When I first started thinking about a horror comic, I decided that - whilst I felt it was important to keep in the staples of the genre (like, at least a hint of the monstrous and the demonic!) - I also wanted to it to have another angle.

Setting the story in Prohibition-era Chicago enabled me to play in two genres at once!

The names Stenz and Kraus on this page are deliberately Germanic rather than Italian. Thanks to decades of Hollywood mob movies, we've become used to the idea that organised crime must have been controlled almost exclusively by the Mafia. During this period, however, Cicero (the part of Chicago where this story takes place) was primarily a centre for German immigrants.

If you have any comments on or questions about this comic, please do leave them in the Speakeasy forum.

Oh, and don't forget, you can buy print copies of Charnel House, featuring Speakeasy and four other excellent horror stories all superbly illustrated by Wes Huffor!