“My dear parents…”: Drawing the Crossing

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Let’s take a look at an opening spread from Freeman Colby Vol. 4, & some of the sources that inspired it:

NOTES & PRINTABLES >>

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PROCESS NOTES:

Here’s how these pages grew out of a primary source text:

• SOURCE TEXT: 1 June 1864: “My Dear Parents”

Next I’ll mark up this letter to find some basic ideas — Each idea MIGHT become its own image (or panel):

NOW let’s get out our 12×12 LAYOUT GRID & see what it has to say about pacing & rhythm for these pages…

Maybe Page 1 = 2×3?

Tracing from the grid ~
Those 6 bits of text could fit into it a basic 2×3 page like so:

I’m NOT going to draw anything here yet —
I’ll just read over these blank panels & let my imagination wander through the space.  (For example, at “I now have a chance to answer it” I see maybe Freeman Colby seated by a campfire, writing on a tiny bit of paper spread across his dirty knee…)

For more process notes, see:
“NOT Drawing Page 1 (Over & Over Again) >>

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VISUAL SOURCES:

Meanwhile, I’m starting to wonder what artwork might go in all those blank panels. What did this scene look like?

Fortunately several “Special Artists” were on hand to sketch the army crossing at Hanover Ferry:

^ “The Army of the Potomac crossing the Pamunkey, on the march to Cold Harbor” (Forbes / May 1864) [LOC.gov]

☝️My favorite part of this quick sketch by Forbes is the rushed shortcuts — Instead of drawing a hundred marching men, he just writes “infantry marching over the bridge” across the pontoon span!

^ “Crossing on the Pamunkey–at Hanover Ferry” (Waud / ~27-29 May 1864) [LOC.gov]

☝️Waud takes more time to draw his figures — fleshing out a couple & leaving the rest for his home-office engravers to fill in.

I had to mirror both these images horizontally, so that the action moved from left to right across the comics pages:

Actually, that sketch gives me ANOTHER idea! What if the opening page is a jarring combination of image & text — A huge marching column PLUS Colby’s wistful words home? Maybe it spreads across 2 pages…? Like SO:

KEEP READING >>

ANOTHER VIEW OF THE SCENE:

Meanwhile — ANOTHER source has come to light:

👇Amazingly, Timothy O’Sullivan was right up on the hill in Waud’s background, looking down with his camera equipment! (Could that be Forbes & Waud sketching in the tent across the river?)

^ “Hanovertown, Ferry, Virginia. Pontoon bridge over the Pamunkey River” (O’Sullivan / 28 May 1864) [LOC.gov]

Notice esp. the blurred women passing in the foreground:

They inspired me to seek out a local family’s perspective on this scene — Resulting in our next two VOL. 4 minis:

NOTES @ the Patreon👉