- Knuckle Supper: Drew Stepek - © Drew Stepek,2010
Reinvention, reboot, rehash, re imagine - any number of the family of ‘re’ is evoked whenever a time-honored icon is again trundled out and subjected to print or screen. But in Knuckle Supper’s case none of the above really fully describe author Drew Stepek’s audacious decision to set up yet another vampire stall, within what is already a bustling and saturated marketplace.
Here he doesn’t reinvent he dismembers, diligently scraping clean vampire literatures pretty carcass before re-stuffing it with his own street gleaned recipe. So let us now poke and prod the author. Who knows we may even be able to divulge that secret captivating ingredient to this, his most heady of brews to date.
Okay Drew, let’s get rolling with an unnecessarily convoluted question. If Knuckle Supper were not a novel but was instead a film, how would the flip side of the DVD cover describe its contents?
I’d like to think of it more along the lines of a CD cover (do those exist anymore?). The book, the characters and each gang, are inspired by different music styles. If we were actually dealing with a compilation CD, I figure that each gang and character would have their own theme song or genre. So, here is a layout of how I hear these characters.
Please note: RJ is quite vocal about 7 Seconds being his favorite band… which I suppose is somewhat ironic since they are (for all intents and purposes) a straight edge band. In the case of Dez, he is a little more difficult to come up with a theme song for since he is an emo kid but I couldn’t see someone like that listening to something as pop as MCR or 30 Seconds to Mars. I think Bert McCracken and the Used would really speak to him. He is disenfranchised in every sense of the word so the voices that speak to him aren’t fake.
- RJ: “The Crew” – 7 Seconds
- Dez: “Take it Away” – The Used
- Bait: “Miss Murder” – AFI
- Eldritch: “Farewell” – Xymox
- King Cobra: “Mystic Man” – Peter Tosh
- Copperhead: “Press Trigger” – Mad Cobra
- Linnwood Perry: “Gangsters” – The Specials
- The Habit: “City of Angels” – The Distillers
- Nomi: “After the Fall” – Klaus Nomi
- El Reinado De Sange – “Raining Blood” – Slayer
- Skinland Invasion – Screwdriver (I don’t know any songs by Screwdriver because I don’t listen to white supremacist music)
After the release, I’m going to start posting podcasts for each character or gang and their music at KnuckleSupper.com to really add a soundtrack to the book.
‘Cool it Sanchez, or you’ll get a knuckle supper’. Is it really true that you had not even a shred of Knuckle Supper’s plot-line until you heard muttered these mild mannered words?
No lie at all. I was watching the very first episode of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace when it was being re-run in the states on Adult Swim in December of 2007. I had never seen the show and I was blown away. At one point in the show, Richard Ayoade said “Cool it Sanchez, or you’ll get a knuckle supper” and it just hit me like a Mack Truck and the light bulb turned on. I grabbed a composition book and a pen and immediately wrote the opening “pimpdown.”
That is such an amazing show. I reluctantly wish they’d remake it for American audiences but I don’t think it would hit… it’s WAY too out there. It’s so hilarious that Matthew Holness’ character is this totally budget horror author who believes he is at the level of a King or Barker. The thing I love the most is that his most famous books (these are fictional fiction titles, by the way) are Slicer, Slasher, R.I.P.P.E.R. and Slice IV: The Blade is Back.
I’m laughing now while I’m writing this and those of you who have read Knuckle Supper know that there is a sequel in the works called Knuckle Ball… not a coincidence, simply a subtle homage. If Knuckle Supper weren’t such a serious book, I’d definitely take it all a step further and call the fourth book Knuckle IV: One Last Fix. If you haven’t seen the show… buy the DVD immediately.
Your book is populated by some of the most aggressive, sadistic and sickeningly unlikable characters I have ever read, and that’s just the church folk. Did you ever worry that your readers wouldn’t be able to see past the violence and into the characters beneath it?
I’m glad people are taking the time to get over that first shocking hump. It really doesn’t take long to see that these characters (although horrible beings) have much more to them than the basics we are presented with in the first chapter. I suppose that’s why I wanted to introduce Bait so early in the narrative, because she is the character that an audience can actually look to for comic relief and a smile (and maybe a cry).
Some of the reviewers have come back to me and said that they only review books with substance, (as opposed to non-stop graphic violence and gore). To them, all I can really say is that this is a book about gangs and addicts. I know that there is a lot of substance and depth in there and just because I have chosen not to point to it and say, “there it is,” doesn’t mean the book is a one-trick gorefest just to gross people out.
Sure, it isn’t a love story. Period. I think the world’s readers have had about enough of that; especially in horror. When the hell did “horror” have these wimpy rules? On the other hand, KS isn’t torture porn either. There are some pretty deep questions raised about the price of humanity and being born into your environment. I have to admit though, I go above and beyond bringing the reader the typical anti-hero. One reviewer even referred to RJ as “a complete dick.” I like that about him and even though he does have his soft side… he’s still a druggie and a killer.
Read on to part two of the interview and dig deeper into this alternate universe, one in which tangy fresh blood is the new drug of choice and life at street level is given an entirely new blanket of filth.
Knuckle Supper: An Interview with author Drew Stepek, Part Two
Hari Navarro - Hari Navarro is Topic Editor for Suite 101's Horror Film section and Editor/ Writer at online horror review site, The Hell Street ...
