Jeff Lemire - Fishflies - Issue 2 p01

Lemire on his substack:
"Long before I began working on this series, fishflies and comic books had forever been linked in my mind. One night, when I was in my late teens, or early 20’s, I had a strange experience. Let me explain… Every year in the lakeside communities in Essex County, where I grew up, a plague occurs. For about two or three weeks, every summer, the lakeside areas of Essex County, like Belle River, are literally blanketed with small, winged insects which the locals call fishflies. Their name comes from the fact that they come off the water, in this case Lake Eerie, and actually smell like fish. At any rate, these Fishflies cover every inch of the sidewalks, streets and storefronts near the lake for a couple weeks, tormenting shop owners and pedestrians, until all dying off at once. You can imagine the small and the mess. It’s pretty gross. Well, one night, I was driving to meet some friends, and made a quick pit-stop at the Belle River Minimart (the very one shown in this first issue) to buy cigarettes. The parking lot and was blanketed with fishflies and I can remember the sickening crunch and pop under my shoes as I walked towards the store. Once inside the store, I did what I always did before grabbing smokes, and checked the magazine rack to see what new comics they had. This was during the only period in my life where I was more interested in smoking and drinking with my friends than I was in comics. For a few years I wasn’t actively buying comics, but I still liked to keep an eye on the newest issues when the opportunity arose, as it did that night. That memory clung to me the same way those fishflies clung to the light of the minimart window. But, like so many other things, It sort of faded to some dormant part of my brain over time."
https://jefflemire.substack.com/p/cigarettes-comics-and-fishflies
https://jefflemire.substack.com/p/the-origins-of-fishflies