Steven S. DeKnight, whose credentials include writing for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, is coming out with his own comic Hard Bargain, with art from Leno Carvalho. Hard Bargain, which follows Frank Harding, P.I. and mixes noir with monsters, has been described by DeKnight as a dream thirty years in the making. DeKnight spoke to Cemetery Dance about his influences, how the dream came to fruition, and how writing comics compares to writing for TV.
(Interview conducted by Danica Davidson)
CEMETERY DANCE: You said Hard Bargain has been a dream thirty years in the making. How did that dream start, and what has been the journey up to this point?
STEVEN S. DEKNIGHT: I’ve loved the private detective noir genre ever since I caught Murder, My Sweet on TV back in the ’70s. It’s a rollercoaster ride filled with crackling dialogue, femme fatales, and lumbering, gun-toting gunsels in snazzy hats. I later discovered Murder, My Sweet was an adaptation of the Raymond Chandler novel Farewell, My Lovely, and I quickly devoured every short story and novel he ever wrote.
Flash forward to the mid-’90s when I was trying to break into the entertainment business as a feature writer. I was kicking around the idea of a period noir detective script in the style of Chandler but with a supernatural element to it. That concept turned out to be a bit too expensive at the time for a feature, so I started kicking around the idea of turning it into a comic. Then I suddenly got lucky and fell into working in television on shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Smallville, etc., and had to put Hard Bargain aside.
Then about a decade ago I dusted it off, wrote the first two chapters, and shopped it around to various comic book companies. In classic fashion, no one wanted it. So back in the old idea drawer it went until John Cassiday, the amazing artist on Planetary and Astonishing X-Men –– who I had met while on Buffy –– wanted to talk about possibly doing something together. He read those first two chapters and really liked them, but then we both got busy, and it died again.
About five years later, John rings me up and tells me he’s working with Humanoids to bring in creators and could he pass along Hard Bargain. He did, they loved it, and here we are!
How did your love of hard-boiled detective stories and matinee creature-features influence this comic?
Raymond Chandler’s hardboiled private detective short stories and novels are a huge influence permeating every single panel of Hard Bargain, particularly regarding the dialogue and narration. While Chandler is well known for his intricately plotted mysteries, it’s his dialogue and narration that really makes his work soar. Razor sharp, humorous without being jokey, and so damn entertaining. I really wanted to infuse Hard Bargain with that kind of spirit.
On the creature feature side, I had always loved the 1957 British film Night of the Demon (released in the U.S. as Curse of the Demon). Based on the 1911 M.R. James short story “Casting the Runes,” the movie revolves around an American psychiatrist investigating a series of deaths that lead to a satanic cult. The image of the titular demon materializing on the train tracks at the climax to mete out justice to the villain at the end of the movie was seared into my impressionable eight-year-old year brain when I first caught it on TV. While there’s no direct parallel in Hard Bargain, I wanted the feel of that moment that left so indelible a mark on me in my youth to drip off each page.
Your background includes working on TV, film and comics. How is writing a comic comparable and different to writing for these other mediums?
I generally adhere to a classic three-act structure when plotting out a story regardless of whether I’m working in comics, television, or film. The biggest difference in comics is the element of math. You have to be very careful in laying out how many panels you place on each page. You don’t want to have too many because that will crowd the artist and not give them the space they need to do their best work. You also have to calculate where the page turns are for your big reveals, so they’re not spoiled as the reader goes along. And finally, you have to take into account the exact number of pages you’re given to work with, which is generally 20 or 22. Thankfully the good people at Humanoids gave me 28 pages per chapter to work with, so I had the extra elbow room to really flesh the story out.
How did you and Leno Carvalho work together on this project?
Hard Bargain wouldn’t exist without the amazing artistry of Leno Carvahlo. I admittedly tortured my friends at Humanoids for nearly a year over finding just the right talent to bring this story to life. They sent me what must have been a dozen fantastic artists to consider, and they were all just incredible. But I was looking for something very, very specific for Hard Bargain. Kind of a mashup of 1940s pulp noir and the gloriously unhinged horror of the old EC Comics. When they presented Leno’s work, I knew instantly he was the perfect artist for the job. And man was I ever right! His art combined with Bruno Hang’s sumptuous colors really brought what was in my head to vivid life. And a special shoutout to Troy Peteri and his beautiful lettering, which really puts a bow on the whole affair!
Where can people find out more about you and your work?
I’m currently active on Twitter (I refused to call it X because come on now!). You can find me there under @stevendeknight. I usually post about what I’m up to along with other mad, spicy ramblings!
