The mind behind Netflix’s Daredevil blends L.A. Confidential with Buffy the Vampire Slayer for a new comic book endeavor within the detective genre: HARD BARGAIN. Steven S. DeKnight served as the showrunner for Daredevil’s first season, while also leaving his footprint on televised classics like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Smallville. In addition, he has worked in comics previously, including for Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight.

Screen Rant is thrilled to announce the Kickstarter campaign to fund Hard Bargain – as well as its BackerFit prelaunch page – for Steven S. DeKnight’s debut graphic novel as an author. Working alongside artist Leno Carvalho, DeKnight brings his decades of industry experience to bear on the story, right down to the story’s backdrop in the preview looking reminiscent to Giles’ Magic Shop from Buffy.

With the Kickstarter for Hard Bargain – which will run from July 8 through July 25 – DeKnight and publisher Humanoids are hoping to replicate the success of other graphic novel projects in the past several years.

“Hard Bargain” Is Coming To Kickstarter From Original Daredevil Showrunner Stephen DeKnight

The TV Veteran’s First Solo Graphic Novel

With the Kickstarter for Hard Bargain, author Stephen S. DeKnight and Humanoids Publishing are set to bring audiences its next fable worth getting invested in, about a private investigator in 1940s era Los Angeles. The supernatural thriller sees the P.I. in question battle criminals and demons alike. The official synopsis reads as follows:

Battling the forces of darkness is another day at the office for Frank Harding, P.I.—but his current case may just be the one that puts Frank out of business for good. As he investigates a case deeply connected to his own murky past—as well as L.A.’s all-too-real history of prejudice and discrimination—Harding is forced to reckon with the fact that the sins of one generation will always be paid for by the next… Combining the appeal of classic noir crime storytelling with a well-wrought fantasy world of monsters and magic, HARD BARGAIN pairs DeKnight’s crackerjack storytelling with Carvalho’s dynamic visuals to build a fast-paced, hard-boiled thriller that simultaneously reckons with the dark underbelly of bigotry, violence and revenge haunting gritty Los Angeles.

More than just a hard-hitting new piece of IP, Hard Bargain is actually something of a passion project for DeKnight, one that he spent years crafting to perfection, which he has finally brought to fruition.

As DeKnight explains in the press release for the Kickstarter Project:

HARD BARGAIN has been a dream thirty years in the making. An idea that sprang from my love of two-fisted, hard-boiled detective stories and matinee creature-features of days gone by. I’m thrilled to finally have that dream realized via the incredible artwork of Leno Carvalho and the good people at Humanoids.

For three decades, all while working on the classic TV shows mentioned before, DeKnight has been meticulously penning a love letter to detective stories and big-screen movie monsters, which has become Hard Bargain. He’s doing so with Leno Carvalho as his penciler to bring his dream to life. Speaking of, Carvalho praised DeKnight’s story, teasing that Hard Bargain could be more than a standalone story, kickstarting a universe containing something much bigger to come.

“Hard Bargain” Is An Epic Crime Story Decades In The Making

Stephen S. DeKnight Builds On His Creative Legacy

As Leno Carvalho stated:

HARD BARGAIN is a new universe of possibilities with new challenges and new rewards. A strong, concise narrative rich in twists and turns that combines the charm of old detective stories with the action-packed thrillers of today.

Anyone familiar with DeKnight’s career can’t help but see similarities to his past work in television. As said earlier, there are some visual callbacks in the preview reminiscent of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, while the supernatural P.I. angle recall’s the spinoff, Angel, which was a detective series at heart. Even the tease for a wider universe echoes the Buffyverse. Daredevil showrunner and TV veteran Stephen S. DeKnight is using his experience in television to craft a captivating, twisty tale of intrigue that should be a must-read.