Creators of The Damned writer Cullen Bunn and artist Brian Hurtt, introduced a prohibition era world much like our own, but for the hordes of demons who ran most criminal endeavors and the humans, who serve them. In this reality, Eddie, cursed to live forever, winds up in the middle of three warring demonic families. (Check out the RevSF review for more details.) RevolutionSF Contributing Editor Rick Klaw sat down with Bunn and Hurt to discuss the series, demons, reality, and the current market for souls on eBay.

How did The Damned come about? Cullen Bunn's comic book experience was almost nonexistent before the first mini-series "Three Days Dead" while Brian Hurtt was a well established artist. Did Oni get you together or did you bring it to them?

Cullen Bunn: What no one realizes is that I’ve been quietly grooming and guiding Brian as my in-road into comics for years. Every success he’s had along the way, he owes to me. And when I was ready to make my debut, the prophet of my arrival was already in place and singing my praises.

Actually, Brian and I have kicked around of doing a comic together since we met. The ideas and timing just weren’t really right for us until a couple of years ago when we dreamed up The Damned.

During the earliest discussions of this book, Brian gave me a call and said, “I’d like to work on something dark." So I threw out an idea about psychics and serial killers, and he said, “Not that dark!"

Then he ran the idea for the Eddie character by me. I had heard Brian’s idea for the character before, but this time something just clicked, and the rest of the story elements, the demonic crime families, the notion of using the rackets for soul-trafficking, the use of curses as punishment—just seemed to fall into place.

Brian Hurtt: Cullen and I have known each other for going on fifteen years. We both worked at a comic shop together and hit it off immediately. I’ve always drawn and Cullen has always been a writer so we knew it was a matter of time before we worked together.

We’ve always bounced ideas back and forth and somewhere along the way this project snowballed into what it is. I really can’t remember any moment of genesis. The Eddie character was one that had been in the back of my mind for about as long as I’ve known Cullen. His basic “curse" was there but he has at times been a big burly government agent, a detective, the son of a gypsy and a demon, etc. At some point along the road I introduced the idea of this guy to Cullen and it just went from there.

Why did you choose the prohibition era for the setting?

BH: We love the Chicago gangland type of mob story. The Al Capone era. Eliot Ness. Rum running. Tommy guns. The Valentine’s Day Massacre. We also wanted to operate in that era right before the start of the Great Depression. From my point of view it was really nothing more than the aesthetics of the time. I love period pieces of all sorts and doing a period piece gives the creators a bigger opportunity at world building and world building is one of the biggest joys I get from working in comics.

CB: Brian and I have always been drawn to period pieces. For me, exploring different times adds another layer of excitement and intrigue to the story. One of the earlier ideas we were trying to cook up was a Victorian era horror/mystery that I’d one day love to revisit. But the prohibition era seemed like a natural fit from the very early stages of planning The Damned. I love noir mysteries, Lovecraftian horror, and pulp thrill rides, all of which are perfect matches for the time period.

Will real historical characters such as Al Capone and Elliot Ness appear in The Damned? How much of our “real" history intersects?

CB: The Damned takes place in a world not unlike ours, but it isn’t the real world. For that reasons, real historical figures will not play a major role in the tale. However, there may be some characters who appear who are loosely inspired by real people.

BH: The original pitch for the first mini-series was much more ambitious in its size and in that pitch there was a character that was analogous to Eliot Ness. In order to make the first series more focused and to better pace it the B story containing that character was cut. That doesn’t mean we might not put him back in at a later date.

Was there a film or real life gangster inspiration for Eddie?

CB: Eddie is an amalgam of characters, but no one inspired his personality as much as Humphrey Bogart, especially in movies like The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep. I wanted Eddie to be a real wise guy (pardon the pun) with a sharp tongue and quick wit, the kind of guy who “whistles past the graveyard" because everything around him is going to Hell.

Before I started writing the script, I watched a lot of gangster and private eye flicks, just to get a strong feel for the dialogue and the rhythm of the language.

Theoretically, Eddie is immortal. Will this subject be touched on in the future? And speaking of the future, are there plans to move the series beyond the Prohibition era?

BH: Over the course of the series we will eventually deal with Eddie’s mortality issues. That’s all I can say.

Although we don’t spell it out in the book, the series takes place around 1928-1929. It’s towards the end of the Prohibition era but before the Great Depression. Cullen and I have not discussed ever moving it forward beyond that era. We definitely move backward in time quite a bit but the main story, over the course of the entire series, probably takes place within a two year span.

CB: I think we could play around in this world for a long time, but for now, Brian and I have a plan for the main story, and it doesn’t really extend into the future. One of the things I like most about this book is that we have a definite ending in mind.

In the second series "Prodigal Sons", more of Eddie's family and past are revealed. Are there plans to explore other characters' pasts?

BH: Absolutely. Over the course of the series we plan to go further into Eddie’s past as well as that of his immediate family. We’ll learn more about their history with Sophie and Worm (from the first series) and we’ve talked about doing a specific story about Tony as well (Big Al’s right hand man from fist series). The most immediate person we’ll learn more about is Bruno Roarke’s daughter Maura. That’ll be in the next arc “Daughter’s Danse".

