Issue Five Coverby ~comic-chic

Cartoons & Comics / Digital Media / Comics / Pages

I'm not sure when the idea for this cover came to me. I know initially ~ChrisOatley and I had bounced around the idea of him also painting the Issue #5 cover. He wanted to do something expansive and war-y, like a scene from Gettysburg. I kept trying to think of some image that would sum up Issue #5, and nothing from the battle worked, since the Battle of Long Island was not fought in old-school, "line up and shoot each other" style.

I eventually scrapped the idea of a battle image all together and just decided to do a spooky silhouette of this guy: General Sir William Howe. William Howe is a tough villain to write because he didn't hate the Americans. In fact, his brother Lord Admiral Howe was late getting to America with the British Navy because he refused to leave England until given the power to negotiate peace with the Americans. And that had been the Howes' plan: to end it all peaceably. Sadly, the Admiral (also known as "Black Dick") got to America just after they signed the Declaration of Independence, and at that point the Yankees' stubborn minds were made up. It was too little, too late.

For his part, William Howe ("Sir Billy") never tried to decimate the American army. Instead, he tried to bottle them up and force them to surrender. He didn't account on them being insolent to the point of death, so his tactics didn't work very well. After the Battle of Long Island, George Washington adapted his strategy from "stand and fight!" to "live to see another day!" and his retreating shenanigans drug the war out eight long, cold and hungry years.

In any event, this is the first cover without Bea on it. You likes? I loves.