Created by Steve Niles & Salvatore Simeone
Steve Niles‘ comic book private eye hero Cal McDonald has been hunting down, palling around and mostly knocking off monsters for years, so it seems only natural that eventually he’d create a monster P.I.
Which is exactly what STU MANNING is, in Lonesome Days, Savage Nights, a 2020 graphic novel from Niles and Salvatore Simeone, with art by Szymon Kudranski.
Once upon a time, Stu was just a regular joe with a dream–all he really wanted was to be a cop, and to serve and protect the city he loved But on his very first night as a bonafide beat cop, he was attacked by… something.
And it changed him.
Now he’s a disgraced ex-cop, a bottom feeder private eye, working the cheating spouse beat, photographing cheaters caught in the act and trying (but mostly failing) to come to terms with what he’s become–a scuzzy, hoodie-wearing peeper hanging around sleazy motels, who can only partially control his abrupt transformation into an oversized, powerful, snarling, Wolfman-like creature.
So far, Stu’s kept his alter ego (mostly_ in check, but when the city he loved destroys his only friend, all bets are off.
Like the blurb says, “a supernatural hardboiled crime thriller for the 21st century.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Steve Niles worked in comics (Spawn, Hellspawn, etc.) and film (Spawn 2), and even ran his own publishing company, where he edited and co-published several anthologies and adapted works by Clive Barker and Richard Matheson before hitting it big in comics with  his own stories, and is one of those credited for bringing horror comics back to prominence. His comic work includes his long-running private eye/monster hunter Cal McDonald, and the classic mini-series 30 Days of Night, about a band of vampires descending on an unsuspecting Alaskan town, which Wizard dubbed the “#1 Breakout Event of 2002.” Other comic work includes Simon Dark, Mystery Society, The October Faction, Aleister Arkane and Batman: Gotham County Line. He was born in Jackson, New Jersey and raised in the Washington, D.C. suburbs, but he currently lives (I think) just outside of Los Angeles, just down the road. Of particular interest for fans of this site is Crime & Terror, a series anthology combining Niles’ two favourite genres: crime and terror (Well, duh!), and such one-shot eyes, such as Joe Coogan and Paul DeSanto.
UNDER OATH
- “Niles is one of the masters of modern horror comics.”
— Paste Magazine
GRAPHIC NOVELS
- LONESOME DAYS, SAVAGE NIGHTSÂ |Â Buy the comic | Kindle/ComiXology it!
(2020, TKO Studios)
Written by Steve Niles & Salvatore Simeone
Art by Szymon Kudranski
