A Startling, Borderland Horror Story Available Digitally August 6, 2024
Filmmaker Steven S. DeKnight is best known as the creator and head writer of the Starz series Spartacus and as the showrunner of Netflix’s Daredevil series. Having written comics for Marvel Comics, including Conan and Wastelanders: Wolverine, DeKnight is primed to make his creator-owned comics debut with the original graphic novel BENEATH, which features hauntingly terrifying art by acclaimed Alias artist and Jessica Jones co-creator Michael Gaydos. With BENEATH, DeKnight and Gaydos head to the Texas-Mexico border for a supernatural horror story unlike any other. The book features graphic design by Cindy Leong, lettering by Toben Racicot, and was edited by Allison O’Toole; Kate Sánchez served as a cultural consultant and translator. BENEATH will be available August 6, 2024, from Amazon’s Comixology Originals exclusive digital content line.
On the border, the U.S. detention center is often a place of desperation and defeat. And now terror from the horrors that lay deep beneath the ground.
“I’ve always loved monsters—ghouls and ghosts, vampires and werewolves, zombies and giant radioactive creatures,” says writer Steven S. DeKnight. “The best genre stories ask questions that often elude the easiest of answers. They make you think while presenting the prestidigitation of entertainment artfully forcing the viewer or reader to challenge their own perceptions and world view.”
In BENEATH, Deputy Sheriff Jess Delgado is tasked with transporting the sole survivor of a mysterious attack along the Texas-Mexico border to Core Civil, a for-profit immigration detention center that is about to be closed down due to wide-spread protests. Housing only a handful of remaining detainees and manned by a skeleton crew of disgruntled guards, the detention center becomes a desperate battle ground when something otherworldly emerges from deep below the earth. Deputy Delgado must pull together the guards and detainees – two groups that hate and fear each other – to survive the night or fall to the vengeance of the things that lurk beneath.
“My first original graphic novel just happens to be my first foray in the horror genre,” says artist Michael Gaydos. “I love creating sequential art that is full of mood, suspense, and very real character emotion. Steven’s story has all of this and more. I couldn’t be any happier with how the final product came together.”
“Steven DeKnight’s credits include some of the hottest pop culture properties. Now, with Beneath, we’re proud to release his debut original graphic novel on Comixology Originals. This is a horror story for our time and we can’t wait for readers to get pulled into this unique and powerful story.” says Jeff DiBartolomeo, Comixology’s GM and CTO.
About the Creators:
Steven S. DeKnight attended the University of California at Santa Cruz where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Theatre Arts and went on to earn an M.F.A. in playwriting from UCLA. He got his start in the entertainment industry as a staff writer on the groundbreaking television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He then wrote, directed, and produced the series Angel, Smallville, and Dollhouse before creating and running the hit series Spartacus for the premium cable channel Starz. From there he went on to executive produce and showrun season one of the acclaimed Marvel/Netflix series Daredevil. He made his feature directorial debut with Pacific Rim: Uprising, the sequel to Guillermo del Toro’s international hit. He is currently the creator/executive producer of Spartacus: House of Ashur, a Spartacus spinoff series for Lionsgate/Starz, as well an adapting and executive producing the gritty crime graphic novel Smoketown for Film Nation. He is also attached to direct and produce the feature adaptation of the award winning French graphic novel The Ark from a script he co-wrote.
Michael Gaydos has worked in the world of the illustrated word and graphic novel for nearly 30 years. His list of credits include work for Marvel, DC, Random House, Dark Horse, Image, IDW, NBC, White Wolf and Onyx Path among others. With writer Brian Michael Bendis, he is co-creator of Jessica Jones for Marvel and Pearl for Jinxworld. Michael’s fine artwork has also been the subject of a number of solo exhibitions and his art is in private collections worldwide.