Wicked Horror interviews Steve Niles, author of the new collection Cal McDonald: Plague of Evil and Other Stories!
Steve Niles of 30 Days of Night Fame is also known for his iconic paranormal detective Cal McDonald, whose hard boiled adventures have been captivating fans since his first appearance in the 1990 story “Big Head.” A new collection, Cal McDonald: Plague of Evil and Other Stories brings a fresh set of Cal’s monster hunting adventures together in one volume. Get ready to turn pages as he face vampires, werewolves, ghouls, demons, mutants, maniacs and many other things that go bump in the night!
Featuring a foreword by acclaimed actor and horror creator David Dastmalchian (Late Night With the Devil), the collection offers a painted cover by master illustrator Joe Jusko. It’s published by Clover Press’s The Fourth Leaf, a new imprint creator-owned comics, books and graphic novels.
Fans can support the project on Kickstarter now.
This 216-page hardcover will collect ten brand-new Cal McDonald stories, each with an illustration by a different beloved comic artist.
In addition to the illustrated hardcover book, the Kickstarter campaign for Cal McDonald will also include prints, lithographs, stickers, buttons, and a slipcase upgrade.
Wicked horror posed a few questions to Steve recently about creating Cal, writing hard boiled fiction and imagining monsters.
WH: Cal McDonald fits into sort of a grand tradition of blending noir, horror and monsters. He’s a hard boiled detective whose cases take him far beyond mean streets and into the horror realm. Were there favorite authors and characters on the detective or the occult detective front that influenced you in his creation?
SN: It all goes back to Carl Kolchak for me, the Night Stalker. He was my introduction to monster hunters. And the funny part is he wasn’t really a monster hunter. He was a reporter doing a job and got caught up in the supernatural. I think that was a huge influence on the creation of Cal. He’s a detective but he doesn’t look for trouble. It comes at him.
WH: In the foreword, David Dastmalchian notes Cal’s adventures can take him into grim places, but there’s always a ray of hope. Do you contemplate thematics at the outset of a story or do themes and tone emerge in the writing?
SN: Honestly, they emerge as I write. The stories sort of lead me, Cal leads me. There are some very sad elements to Cal. He’s a hopeless addict and isn’t even close to wanting to change. But he deals with serious horror all the time that he needs to escape. That is Cal’s dilemma.
“Cal McDonald crawls back from every thirteenth round of battle with so much brokenness and blood loss that it’s almost impossible to believe he’s going to peel himself off the floor for another battle. And yet the Cal McDonald that Steve Niles has manifested does just that. He keeps stepping in the ring. He wipes the chunks of flesh and blood from his shirt, his shoes, his dashboard, and he stumbles back into the fray.” — David Dastmalchian on Cal McDonald
WH: Readers certainly love loner detectives in both the mystery, fantasy and horror genres. Do you have thoughts on the appeal of the characters in the Philip Marlowe mold, the “down these mean streets a man must go” figure?
SN: I love Raymond Chandler. I’m not ashamed to say I was trying to mimic Chandler when I first wrote Cal but it just wasn’t working. It seemed old fashioned so I added drugs and monsters and the whole thing just came to life.
WH: Cal in fact battles an array of monsters in the short stories. Do you have a favorite monster or archetype i.e. shapeshifter?
SN: I really like making up new monsters, though I still write about vampires and werewolves. They are a constant problem in Cal’s life but my favorite stories are the ones with brand new monsters I’ve invented.
WH: You’re known for work in graphic novels, a visual world. While Cal’s world is created in prose, the cover for the new collection is really striking as are the internal illustrations. What was your reaction when you got your first look at those?
SN: I could not have been happier. Everybody came through. And don’t get me started on Joe Jusko’s cover. I love it. It’s perfect.
WH: Speaking of prose, what went into shaping Cal’s narrative voice? Did you work a while to hone his verbiage and his sense of his surroundings as well?
SN: I initially started trying to mimic hard boiled writers but I added the monsters and my own touches, like drug abuse and modern settings, and his voice came together. Falling into Cal’s voice is one of my favorite things to do.