Why Forest City?

Initially, I struggled with setting for this project.

Deciding the time period was easy. As I mentioned previously, the golden age works perfectly because that's where most of the public domain comic art comes from.

The where of the setting is different though. Is it on the coast? Which coast? How about keeping it open and just setting it in the Midwest?

Aerial view of downtown Cleveland, December 1937 

I decided I wanted the city to be set in my home state of Ohio. That gave me three major choices: Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland. While I admit I have more familiarity with the first two (I live in Columbus for gods' sake), I decided to go with the latter. 

Here's why I chose Cleveland over Cbus and Cincy:

• It's on Lake Erie and has a connection to the Atlantic via canals and rivers (and later the Saint Lawrence Seaway).
• It's the birthplace of Superman's creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
• It has connections to organized crime, especially in the first half of the 20th century.

As far as names go, I wanted one that captured the feel of the city, but sounded sort of generic (though not in a bad way). I believe Forest City (which has been one of Cleveland's nicknames since the 19th century) does this quite well. Though it has a reputation for fires, Cleveland has been a very green city over the years. The Cleveland Metropark system has parks across the city and is currently 21,000 acres nature preserve spread out across and around the city.