Typically, the protagonist of a noir work is an alienated loner. A Packer fan in Chicago — who could be more alienated than that?

I decided that I wanted to do my own collection about a city that I knew something about,

I can’t think of any other city that has a self-styled working class of intellectuals. Educated men who don’t have college. If you hang out in bars long enough, you’re gonna hear some things.

Most fan fiction is terrible.

Television characters live inside our minds as though they’re actual people. In fact, we know more about them than we do about most people in our physical lives.

We now have evidence that Saddam Hussein is in possession of cartoon trucks. Because (they) are cartoon trucks, that means that they can fall into a very deep canyon with an anvil attached to them...

I wanted a 1950s, jazzy feel. Neal asked me what section of the city I wanted to do, and I totally wanted to do the Green Mill. I wanted to do that neighborhood.