Infusing 1940s noir with supernatural scares, the new graphic novel Hard Bargain is now on Kickstarter as part of Humanoids' 50th anniversary celebration, and we caught up with prolific TV writer Steven S. DeKnight (Spartacus, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel) to discuss teaming up with artist Leno Carvalho for the new graphic novel, the inspirations behind his hard-boiled horror tale, and the ghoulish goodies readers can look forward to from supporting the Kickstarter campaign!
Below, you can check out our full Q&A with Steven S. DeKnight as well as preview pages and blurbs for Hard Bargain, and to learn more about the supernatural graphic novel, visit its official Kickstarter page!
Thank you for taking the time to answer questions for us, Steven, and congratulations on the Kickstarter launch for your new graphic novel Hard Bargain, which follows the supernatural adventures of Private Investigator Frank Harding in 1940s Los Angeles. How and when did you initially get the idea for Hard Bargain?
Steven S. DeKnight: Thanks! The idea for Hard Bargain started percolating nearly thirty years ago. I had always loved Raymond Chandler’s two-fisted tales of gumshoe Philip Marlowe and the movie adaptations of his work like Murder, My Sweet and The Big Sleep. And as you may have guessed by my résumé in film and television, I also love to swim in the genre waters of horror, science fiction, and the supernatural. Hard Bargain was born from my passion for all of these incredibly rich worlds.
Equally important to this initial volume is the brutal murder of Vincent Chin in 1982 when I was teenager in high school. Two white auto workers held Chin down and repeatedly bashed him in the head with a baseball bat. Chin died of his injuries, but the two men were only sentenced to probation and a fine. Chin’s murder happened at the height of tensions over Japan “encroaching” on the U.S. car market (his murderers mistakenly thought Chin was Japanese). I was always horrified by this event, and it became the inspiration for the underlying mystery plot of Hard Bargain.
I love how Leno Carvalho’s artwork pairs with your prose to bring the world of Hard Bargain to life on the paneled page. How did the opportunity to work with Leno come about, and what is it about his art style in particular that made him the perfect fit for Hard Bargain?
Steven S. DeKnight: There could be no Hard Bargain without the amazing work of artist Leno Carvahlo (not to mention the incredible colors of Bruno Hang). I admittedly tortured the good people at Humanoids for a solid year over finding just the right artist to bring this world to life. They must have sent me a dozen fantastic artists to approve, and they were all just astonishing. But I was looking for something very, very specific for this book. A rare combination of that 1940’s film noir pulp aesthetic meets the Grand Guignol of the old EC horror comics. When they sent me Leno’s samples, I damn near levitated out of my chair. He just nailed that unique combination I had been searching for.
I really enjoy how you’ve infused a hard-boiled detective story with otherworldly monsters, like a paranormal twist on Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer or Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe. Do you have any favorite detective characters or supernatural stories that influenced or inspired you while working on Hard Bargain?
Steven S. DeKnight: I am a huge, huge fan of Raymond Chandler’s short stories and novels revolving around tough guy private detective Philip Marlowe. I just devoured all of those in my teens and have revisited them often over the years. Chandler was the absolute master of razor-sharp, self-deprecating tough guy dialogue that I really tried to channel for Hard Bargain. Going hand in glove with Chandler in my fevered brain are the short stories and novels of Stephen King, the greatest horror/supernatural writer of all time in my opinion. What I particularly love about King is that his characters are so incredibly well drawn. They feel like real people with real lives no matter how insane the world has gone around them. That’s another element I wanted to try to bring into Hard Bargain. That all of these characters have histories and lives reaching way back beyond the start of the story, so they feel grounded in reality.
You have an extensive and impressive résumé working in the world of television, including Spartacus, Smallville, Angel, Dollhouse, Daredevil, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. How have those experiences as a TV writer, producer, and director influenced your approach to writing a graphic novel?
Steven S. DeKnight: Working these past twenty-five years as a TV writer, producer, and director really gave me the tools to attack Hard Bargain in the most focused, logical way I could. The shows I was a part of – all genre action dramas at their core – were almost exclusively big world-building affairs. That was the perfect training ground to bring to life the expansive universe seen in Hard Bargain. In that respect, it’s truly a blessing that it took nearly thirty-years for me to bring this book to fruition. Looking back, I just don’t think I had enough experience working on something this big and intricate when I originally hatched the idea.
A successful Kickstarter campaign has been launched for Hard Bargain, and it’s impressively already doubled its initial goal. What can you tell us about the types of perks that supporters of the Kickstarter campaign can look forward to?
