A perfect Sunday with... Daniel Kraus
Taking Sundays off under protest, owning precisely three comics and appearing to be 85 years old
Every week, a top writer, artist, actor or creator reveals how they’d fill their perfect Sunday, sharing their favourite comfort reads, movies, food… anything that would make their weekend great.
Today, it's the turn of author of Angel Down, Daniel Kraus!
Daniel's perfect Sunday… brunch
First off, a caveat. My ideal Sunday is writing. My ideal every day is writing, and for most of my career I worked seven days a week and was overjoyed to do it!
But several years ago I did take off Sundays (under protest) so technically I am now able to answer your questions at least in the spirit that you intend them.
So: brunch. Well, there's another thing I have never had in my life: brunch. But I'm going to go with french toast and coffee, since I'm certainly not going to eat french toast more than once a week. I don't know. This questionnaire may end up being a disaster. Let's see how it goes.
Daniel's perfect Sunday… read
You know, for the past decade, my happy place is reading about the U.S. Civil War, which I realize makes me seem super old, but I find the personalities involved just endlessly fascinating. Civil War generals were just so freaking weird. Plus, there are occasional books like Shelby Foote's The Civil War trilogy, which are more gorgeously written than 99% of novels. Because most things I do for quote-unquote "fun" are also for work, yes, some of this reading is funneling into a future project. Of course.
Daniel's perfect Sunday… comic
My involvement with comics has always been tangential. I didn't grow up with comics, I have no nostalgic connection to comics, and though I read a lot more than I used to, I still don't read a ton – for outsiders like me, the comics industry remains really hard to penetrate. It's such an insular and dauntingly deep world.
All that said, when I was kid, I did own three comics. Yes, precisely three. My mom somehow came across issues #10, #11, and #12 of Marvel Secret Wars while out of town and impulsively bought them. I read those three issues a million times, and was endlessly fascinated partly because I had no idea what the whole story was! Those three issues still hold a special place in my heart.
Daniel's perfect Sunday... movie
When I think "daytime viewing," I think something old and black-and-white. I'm not sure why. Maybe because black-and-white movies are easier to see in broad daylight? Is that an odd thing to say?
Anyway, I'd take something with Joan Crawford or Bette Davis, something dark and bitchy, maybe like Jezebel (1938), which ends with – spoiler – Bette Davis marching off to join a leper colony. How great is that?!?
Daniel's perfect Sunday... TV binge
Man, I don't really watch TV shows. Why am I having such trouble with these questions? You know, I do watch Meet the Press every Sunday. Wow, these questions are making me sound 85 years old.
Daniel's perfect Sunday… podcast
Oo, I got this one! Two, in fact!
First off, I'm a dogged follower of Effectively Wild, a baseball podcast that – like baseball itself – is just something nice to have on, whether I'm following along closely or not.
Secondly, my favorite film writer, Stacie Ponder, has a new podcast called Final Girl After Dark, and it makes me feel warm and cozy. And "warm and cozy" is I think what you're getting at with all these questions, Cavan.
Daniel's perfect Sunday… album
If I'm feeling up, Roky Erickson's The Evil One. If I'm feeling down, anything by C. Diab.
Daniel's perfect Sunday… treat
I'm on the record of having exactly two things that distract me from work: baseball and board games. Both of which I got into explicitly in hopes of settling down my brain, and both of which have really worked out.
My current game obsession is Star Realms, but I'm always playing Kingdom Death: Monster, the greatest and most upsetting board game of all time.
Look, finally I mentioned something horror-related, which I bet everyone was waiting for. There. Are you happy?
Daniel Kraus's ANGEL DOWN is published by Atria Books in the States and Titan Books in the UK
The critically acclaimed author of the “crazily enjoyable” (The New York Times) Whalefall returns with an immersive, cinematic novel about five World War I soldiers who stumble upon a fallen angel that could hold the key to ending the war.
Private Cyril Bagger has managed to survive the unspeakable horrors of the Great War through his wits and deception, swindling fellow soldiers at every opportunity. But his survival instincts are put to the ultimate test when he and four other grunts are given a deadly mission: venture into the perilous No Man’s Land to euthanize a wounded comrade.
What they find amid the ruined battlefield, however, is not a man in need of mercy but a fallen angel, seemingly struck down by artillery fire. This celestial being may hold the key to ending the brutal conflict, but only if the soldiers can suppress their individual desires and work together. As jealousy, greed, and paranoia take hold, the group is torn apart by their inner demons, threatening to turn their angelic encounter into a descent into hell.
Angel Down plunges you into the heart of World War I and weaves a polyphonic tale of survival, supernatural wonder, and moral conflict.
DANIEL KRAUS is a New York Times bestselling writer of novels, TV, and film. His latest novel, Whalefall, received a front-cover review in the New York Times Book Review, won the Alex Award, was an L.A. Times Book Prize Finalist, and was a Best Book of 2023 from NPR, the New York Times, Amazon, Chicago Tribune, and more.
With Guillermo del Toro, he co-authored The Shape of Water, based on the same idea the two created for the Oscar-winning film. Also with del Toro, Kraus co-authored Trollhunters, which was adapted into the Emmy-winning Netflix series. He cowrote The Living Dead and Pay the Piper with legendary filmmaker George A. Romero. Kraus’s The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch was named one of Entertainment Weekly‘s Top 10 Books of the Year. Kraus has won the Bram Stoker Award, Scribe Award, two Odyssey Awards (for both Rotters and Scowler), and has appeared multiple times as Library Guild selections, YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults, and more.
Kraus’s work has been translated into over 20 languages. He lives with his wife in Chicago.
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