In my mind, there was a time when every single man in the world wore this type of pin-striped flannel pajamas to bed.
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Archive for March, 2011
8 items.
The character of Lola is inspired by many different women in hard-boiled, gangster films from the 1940s. There’s a bit of Lauren Bacall, Ava Gardner and Rita Hayworth mixed together in her. The hairstyle starts with a bit of Louise Brooks but add about four feet in the back.
The first (but certainly not the last) character to die in this story.
Next: Enter the dame(s)!
Finally, we introduce Pinky. While the name of the character was stolen from the movie “Running Scared” (underrated policy comedy with Billy Crystal), he is obviously modeled on Quentin Tarantino, in his trademark Reservoir Dogs/Pulp Fiction black suit, black tie, white shirt ensemble.
The Cardinal was one of the first characters I designed as he was inspired from a high school memory. Two of my buddies came up with these two mobster characters, named Big Papa and String Bean. Big Papa was the quintesssential, stereotypical, cardboard version of a mobster, a poor man’s Don Corleone, if you will. He stayed in mind all these years until I started drawing Tabasco Lang.
I was never completely happy with the character design of Morrie. In a world of men and women dressed like in a 1940s gangster movie, I saw him as an anachronism: half beatnik, half hippie. Besides, how many black characters appear in those old movies?
Wikipedia defines a “speakeasy” as “an establishment which illegally sold alcoholic beverages during the period of United States history known as Prohibition (1920-1933, longer in some states).” I had heard/read the term used generically in so many books and movies that it seemed to be the perfect self-referential title for the combination club/mob headquarters. Imagine if you will a 1930s version of The Sopranos’ “Bada Bing!”. Although we don’t spend too much time inside, I imagine it full of illegal booze, cigarette girls with a hidden back room for gambling.