Steven S. DeKnight: There are some absolutely awesome perks that supporters of the Hard Bargain Kickstarter campaign can look forward to. There’s the oversized hardcover edition, the oversized collector’s edition with high-end slipcase, the bookplate edition signed by me and Leno Carvahlo, and the signed and remarqued bookplate edition with a hand-drawn sketch by Leno. There’s also the opportunity to pick up three gorgeous prints of original Hard Bargain art created specifically for the Kickstarter campaign by Leno Carvahlo, Pete Woods, and Michael Gaydos.
What has it been like to team up with Humanoids during their 50th anniversary as you prepare to publish Hard Bargain and release it into the world?
Steven S. DeKnight: Humanoids has been just the best partner in the world. They were incredibly encouraging and gave me pretty much free reign to create the story that I was passionate about right from the beginning. This kind of creative freedom is almost unheard of in the film and TV industry, so it was extraordinarily exciting to be able to let my imagination run wild. And the cherry on top of that amazing sundae is to be able to be a part of their historic 50th anniversary.
Ultimately, what do you hope readers take away from Hard Bargain?
Steven S. DeKnight: First and foremost, I hope readers just have a really good time with Hard Bargain. Entertaining the audience is always job number one for me, and Leno and I really threw our backs into making Hard Bargain as interesting and fun as we possibly could. A close second to that is that I hope it makes the reader think about the world around us, especially here in the United States where the old echoes of hatred and racism still reverberate to this day.
Do you have plans to continue the eerie adventures of Frank Harding in a sequel to Hard Bargain or adapt it to a TV series or film in the future?
Steven S. DeKnight: If this volume proves there’s an audience for it, I have four more volumes of Hard Bargain planned that follows the main storyline of Frank Harding along with several more volumes of stand-alone stories that fill out the supporting characters and introduce new ones. And of course, there’s always the chance that some of these characters will become popular with the reader and then we could spin them off into their series as well. My goal here is to create an expansive, immersive Hard Bargain universe in the way Frank Miller did with Sin City or Mike Mignola with Hellboy. As for TV and film adaptations, that’s all up to how popular the reader makes Hard Bargain!
What advice would you give to writers who are just getting started, whether they’re writing for the screen or the page?
Steven S. DeKnight: Write, write, write! Everyday, even if it’s only for twenty or thirty minutes. And never, ever give up if writing is your passion. It might take years to break in (like it did for me), but if you keep at it, you’ll eventually get your shot. Also, the internet is your friend! It’s a vast resource of comic book, television, and film scripts you can pour over and learn from. Target your favorites from any of these fields and try to find the scripts for them. It’s an invaluable resource that I still utilize to this day.
With the Kickstarter campaign for Hard Bargain running through July 25th, do you have any other projects coming up that you can tease for our readers?
Steven S. DeKnight: I do indeed! First up is an original horror graphic novel called Beneath. The astounding artist Michael Gaydos (co-creator of Marvel’s Alias with Brian Michael Bendis) did the art and colors. Beneath will be released next month digitally from Comixology then as a physical edition by Dark Horse sometime next year. Also next year in television I have the Spartacus spinoff series House of Ashur coming out from Lionsgate and Starz. A little something for everyone from your friends at DeKnight Industries!
Thank you very much for your time, Steven!
Steven S. DeKnight: My pleasure! Thank you so much!
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Press Release: (July 9, 2024) Humanoids, the renowned Franco-American publisher that began in 1970s' Paris and houses the works of creators such as Mœbius, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Juan Giménez, will continue the company’s 50th anniversary celebration with a Kickstarter campaign for HARD BARGAIN, a graphic novel from film and tv powerhouse Steven S. DeKnight (Buffy, Angel, Daredevil) and acclaimed artist Leno Carvalho (Dean Koontz’s Nevermore). The dark supernatural thriller follows a hard-boiled P.I. in 1940s Los Angeles who finds himself fighting not only the usual cadre of criminals and ne’er-do-wells—but also demons, monsters, and other malevolent supernatural beings—as he races to solve a deadly mystery before a horrific fate descends upon everyone it touches.
Steven S. DeKnight got his start in the entertainment industry as a staff writer on the groundbreaking television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer before going on to write, direct, and produce on the series Angel, Smallville, and Dollhouse. He is the creator and showrunner of Spartacus, as well as the executive producer and showrunner of season one of the acclaimed Marvel/Netflix series Daredevil. He’s also written Wastelanders comics for Marvel.
“HARD BARGAIN has been a dream thirty years in the making. An idea that sprang from my love of two-fisted, hard-boiled detective stories and matinee creature-features of days gone by,” said DeKnight. “I’m thrilled to finally have that dream realized via the incredible artwork of Leno Carvalho and the good people at Humanoids.”
