Why I wrote "Harry Won't Stay Buried"

...And what I'm trying to do with the Putnam County stories

Sample page from “Harry Won’t Stay Buried”

I’ve always been drawn to old newspaper stories. Were people 100 years ago really all that different from the way we are now? It sure seems that way on the surface, but when you dig into some of those old media clippings a bit more, you see that human nature doesn’t really change all that much throughout time.

If you pine for the good ’ol days, what exactly do you want from them? Did people seem kinder back then, and was life genuinely better for everyone? If you think that’s the case, poring through old newspapers might change your mind.

The pieces and the ads can be entertaining and may feel naive to our more “sophisticated” eyeballs, but as you continue to study them, they begin to paint a truthful cultural picture.

When I stumbled upon the story on which “Harry” is based, it was reported as a small town incident involving two women accusing each other of killing a boarding house resident. After painting one of the women as a blonde, buxom roadhouse madame who killed a defenseless, “crippled” (their words, not mine) handyman who worked at the roadhouse, the story quickly caught media focus during a time when a Depression-weary public hungered for salacious tales to divert their attention from their own struggles. You know, my life might be tough but at least it ain’t that poor slob’s.

What gobsmacked me more, though, was the decision by local police and the district attorney to secretly stage a reenactment at the scene of the crime, not only with the two accused women but with the corpse of the murder victim. Also interesting was the police search of the accused woman’s roadhouse without her knowledge or a search warrant, where they found evidence that was deemed a-okay by the judge to submit during the murder trial.

It was enough inspiration for me to write about it—not a documentary-style story, but one kind of in line with those crazy old EC Comics. I wanted to write a series of stories that have a host, of sorts, and that’s where Karen the hearse driver came in, carrying on a conversation with a recently-deceased passenger as an introduction to the story.

I also wanted the victims of these crimes to have more of a say in their own narrative.

So there you have it: weird crime story from the past + the victim getting to tell their side of the story + society’s behavior at the time = a work of fiction based on true past events, with the goal of showing that the core elements of life and human nature stay constant throughout time.

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Here at the Mulberry Treehouse factory, I’m experimenting with different Substack methods of releasing my work. With my previous book, Chronic, I initially released it as a free 160-page serial with a new chapter each week. I set up a Ko-fi tip jar for those of you who wanted to support my work.

This time around I decided to experiment with creating a 32-page comic book story where supporters can pay $2 to read it in full as a digital PDF download, via my Ko-fi store. No printing costs, no shipping fees, just the blood and sweat of an artist trying something new.

My goal is to release a few more stories this way to see how it goes.

I’m uncomfortable requesting paid subscribers because I can’t give you something complete every week. It usually takes me a week to create two pages of comics content, and who wants to read something a page or two at a time? I’d rather give you a complete chapter or a complete story.

If anyone has any ideas out there, I’m all ears. Drop me a line either here in the comments section or via email: mulberrytreehousestories@gmail.com

Thank you for supporting my work!