Waid doesn't take introducing new characters into Stevens' beloved world lightly. "First off, you make sure they bring something unique to the table, otherwise, don't clutter the area with repetitive characters," he said. "But more than that, you make sure they have a voice. You really work hard to make them real, to make them feel like real characters and not cartoons." To that end, Waid spent time researching movies and radio shows and literature of the 1930s and '40s, and found his greatest inspiration in an unexpected place: "Of all things, oddly enough, the Archie comics of the early 1940s. I was reading the first few of them in an archive format, and they were so full of slang and idiom that was completely alien to me. I'd never heard these slang terms before, and I'm a student of the era."
Artist Samnee is also a student of the era, bringing an authentic 1930s flavor to his art. "He's capturing the period with such aplomb that you would think he must have either the world's greatest reference library to the 1930s, or he's got a time machine in his basement," Waid said. "He can tell a story like nobody's business. He can design a page as well as anybody I've ever seen in this industry. His drawing is flawless, in that he knows not to over-clutter and over-doodle. It's very slick. Stylistically, it's a little different than Dave's because it's not as slick, but it's as economical. Every line has a purpose; every line tells a story."