This October, Vault will release Godfather of Hell, a neo-noir/supernatural hybrid tale about a mob enforcer attempting to control Hell itself. Written by New York Times Bestseller Cavan Scott (Star Wars: The High Republic, Shadow Service) and illustrated by Bram Stoker Award-winning artist Pius Bak (Eat the Rich, The Magicians), the series will also feature art from Nathan Gooden (Barbaric), Joshua Hixson (Deviant), Chris Shehan (House of Slaughter), Jake Phillips (Destroy All Monsters), Corin Howell (Lilith), and Conor Boyle (Judge Dredd).
The Beat chatted with Scott about the new comic.
Deanna Destito: Where did you get the inspiration for this story?
Cavan Scott: I’d been chatting with Vault Editor-in-Chief Adrian Wassel about the possibility of writing a possession book at Vault, but every idea felt like concepts we’d already seen a hundred times before. Then I started wondering: what would a possession story look like told from the POV of the demon? That was the starting point, as I wondered who that demon could be and why they would be returning to Earth. To escape Hell? To work for Hell? Suddenly everything fell into place. The “demon” would be a former mob enforcer, Dario, who has found himself in Hell after a life of… questionable choices. But for Dario Hell would be a job opportunity. After all, with all those people selling their souls to Satan, the Devil would need a debt collector, right?
Destito: This story is a bit of a genre blend. Do you like playing with that when you write?
Scott: I’m of the opinion that every genre is always improved by adding monsters or ghosts or vampires or demons. A lot of my past work has been founded on that principle. Shadow Service (co-created with Corin Howell and also published by Vault) is a spy thriller with witches and ghouls, The Ward (co-created by Andres Ponce and published by Dark Horse) is an ER-style medical drama set at a modern-day hospital for mythical creatures, and Dead Seas (co-created with Nick Brokenshire and published by IDW) is a disaster movie set on a sinking ship… with ghosts. I love taking the tropes of a particular genre and seeing what happens if you slip the supernatural in there. Godfather of Hell is Drive meets Constantine, what Goodfellas may have looked like if the mob bosses were Princes of Hell.
Destito: How do you approach a story such as this with your artist?
Scott: As with all comics, the script is just the springboard. You lay out the characters, how they’re feeling and why they’re doing what they’re doing, and then you hand that vision onto the artist to see what they bring to it. I am exceptionally lucky to have Pius Bak on this project. He just got Godfather of Hell from the moment I chatted to him about the mood and feel of the project. And boy oh boy, does Pius understand character. Like all great collaborators, he immediately came back with “what about this and this and this…”
Destito: How was it working with this creative team?
Scott: An absolute joy. One of the things I knew from the start was that the mortal world would be muted and noir but Hell would be awash with neon and colorist Raúl Angulo has absolutely run with it. These issues look stunning, making Pius’ genuinely disturbing demons pop on the page.
Destito: For readers who may be unsure if a genre story like this is for them, what can you say to get them to read it?
Scott: Okay, there’s gangster crime. There’s humor. There’s zinging dialogue and double-crossing galore. But there’s also a romance at the heart of this, a pair of star-crossed lovers in the form of Dario and Elena, daughter of Dario’s former mob boss who has risked everything to escape her father. Once they were separated by the machinations of Elena’s criminal dad, now they’re separated by Dario’s death… but when you’re willing to move hell and Earth to be together anything is possible.
Destito: Any teasers you can share?
Scott: You don’t want to miss Jaakobah, a mischievous little imp who becomes Dario’s right-hand devil while working for Hell. Jaako has a Tex Avery energy to him. He’s a chaotic wise-talking, cynical Bat-Mite type if Bat-Mite grabbed popcorn and soda every time someone is tortured in the fiery pits of damnation. And he’s just so adorable… until he smiles.
Check out a preview of Godfather of Hell below!