{"id":1746,"date":"2023-12-13T11:07:22","date_gmt":"2023-12-13T16:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chestercomix.com\/blog\/?p=1746"},"modified":"2023-12-13T11:08:17","modified_gmt":"2023-12-13T16:08:17","slug":"buckeye-blitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chestercomix.com\/blog\/buckeye-blitz\/","title":{"rendered":"Buckeye Blitz!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am closing the 20th<\/sup> anniversary year of Chester Comix LLC with a gift to myself.<\/p>\n

In 20 years and 38 books, I\u2019ve covered the big stuff that kids need to know in school. The Civil War! George Washington! World War II! The Civil Rights Movement! Harriet Tubman! I am now free to draw quirkier things and fill in the odd and the less well-known stories between the big stuff. It\u2019s a delicious freedom to draw whatever history interests me the most.<\/p>\n

\"\"Chester began as a Virginia history storyteller. As I grew the business, the blue crab expanded his range and told a local history in Massachusetts and published a North Carolina history comic. The smartest busines right now would be to work on a state history of California or New York\u2014nice, big markets with lots of well-funded public schools full of teachers who could use a comic about their state history!<\/p>\n

But at this anniversary moment, I found that my patriotism for my home state was too strong. It was time to tell the story of Ohio and weave my own story into it. Since I moved back in 2015, it\u2019s been a joy to search out the local details of hundreds of years of Ohio history. I\u2019ve enjoyed wandering through Ohio towns that I never set foot in before. History is always informed by what we see and feel today, and I have also been inspired to do this new book by observing new history unfold over these eight years back in the Buckeye land.<\/p>\n

I felt this so strongly that I made myself serve as Chester\u2019s companion this time! I\u2019ve never done that before, but this project was too perfectly personal. One example of that: After I moved back, my hometown newspaper was kind enough to do a profile of me and my historical cartooning; the story ran on the same day that the paper\u2019s front page announced that the second-to-last big factory in my hometown was closing.<\/p>\n

Now OHIO: Crossroad of the Nation<\/strong><\/a> is published. Will this book sell? Over 20 years, I\u2019ve gotten only one Ohio museum to carry Chester Comix. Will this be the book that cracks open this market?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the secret: I don\u2019t care! Bad business, I know. But I am already happy that the book exists. I\u2019m sending copies to friends and family. It\u2019s a gift back to all the people who contributed to this wonderful life I\u2019ve had. And it\u2019s a gift to myself. Any sales of the book now will be as delicious as putting a chocolate covering over a ball of peanut butter.<\/p>\n

— Hey! I just got an order from a museum in New Concord, Ohio! WOOOOOT!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am closing the 20th anniversary year of Chester Comix LLC with a gift to myself. In 20 years and 38 books, I\u2019ve covered the big stuff that kids need to know in school. The Civil War! George Washington! World … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors-purpose","category-comix-creation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chestercomix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chestercomix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chestercomix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chestercomix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chestercomix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1746"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.chestercomix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1749,"href":"https:\/\/www.chestercomix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1746\/revisions\/1749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chestercomix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chestercomix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chestercomix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}