The first week of Long John updates hangs overhead and, naturally, I begin to worry. I want to explain everything before the first page updates; I want to immerse every reader into Long John’s world from the get-go; I want you to know everything about everybody with all the research and changes that have happened since I started putting this thing to paper. But that’s not how stories work. I only dole out pieces at a time. Some pieces you’ll never see, and that’s okay.
What I will do, however, is let you in on a little bit of the background, inspiration, and motivation that has made Long John what it is. For the next two days, you’ll be getting chunks of what helped make Long John into the comic it is (or will be).
3. The Hammett Factor
Long John isn’t a mystery in the strictest sense; the crux of the story isn’t finding out “whodunit.” It’s a mystery in the sense that Dashiell Hammett wrote his “hard boiled” detective stories. These stories are less about finding out what happened and are more about an escalation of events––usually unpleasant ones. The cacophony of lies, violence, and mystery pile upon each other until it all falls apart and Hammett’s hero (usually a stoic badass) is left standing alone amid the ruin. In that sense, Long John is very influenced by Hammett.
