It’s 2017, and though a lot of Mike Mignola’s books wrapped up in 2016, there’s still much more to come this year. This week Mignolaversity is talking to various creators about what’s ahead. Today we’re talking to Thomas Sniegoski, cowriter of “Grim Death and Bill the Electrocuted Criminal,” a new illustrated prose novel from St. Martin’s Press.

Earlier today Mike Romeo spoke Mike Mignola on Robots From Tomorrow about many things including “Grim Death.” Check it out.

Mike Mignola described the inspiration for “Grim Death and Bill the Electrocuted Criminal” with a rather curious image: a deadly serious character with a skull for a face soliloquizing about something grim, and we pull back and see he’s just practicing in front of the mirror without any pants on, just underwear and socks. So how did this idea go from that to the final book?

Thomas Sniegoski: That still makes me laugh. Mike emailed me and said he had an idea for something and thought that I’d be the right guy to do something with it. I gave him a call and he told me this vision he had of the skull faced guy in his underwear. HAHAHA! Then he said, ‘What could you do with that?’ This just made me laugh all the harder. At that point we just kinda talked, and batted ideas around. We knew that we wanted to be pulpy, but with a little bit more of a horror edge. Finally I told Mike that I’d go away for a bit and try to work up a basic concept as to what “Grim Death” would be. Took me a few weeks but I wrote up something, sent it over to Mike and again we got on the phone. He told me what he liked, and what he didn’t and what surprised him about the story. He was surprised that it was as serious as it was… but it still had these weird, comedic elements. Once we were both satisfied with the idea of what the book would be, Mike gave me his blessing, and I went off to try and find it a home. St. Martin’s Press liked it, bought it, and the rest is history.

You’ve worked with Mike Mignola before. In fact, you co-wrote “B.P.R.D.: Hollow Earth” with him and Christopher Golden, and you also wrote the prose novel “Lobster Johnson: The Satan Factory.” I’ve been told your love of Lobster Johnson is what made you the right person to write “Grim Death.” What is it about this story that drew you to writing it?

Tom: Mike and I are HUGE fans of that amazing pulp sensibility. Doc Savage, The Spider, The Shadow; I can’t get enough of this stuff. I remember visiting Mike at his home and he showed me this bookcase filled with all the old pulp reprints from the sixties and seventies. I knew there was a reason I liked him. Having the chance to write something in that same, amazing vein is more fun than you could imagine.

Could you tell our readers a little about the two leads, Bentley Hawthorne and his manservant Pym?

Tom: Bentley Hawthorne does not come across as your typical hero. He’s this pale, sickly guy that has been ill for most of his life, not your heroic figure at all. It’s what his parents have done in order to keep him from succumbing to his illness that sets the mold for what Bentley is to become . . . an avatar of Death itself. Pym is the Hawthorne family’s faithful butler, and eventually Bentley’s manservant. Pym has kind of taken it upon himself to keep an eye on Bentley. He’s always looked after the boy, especially when he was sick, but now he fears that another illness might be taking over. Mental illness. He’s not too wild about Bentley’s dangerous, masked activities.

I particularly like the voices of the characters in “Grim Death.” The banter between Bentley and Pym leaves a lot unsaid and yet still understood between the two. Bentley’s casual recklessness with himself though is clearly a source of friction between the two.

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Tom: Most definitely. Remember, Pym has been looking out for this sickly little boy his entire life. There’s this strange father and son type thing going on between the two characters. I loved writing their banter back and forth.

I can imagine it was a challenge to get the tone right though. After all, the story began with an idea that was essentially a gag, and yet as the story developed, we have a story about a sickly man undergoing a transformative experience, being compelled to do things beyond his own desires, and the butler has raised him from a child and developed a fierce loyalty. Whatever else is going on in the story, these core elements are real, and wander into dark territory.

Yet it isn’t a bleak book. When Bentley gets hurt, his first thought isn’t, ‘Oh, I should probably go to a hospital,’ it’s ‘Oh, dash it all! Another perfectly good suit ruined!’ I think there’s a lot of fun walking the line between those two worlds.

Tom: That was one of the things that Mike kept stressing when we were first talking about that book, that it should have this weird sense of humor. It was tough maintaining the balance. I didn’t want it to be totally outrageous, or campy… and I didn’t want it to be totally dark and grim. Hopefully I pulled off the tone we were looking for.

From what I’ve read, you did.

What has your process with Mike Mignola been like on this book?

Tom: The most complicated part of the process was at the very beginning when we were attempting to nail down the kind of story this would be. After that was decided, Mike just sort of stepped back and let me do my crazy thing. When the first few drafts were done I then shipped it over to Mike, who then gave me his two cents, and I tweaked the book accordingly. After that, Mike then went into the book, found his favorite things, and proceeded to do some pretty amazing interior illustrations. All in all the process was painless and incredibly fun. I think the book came out amazing.

It did indeed. I look forward to reading it in full when it comes out next month.

“Grim Death and Bill the Electrocuted Criminal” comes out in bookstores February 28.