MANGA

TIFFANY

The year I was twelve I sat in the darkened Court Theater, just as thrilled as I was supposed to be, while my obsessions and anxieties interacted with the obsessions and anxieties of that talented troubled boy who’d grown up to be Alfred Hitchcock. Rear Window started me off, and I’ve loved thrillers ever since.

Of course I loved the classic films of the Cinema Noir, and I loved the thriller genre even better when I found it in print, in the work of Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald. I’m a sucker for every twist you can throw into it—the despised detective walking alone down the mean streets, the innocent bystander swept up by the machinations of some despicable crew, the only honest cop in town taking on the mob, the endangered heroine who finds that she can’t rely on anyone but herself.

I love the lurking danger in Noir thrillers—and their smart-ass dialogue. I love their complex plots as difficult as Rubik’s cubes. For most of my writing life, I’ve wanted to write a thriller, and Tiffany is it.

Tiffany is the result of the violent encounter—in the back alleys of my mind—of American Noir with Manga (I’m thinking, in particular, of Urasawa’s Monster). My protagonist is a young model in a big dirty American city, trying to start her career after the great meltdown of 2008. Desperate for money, she and her girlfriend Stephanie are drawn into a mysterious and sinister men’s club. There’s a murder, and a bitter old cop, and some evil and powerful bad guys— Tiffany is definitely intended for adult readers.

HINT: I have a finished script for Tiffany, but no publisher has picked it up yet. If you’re a publisher, and you are interested, please contact me.

Chloe Chan’s superb and moody drawings have brought the opening pages of Tiffany to life. To see them, click here: tiffany_may Story, © Keith Maillard | Art, © Chloe Chan

ANOTHER PROJECT IN THE WORKS IS HARVEST HOME

Harvest Home

Art by Chloe Chan.