of bullshit. 'It's edgy, it's dark.' But that's not what makes it successful in my opinion at all," Snyder continues. "What makes it successful, is that I really think its creators making stories that they desperately kind of passionate about that feel personal to them and have these characters reborn in ways that engage with things that we're really afraid of right now, and excited and hopeful about in very electric ways."

Related: A young Scott Snyder fan drove 12 hours to meet his hero — and got an absolute surprise he’ll never forget

As with his horror pedigree, Snyder is certainly versed in launching new publishing initiatives and new lines as one of the main architects of DC's burgeoning Absolute line. Though the Absolute line isn't horror-focused, it's well-known for its intensity and its willingness to take well-known characters in surprising directions.

"If I was gonna do a horror universe, that horror would spring from things in the zeitgeist. You know if you're gonna do like ghouls or mutants, or zombies, the zombies would come from a terrible nuclear exchange, or a virus, or a bunker where rich people hid and tried an experiment," Snyder elaborates. "Something that springs from all the stuff that's happening and that we're afraid of, whether it's AI, or it's this. Those guys are awesome, so I'm sure it will be really good. But that's my general point, not trying to be too prescriptive for anyone else. The best thing I can say to anyone who looks at the Absolute Universe, or the Ultimate Universe, or Energon and says 'Why do these things work?', it's because you're trying to build big, epic stuff out of the things that frighten you and excite you about this moment in time. Not just, 'How do I make a microverse that does something cool, or that's edgy, or dark?'."

Marvel Midnight launches in August with three titles, Midnight X-Men by Jonathan Hickman and Matteo Della Fonte, Midnight Fantastic Four by Benjamin Percy and Kev Walker, and Midnight Spider-Man by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Scie Tronc.

Want more? Make sure you've read our list of all the best Marvel Comics stories of all time.