Harrow County began as a serialized prose story called Countless Haints, written by Cullen Bunn and released on his website. Countless Haints ran for ten chapters before it was retired. Later the story was repurposed as an ongoing comic with artist and co-creator Tyler Crook. The main character Madrigal was renamed Emmy, the time period was shifted from present day to the 1930s, and the location was changed from Ahmen’s Landing to Harrow County.
When Bunn began working on the series, he wrote the first two arcs so that they told a fairly complete story, though he hoped Harrow County would be popular enough to become an ongoing series. Crook chose to do the book in watercolors to get away from the computer and to make the project more fun for himself. As part of the promotional material for the comic, he created a special ordering form and made process videos showcasing his watercolors. He even wrote music for the first two arcs.
During Harrow County’s run, Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook regularly shared their process in a column called The Harrow County Observer, Tyler Crook’s YouTube channel, and in the extensive sketchbook sections of the trade paperback collections.
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