In perhaps the most candid and career encompassing interview he’s ever had, Steve sat down and talked comics, movies and life with Comic Book Resources.

Let’s transport you back to the moment when “30 Days of Night” became an underground sensation. With the release of the TPB, it meant you had arrived because that thing was a huge seller for IDW. That said, what did this arrival mean to your comics career? Following “30 Days of Night” you were still mostly doing creator-owned work.

Well, I had been writing since I was around 13 years old. I had a huge back log of work, including two novels in a drawer, pitches, scripts, ideas, so once somebody gave me half a chance I just dove in. I couldn’t wait. I went a little nuts after “30 Days of Night” hit and up until about five minutes ago I would say yes to everything I was offered, on top of doing all the creator-owned stuff. I kind of lucked out. Some of it worked, some of it did not. But I still love working like that. To me, doing the movie and selling the movie and if the movie’s a success hopefully means it’ll be possible for me to do more work and, honestly, comics is where I want my focus to be.

Alright, so now everybody in Hollywood loves you and the bidding process on the rights begin. At what point did the studios actually get interested?

When the ad in Previews hit. That was so strange. We got so psyched out because everyone was freaking out about the concept and Ted would call me to say, “Retailers are freaking out! They think this is a great concept and would make a great movie.” Then the orders came in and they were shit ! We got like 4,000 orders. Everyone liked the idea, but not enough to buy the book. Then all the hype started and then the orders started to go up. It was the weirdest thing.

When you were pitching the studios, a bidding war broke out, did it not?

Yeah. I believe it boiled down to DreamWorks, MGM and Columbia with Sam Raimi attached. Hearing Sam Raimi’s name for me was all it took.

I was being told amounts and offers and it was crazy. It was pretty much, “We’ll give you a million dollars and a free car!!!!” But when I heard Sam Raimi, my brain basically shut off. I said, “I don’t even know what amount or which studio, just go with Raimi.” Form that point forward, I stepped away from the negotiations and just said, “Let me know how much I’m getting paid.” Like, can I substitute ramen for canned soup finally? [laughs]