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"I have twin 8-year-old sons who will love your comics. I was very excited to hear about them from a friend of mine." Anne, mother from Annapolis, MD |
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Posts Tagged ‘graphic novel’
Battle of Bentonville, NC
Written on Friday, April 2nd, 2010 [permanent link]
My son Truman and I watch Confederates after the battle.
In March 2010 my sons and I did our first overnight Civil War reenactment. The first big battle of this year had gorgeous weather and a good location, so it drew thousands of reenactors from as far away as Maine and Florida, and I got a good feel for some of the history I’ll be drawing soon for the 150th anniversary of the war.
Samuel and Truman and I have camped for years with the Boy Scouts. For the Civil War reenacting, it was fun to be in a campsite with no Coleman stoves — cooking over an open fire the way I did when I was a teenager in Boy Scouts back in the distant 1980s. There were so many campfires that by Saturday night the NC woods were thick with blue smoke — I had to go out onto an open field to clear my eyes. Now THAT’S getting a feel for history!
At Civil War events I portray a freelance cartoonist who draws battlefield scenes for the New York papers and magazines — not too big a stretch for me! The Battle of Bentonville was so big that it had a great diversity of reenactors. I mixed in with many women and children in period clothing, and near the sutlers row was a mobile blacksmith! I was fascinated to see him work out of this cart. That must have been a vital skill to bring along with an army, which would have needed frequent repairs to equipment.
The Battle of Bentonville lasted three days in March 1865, just a few weeks before Lee’s surrender to Grant in Virginia. Bentonville was the Confederate attempt to stop Gen. William T. Sherman from getting to Grant to help surround Lee — and the Confederates succeeded, but by the end of the three days Sherman still had about 90,000 men on the field and the Confederates had only about 20,000. Everyone knew the end of the war was near. Sherman was criticized for not attacking harder on the third day of fighting, to completely smash the army opposing him, but Sherman didn’t want further bloodshed.
The Civil War tactic of lining men up shoulder-to-shoulder and blasting away from just a few hundred feet was butchery. The reenactment gave me a good feel for that — and it’s hard for me to watch it even when the men are shooting just gunpowder without projectiles.
Tags: Bentley Boyd, Chester Comix, Chester the Crab, Civil War, graphic novel, history
Posted in Author's Purpose, Civil War, Historical Travel | No Comments »
Artist becomes the Editor!
Written on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 [permanent link]
I’m back in Richmond this week doing artist-in-residency work with 4th graders for the arts organization Young Audiences! This is my third school year of helping elementary students become authors over these 5-part workshops.
When I was in 4th grade I was copying “Peanuts” comic strips out of the newspaper, line by line. By 5th grade I was making my own little chicken-scratch comix by folding a regular piece of typing paper in half and drawing with an over-the-counter black felt pen. My Dad copied the original for me, and I sold the black and white copies to my friends for 25 cents.
I like helping the students today do MORE than I did. I push them to really structure their ideas and practice them through three full versions of their stories (a text rough draft, a thumbnail sketch version and a finished, colored version) — I sure didn’t do multiple drafts when I was drawing “Dyno-Man and the Army of Justice!!” The good news is that their ideas are worth that work. Today I edited stories about Harriet Tubman and John Henry building a freedom railroad to the MOON and about Thomas Jefferson and George Washington arguing about where to have lunch!
Tags: arts in education, Author's Purpose, Bentley Boyd, Chester the Crab, comic book, graphic novel, Richmond Public Schools
Posted in Author's Purpose, History Teacher | No Comments »
Homeschool All-Stars cover
Written on Sunday, November 1st, 2009 [permanent link]
I’m in the homestretch for the homeschooler book! I’m hoping to get it to the printers this week. One of my favorite parts of making a new book is drawing the cover, which is a great moment to try to draw all the inside contents together.
This cover is a tribute to the Justice League of America comix I grew up on. Every year there would be a 2-issue crossover story featuring a whole pack of heroes, so their busts would appear around the edges of the cover to promote the story. To do an homage to that kind of kitchen-sink cover was a fun way for me to get out front more of the one-page bios. (I’m hoping this book will also sell at gift shops in the various museums dedicated to these folks.)
Unfortunately, this stage of the creative process is also the hardest for me emotionally. It’s where I don’t feel talented at ALL! Near the end I get really frustrated as I pull back and see the difference between what I have in my head and what appears on the page. (This used to happen even near the end of much shorter projects, such as the daily black and white political cartoon I drew from 1995 to 1999.) So I’m diving back in and trying to sharpen things up in these last few days — kind of a marathon runner’s last gasp push to cross the finish line strong!
Tags: Bentley Boyd, biography, Chester Comix, George Patton, graphic novel, history, homeschool, Teddy Roosevelt
Posted in Author's Purpose | No Comments »
