This October, Vault will release Godfather of Hell, a neo-noir/supernatural hybrid tale about a gangster enforcer seeking to rule Hell itself. Written by New York Times bestselling author Cavan Scott (Star Wars: The High Republic, Shadow Service) and illustrated by Bram Stoker Award-winning artist Pius Buck (Eat the Rich, The Magicians), the series also features art from Nathan Gooden (Barbaric), Joshua Hickson (Deviant), Chris Sheehan (House of Slaughter), Jake Phillips (Destroy All Monsters), Colin Howell (Lilith), and Connor Boyle (Judge Dredd).
The Beat spoke with Scott about the new comic.
Diana Destito: Where did you get your inspiration for this story?
Cavan Scott: I had been talking with Adrian Wassell, editor-in-chief of Vault, about potentially writing a book about possession at Vault, but every idea felt like a concept we’d already seen a hundred times. So I started thinking about what a possession story told from the devil’s point of view would look like. That was the starting point. I wondered who that devil might be and why he’d come back to Earth. To escape Hell? To work for Hell? Suddenly, it all fell into place. The “devil” was Dario, a former gang cop who ended up in Hell after making some… questionable choices in life. But to Dario, Hell was a job opportunity. After all, with so many people selling their souls to Satan, the devil must need a debt collector, right?
Destito: This story is a bit of a mix of genres. Do you like to incorporate those elements when you write?
Scott: I believe that any genre is made better by adding monsters, ghosts, vampires, and demons. A lot of my past work is based on this principle: Shadow Service (with Colin Howell, Vault) is a spy thriller with witches and demons; The Ward (with Andres Ponce, Dark Horse) is an ER-style medical drama set in a modern-day hospital for fictional creatures; Dead Seas (with Nick Brokenshire, IDW) is a disaster movie set on a sunken ship, complete with ghosts. I love taking tropes of certain genres and seeing what happens when you sneak the supernatural into them. Godfather of Hell was like Drive meets Constantine, and Goodfellas might have been like if the mob boss was the Prince of Hell.
Destito: How do you approach a story like this with an artist?
Scott: As with all comics, the script is just the starting point. You paint the characters, how they feel, why they do what they do, and then you hand that vision over to the artists to see how they contribute to it. We were very fortunate to have Pius Buck on board for this project. From the moment I spoke with him about the feel and tone of the project, he immediately understood The Godfather of Hell. And Pius really understands the characters. Like all great collaborators, he was quick to respond with, “What about this and this and this…”
Destito: What was it like working with this creative team?
Scott: It was a lot of fun! One thing we knew from the beginning was that the mortal world was going to be somber and dark, but Hell was going to be full of neon. Our colorist, Raúl Angulo, really nailed that. These issues are stunningly beautiful, with Pius’ truly creepy demons really popping off the page.
Destito: What would you say to readers who aren’t sure if this genre of story is for them to give this book a read?
Scott: Yes, there’s gang crime. Yes, there’s humor. Yes, there’s hard-hitting dialogue and betrayal. But at its heart, there’s also romance. It’s the love story of two lovers torn apart by fate: Dario and Elena. Elena is the daughter of Dario’s former mob boss, and they’ve risked everything to escape their father. First torn apart by the schemes of Elena’s criminal father, now torn apart by Dario’s death… but if they’re willing to move hell and earth to be together, anything is possible.
Destito: Can you share any teasers?
Scott: You won’t want to miss Jacoba, the mischievous little devil who becomes Dario’s right-hand man while working in Hell. Jacoba has the energy of Tex Avery. He’s a chaotic, wise-talking, sarcastic Bat-Mite type, if Bat-Mite grabbed popcorn and a soda every time someone was tortured in the fiery pits of Hell. And he’s super lovable… until you laugh.
Check out a preview of Godfather of Hell below!
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