A hitman’s world gets turned upside down and takes a contract out on himself. That’s the concept behind Dead Man’s Party from creators Scott Barnett and Jeff Marsick and published by Darby Pop Publishing and Magnetic Press.

Before it sees publish in January, I got a chance to talk to Scott and Jeff about the series, where the idea came from, and their interesting careers.

Graphic Policy: For those who don’t know the series, how would you describe it?

Scott Barnett: There are people who don’t know about Dead Man’s Party? Shame on them!

Jeff Marsick: And here I thought we were critically acclaimed.

Scott: Not yet. But soon. Dead Man’s Party is about a hitman, known only as Ghost, who is the top guy in the assassination game. When his world gets turned upside down, he’s forced to take a contract out on himself. He orders a Dead Man’s Party, which, in the assassin trade, is part Viking funeral and part Irish wake – a twisted way for your assassin peers to either honor you or finally get even.

Jeff: The problem is, when the “invites” go out to five lucky players, they’re irrevocable. No take-backsies or “Oops, changed my mind.” And that there’s the crux of Ghost’s problem. It’s a neo-noir action thriller.

GP: Where did the idea come from?

Jeff: What’s funny is we both kind of came to it simultaneously.

Scott: Yeah, I was vegging out in front of the TV one night, and this idea of a hitman voluntarily putting himself in the crosshairs popped into my head. Jeff and I were looking to collaborate on a comic project, so when I e-mailed him my idea—

Jeff: I was like, “Holy crap! I’ve had a similar idea for YEARS!” My muse wasn’t television, though. It was Oingo Boingo and their song of the same name. The broad strokes of the story roll in my head like a movie trailer every time I hear that song. Seriously, it was in my head for decades.

Scott: If this ever goes beyond being a comic, you want that song as the main theme, don’t you?

Jeff: TOTALLY!

GP: Yeah, I think of the Oingo Boingo song too. How did you two come together to work on the project?

Scott: We’ve known each other for years and had been lobbing ideas back and forth for a bit, but nothing stuck.

Jeff: We’d bump into each other at the comic shop we frequented—Heroes Cards and Comics in Norwalk, Connecticut—and kind of dance around “Y’know, you and I should probably do something together.” We both had ideas for projects we could run with, but they weren’t fully fleshed out and nothing really grabbed us.

Scott: But the moment we started discussing this one, the ideas and possibilities just took off.

GP: Jeff, you have an interesting background in the military and working on Wall Street, how did you come to writing comics?

Jeff: The writing thing I’ve been doing since college. A fantasy novel, a screenplay, short stories, and magazine articles. I love writing. And like so many others who work in comics, I have always been a comic book reader and a collector. But I always figured that I needed to know someone who knew someone in order to get into the industry. While I was working in New York, I learned about (former Marvel editor) Andy Schmidt’s Comics Experience courses and figured I’d take an “Introduction to Writing” course—I like to brag that I had Marvel’s Nick Spencer in my class, too. But, while I learned a ton from the class, the biggest takeaway was the confidence to go out and create my own books. So I started with a unique take on the zombie genre with Z-Girl and the 4 Tigers with my friend, Kirk Manley, and then launched Dead Man’s Party with Scott.

GP: Scott, you have an interesting career as a designer, storyboard artist, 3D modeler/animator, and more. How does having such a varied art background help you when it comes to creating comics?

Scott: It’s made me realize I can do it all by myself, if need be. Up until collecting the series together as a trade paperback with Darby Pop and Magnetic Press, I was the entire art department for the series, which meant not only creating the art, but designing the layout of the book and its logo, designing the website, generating e-mail blasts, formatting the comic for both print and digital outlets, and designing signage for conventions.

Jeff: Wow. All that. Only thing I did was write the scripts.

Scott: Hey, you’re the one who says comics are a visual medium and are more about the art. And you introduced us to Darby Pop, don’t forget.

Jeff: True. Okay, I feel better now.

GP: I read the first issue and it has a very European sense about it in the setting, characters, and even the pacing somewhat. Was that something you did on purpose as opposed to just setting it all in the US and an American vibe about it?

