DAILY GRIND: The latest Lissau/Mann joint
INTRODUCTION
As I write this, I’m about a month
away from my 40th birthday. This does not make me happy.
I’ve been feeling morose about my
age and this impending milestone since about the middle of 2010. No, morose
isn’t quite the right word. Dread is more like it. Dread, as in
scientists-watching-the-killer-asteroid-approach-Earth dread.
I’ve done some interesting things
in my life. I’ve traveled to different countries. I’ve met fascinating people.
I’ve eaten good food. I’ve split aces three times in one hand at a blackjack
table in Las Vegas and won.
But the last few months I’ve spent
a fair amount of time wondering: Has my life amounted to anything? Have I done
anything that will have a lasting impact?
And that brings us to DAILY GRIND.
The story you’re about to read was
inspired by a stranger I noticed at the local library, a handsome man
well-dressed in a suit and tie and overcoat… and black leather gloves. And it
occurred to me that he was wearing the leather gloves because he didn’t want to
leave fingerprints, and he was wearing the coat because he was hiding… well,
that would give it away.
You want to know where writers get
ideas? From encounters like that.
Anyway, I got to my car and
scribbled some notes. And as I developed the character who would become the
protagonist of this story, I realized the tale might be a way to exorcise some
of the middle-aged soul-searching I’d been doing.
And you know what? I was right. It
turned out to be pretty cathartic.
There was no question who I wanted
to draw this story: mpMann, the incredibly skilled artist who’d already teamed
with me on THE 29, GREEDY, DADDY’S GIRL and L’ANGE DE BASTOGNE. Mr. Mann has
become my go-to artist for short projects, and he certainly knocked it out of
the park here. Thanks, pally.
And thank you, readers, for taking
a chance on a self-published comic that doesn’t feature heroes and villains in
tights and capes. This is a different kind of comic, and a different kind of
story. Hopefully you’ll like it and will seek out more independent comics,
because there are a lot of good ones out there.
-Russell Lissau
April 2011
Comments
OK, this really only applies to posting flickr things. But, what you can do is copy the html code from the "Grab the HTML/BBCode" section on flickr, click the little piece of paper with the red <> (right of the printer icon) and then past in. Then click the <> icon again. You should see your image show up. Flickr actually gives a lot more info than just the img source so you have to paste it into the code window instead of the wysiwyg side.
The grays are little to dark.
But I said stuff like Russell is really cool, and comics is fun and shit like that. I guess you'll just have to buy a copy.