Busted Flush publisher David Thompson and I started kicking around cover concepts for Damn Near Dead last December in Houston. One idea was to mimic a patient roster in a nursing home, with contributors' names listed instead of patients. I may have floated the idea of a death certificate, but that was quickly dismissed. (Thank Christ.) Then we started talking about book covers we really liked, and the name that kept popping up was Hard Case Crime. Both David and I really dig the retro stuff. With that in mind, I went home and dug through my stack of Manhunt magazines and found the image you see above (at right.) I thought it would be fun to take this classic image, from the Christmas 1954 issue, and tweak it a bit. Show the characters as they would appear today, 52 years later.Well, Busted Flush artist Greg Fleming took that idea and ran with it. But instead of making both characters senior citizens, he just aged the dude. (The green sweater vest is an especially nice touch.) This was probably the right move. The contrast, old and young, gray and blonde, is striking. Kind of a Michael Douglas/Catherine Zeta-Jones thing going on there.
My only regret is that in our version you can't see the gun. These two characters could be dancing. Or practicing tae-kwon-do. But perhaps that makes it all the more mysterious. And compelling.
Coming soon: How (not) to assemble an anthology.
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