Jeff: Protagonist assassins and hitmen in movies and literature have an exotic quality about them, and allowing Ghost to have the world as his playground just feeds that vibe. We first meet Ghost on a train in France, his vacation place is on the island of Madeira, and he’s conversant throughout the series in several different languages. Odd as it is to say—since he’s an assassin—but all of that lends itself to a certain sexiness surrounding the character. James Bond with some Jason Bourne and a sprinkling of Leon. We did discuss keeping it all in the United States, but it just seemed too claustrophobic for our story, especially since Ghost has proven himself to be a global threat.

GP: I can see some various influences in the first issue as far as the storytelling, are there any that stick out to you?

Jeff: From a writing standpoint, this is a tough question to answer because I think I’m influenced by so many writers I’ve read and so many action movies that I’ve seen. When it comes to writing comics, it’s primarily Peter David, Brian Michael Bendis, and Ed Brubaker. I revere those guys and don’t read their comics so much as study their craft. Outside of the industry, it’s Stephen King, Cormac McCarthy, Robert Crais, Elmore Leonard, Dashiell Hammett…man, this list could go on and on. But I also get a lot of influence from screenwriters: Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, Paul Haggis, the Coen brothers, and David Mamet, especially.

Scott: Well, in the beginning, I described the art style as, “Alex Ross meets Sin City,” but it’s taken on a life of its own. I love John Byrne’s page layouts, and if you look at his Next Men series, you can probably see some similarities. I’d be in heaven in anyone – other than me — ever actually pointed that out.

Jeff: It’s funny you mention people noticing similarities because Ghost uses aliases in the series that no one has caught on to and commented about. Those names aren’t just random, they’re actually nods to classic noir novels and movies.

Scott: And there are a couple of Easter eggs in the artwork, too.

Jeff: Maybe we’re too clever for our own good.

Scott: That might be the first time anyone’s EVER said that about us.

GP: How long have you been working on the series?

Scott: We’ve had to juggle the production of the book around our busy work schedules and family lives, so up until now, it’s taken a lot longer than we’d originally anticipated.

Jeff: It’s been, what, five years now?

Scott: Yeah, from conception to the final issue.

Jeff: Like Scott said, it should not have taken so long to get to where we are, which I profusely apologize to our fans for. But, life and the Day Job often complicate a production schedule.

GP: The comic is listed as a four issue limited series, do you have ideas to tell more stories in this world?

Jeff: Ah, the four-issue-limited series claim. Listen, before Scott even put pencil to paper for that first panel of the first issue, we had the series fully outlined. Honest. It was supposed to be three issues and an oversized fourth. But when I started on issue four, I realized that it wasn’t just going to be oversized, it was going to basically be a double-sized issue. And since we were financing this on our own dime, it would probably be in our best interest—and hopefully our fans’ enjoyment—to just make an extra issue.

Scott: Besides, the precedent for the four-issue/five-issue change-up was established back on Marvel’s The Punisher limited series back in 1986, so we’re hiding behind that as our defense.

Jeff: As for more stories, yes, we’ve got several in this particular universe that we want to expand upon, including a spotlight on one of the characters that appears in Dead Man’s Party.

Scott: We’re already talking about the sequel and probably six—

Jeff: Seven. Maybe eight.

Scott: –other spin-offs and series utilizing this universe of characters. Hopefully, we’ll get the opportunity to pursue them.

GP: Anything else folks should keep an eye out for from you two?

Jeff: Right now, Kirk Manley is at work on the art for the new story arc for Z-Girl and the 4 Tigers, and people can order the issues for the first arc off our website: www.ZGirl.org. I’m hoping next year—fingers crossed—will see an Indestructible: Stingray limited series launch with Darby Pop as a follow-up to the one-shot I wrote for them earlier this year. Scott and I have an all-ages concept we want to develop in addition to sequels to Dead Man’s Party.

Scott: We’d like to expand our comic storytelling into new directions beyond the action-noir genre, and hopefully we can get something off the ground in 2016.

Dead Man’s Party will be available in January from Darby Pop Publishing and Magnetic Press. The 128-page full color graphic novel is now available for pre-order from Diamond Comics Distributors using order code: NOV151520.