CB: Being able to explore all of these characters is one of the things that excites me most about this book. We’ve got a lot of surprises in store. I’m very excited to delve into Maura Roarke’s story, but the tale I’m just chomping at the bit to get into is the story of Eddie, Sophie, Morgan, and the Worm before they were cursed.

The series is littered with demons of all stripes. Are there other supernatural entities in this universe? Where are the angels? Will they begin to play a role in the doings of the mortal plane?

BH: In a flashback in the first series we have one panel where the demons refer to “The Host". These are essentially angels and we even show these lights in the sky that represent them. But our original intent with this series was to play more with the idea of doing a monster movie and to downplay the supernatural aspects. There’ve been enough stories revolving around the Judeo-Christian myths (see: Vertigo comics) that we don’t find a whole lot to say. I can’t say never to the idea of angels showing up but I can say it’s never even been discussed. If there comes a time where it makes sense to the story…

CB: We’ve been trying to stay pretty grounded at this point, and we don’t want to add too many different types of creatures. The wide range of cursed characters, like the Worm, allows us to flex a little bit, though. As Brian mentioned, the angels appear (albeit shrouded in mist) briefly in the first series, but for now we want to focus on the demons.

You mention a finite storyline. How many mini-series are planned? Will all the storylines center around Eddie or will their be stories starring some of the other characters as well?

CB: I’m not sure, exactly, how the story we have in mind will break down into mini-series. Right now, the story is planned out in broad strokes, and it’s hard to say how many issues each arc will be until I put my mind to outlining them. I believe we figured there would be somewhere around 50 issues (give or take) total.

Eddie will play an important role throughout the series, but he’ll not always be the center of attention. Morgan is really the star of “Prodigal Sons," although I’m sure opinions will vary on that, and another character steps into the spotlight in “Daughter’s Danse." We have some other characters we’d like to focus on, too, but Eddie will always be around.

BH: At least 50 issues if we ultimately have our way. I’ve always imagined it along the lines of the X-Files model. There is an over-arcing narrative to the whole series and the mini-series that focus on that could be viewed as the “mythology" stories. And then there are other stories that, while they add to the characters and deepen the world, are mainly just good ripping yarns that we want to tell.

We definitely have ideas about some of the supporting cast and stories in which they will take the lead. In future stories the readers will learn a lot more about characters like Bruno and Maura Roarke, Big Al, Tony, as well as some characters who haven’t even been introduced…and some who’ve lingered in the shadows a bit. How’s that for cryptic?

Has The Damned option (by Dreamworks) affected the way you approach the comic? Do you find yourself attempting to broaden the potential popular appeal of the series toward a more mainstream audience?

BH: The great thing about the book already being optioned is that we’re free to do whatever we want with it. The only audience we have to think about are the ones we can convince to read the book. The studio has already bought in and they are free to do whatever kind of story they want. It doesn’t affect us in the least.

The funny thing about the movie option is how little we think about it. It would be a wonderful thing to see happen but I don’t want to get my hopes too high with the fear of getting my heart broken. I just want to concentrate on making the kind of comic that I’d want to read.

CB: The movie option won’t change the story we have in mind already. One of the things I’m really interested in seeing is how the folks at Dreamworks interpret the story, but I’m going to keep writing towards what we already had in mind.

Who do you imagine playing Eddie in the film? Who would be your ideal choice to direct the picture?

CB: I don’t even like to speculate, because I get too excited by the prospects. I will say that when I dream, I dream big when it comes to the movie.

BH: I totally agree with Cullen on this. I don’t want to count my chicks before they’ve hatched here. I have full faith in the studio at this point and I’m sure I will be happy with whoever they go with.

It's been said the in order to get anything published, you must sell your soul. How much of Eddie comes from your personal and professional life experiences?

BH: The process of doing this comic has been entirely painless. We have a great relationship with Oni (I’d done several projects with them prior to this) and when they said yes to the pitch they more or less cut us loose on the book. Their input has been minimal and always put forth as questions rather than edicts. The Oni philosophy has always been to hire the creators they like and trust and then let them do what they do. It’s a great way to work.

Eddie is a bitter, tired, and pessimistic soul. He’s entirely based on Cullen.

CB: I tried to sell Brian’s soul on eBay, but the highest bidder failed to pay. I didn’t get a single bite on it when posted to Craigslist, either. I finally gave his soul away on Freecycle so it wouldn’t clutter my garage.

Working on The Damned seems a bit surreal, because it has been so easy, and I’m grateful every day for the experience. Brian and Oni Press are great to work with. My only fear is that I’ve been spoiled by how well this has gone. I can only hope that all the other projects I work on will be as rewarding.

Do y'all have any non-The Damned cooperative projects in the works?

CB: I’d work with Brian any time I get the chance. We’ve got a couple of specific collaborative projects in the early stages of development, but I think it’s probably too soon to talk about them.

BH: Too soon! Whatever other projects come up along the way I’ve always viewed The Damned as a world we would continue to return to. I think any future projects I would work on would be much shorter and finite.

Come clean. You picked the title The Damned so you could be referred to as the creators from The Damned (or if you prefer, of The Damned). I mean, how cool sounding is that?

CB: You’ve figured us out!

BH: It’s almost impossible to do a headline without using that title, isn’t it? You caught us.