Battling the forces of darkness is another day at the office for Frank Harding, P.I.—but his current case may just be the one that puts Frank out of business for good. As he investigates a case deeply connected to his own murky past—as well as L.A.’s all-too-real history of prejudice and discrimination—Harding is forced to reckon with the fact that the sins of one generation will always be paid for by the next… Combining the appeal of classic noir crime storytelling with a well-wrought fantasy world of monsters and magic, HARD BARGAIN pairs DeKnight's crackerjack storytelling with Carvalho's dynamic visuals to build a fast-paced, hard-boiled thriller that simultaneously reckons with the dark underbelly of bigotry, violence and revenge haunting gritty Los Angeles.
"HARD BARGAIN is a new universe of possibilities with new challenges and new rewards,” said Carvalho. “A strong, concise narrative rich in twists and turns that combines the charm of old detective stories with the action-packed thrillers of today."
“It is the great John Cassaday who introduced me to Steven DeKnight, and I owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude,” said Humanoids CEO Fabrice Giger. “The challenge was finding an artist who could match Steven's razor-sharp storytelling and uncanny talent for breathing life into his characters. But the moment I saw the first pages of HARD BARGAIN, crafted by Leno Carvalho and filled with pure adrenaline, I knew we had hit it out of the park. We are so thrilled about this book that we're going all out, offering an exclusive oversized edition as part of our crowdfunding campaign.”
Here’s what folks are saying about HARD BARGAIN…
“Oh man, I’m a sucker for supernatural noir. Tough talking P.I.’s and double crossing dames, along with demons, magic and monsters, both the inhuman and human kind. Steven DeKnight’s HARD BARGAIN, loaded with hairpin turns, crackling dialogue, humor, horror, and tragedy, is one of the best versions I’ve read. James Ellroy meets Stephen King, with a healthy splatter of Sam Raimi.”—Eric Kripke (THE BOYS)
“A sexy, potent dose of supernatural noir, HARD BARGAIN blends the best elements of the PI genre with the world of monsters and demons in a way only Steven S. DeKnight can, impeccably brought to life by artist Leno Carvalho. If you’re a fan of Angel, this is that show’s spiritual successor. Original and hard to put down.”—Alex Segura, bestselling author
of Secret Identity, Alter Ego, and the Pete Fernandez Miami Mysteries
“Lots of action, lots of emotion, all pulled together into a great story. Highly recommended.”—Mark Waid (The Flash, Superman: Birthright, Captain America, Daredevil)
““A stylish, gorgeous-to-look at black magic noir with a heart of gold. It’ll put a spell on you that lasts long after the final page.”—Fred Van Lente (The Comic Book History of Animation)
The Kickstarter campaign will run from July 9 through July 25th and will include both a deluxe edition and a slipcase edition. A deluxe edition of ARKADI AND THE LOST TITAN, the last book successfully funded via Kickstarter by Humanoids by the legendary comic book artist and illustrator Caza, will also be available as part of the campaign's special 50th Anniversary tier.
For more updates, follow Humanoids on X, Facebook and Instagram.
About the creators:
Steven S. DeKnight attended the University of California at Santa Cruz where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Theatre Arts and went on to earn an M.F.A. in playwriting from UCLA. He got his start in the entertainment industry as a staff writer on the groundbreaking television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He then wrote, directed, and produced on the series Angel, Smallville, and Dollhouse before creating and running Spartacus for the premium cable channel Starz. From there he executive produced and showran season one of the acclaimed Marvel/Netflix series Daredevil. He made his feature directorial debut with Pacific Rim: Uprising, the sequel to Guillermo del Toro’s international hit. He is currently in production on the Spartacus spinoff series House of Ashur for Lionsgate and Starz.
Leno Carvalho is a Brazilian comic artist and illustrator best known for his realistic and detailed style. Throughout his career, Carvalho has worked with many publishers on series such as Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen Special at DC Comics, Dean Koontz’s Nevermore and Bionic Woman at Dynamite Comics, The Rift at Red 5 Comics and Crusaders at Soleil, as well as The Source at Scout Comics. When he is not at his desk drawing, he can be found in the kitchen eating or making cakes.
About Humanoids:
HUMANOIDS is a global transmedia company dedicated to bringing to life innovative and elevated contents with stunning visuals. Grounded by a fiercely independent spirit, the company is passionate about creating content that explores the power of art beyond boundaries, while focusing on the imaginative depth of fandom. Headquartered in Los Angeles, CA and led by CEO Fabrice Giger, HUMANOIDS is a major content provider in the expansive entertainment industry, recognized for its multigenre catalog—including science fiction, fantasy, thriller, comedy and adventure. Above all else, creators have always been the heart of HUMANOIDS as it continues to attract leading talents as collaborators and true auteurs of the iconic brand. Starting 2024 Q4, HUMANOIDS will be celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Web: www.humanoids.com
X: @humanoidsinc
Facebook: @humanoidsinc
Instagram: @humanoidsinc
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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