A short story set in a fictional American town during the Civil War. An amnesiac stranger wanders into town, only to find himself in the middle of a fight between the Red Strings of America and the Knights of the Golden Circle!
Project Status:
60% complete (pencils done, inking mostly done)
Inspiration Behind Story:
There was a time when the world could not get enough of westerns. Like today’s over-saturated market of superhero films, it was impossible to avoid these productions at the theaters. Almost every western film was guaranteed to make its money back, so much so that countries like Germany, Spain, and most notably Italy began to make their own productions. In a period of 10 years, Europeans produced over 600 westerns. Most of them were terrible and low quality. But a few, notably by genius filmmaker Sergio Leone, managed to surpass their American counterparts for the quality of their stories, cinematography, and music. These Spaghetti Westerns, as they were mockingly called, would end up leaving a lasting impression on American cinema. Were it not for their gritty and violent interpretation, no doubt the clean and antiseptic American versions would have continued to dominate the screens.
It’s not uncommon for these movies to take place during or shortly after The American Civil War. The stories often feature the conflict as a backdrop, and while there is an undeniably strong stories that can come from such a brutal conflict, they tend to ignore the impact the conflict had on people who were not soldiers. Rarely do we hear of the secret societies that sprang up on both sides of the conflict. Civilians, often risking their own lives attempting to sabotage and disrupt the efforts of the other side, would invariably be put into conflict with their friends, neighbors, and even family members. It was impossible to be neutral, and yet every story I have ever read from that time period seems to omit the contributions, or damages, these individual made.
The American Civil war is the most well documented conflict in American History. For a war that saw the death of nearly 700,000 men, it certainly deserves this distinction. Unfortunately, what’s less clear than the victories and losses on the battlefield was the toll the war took on the civilians. For instance, in July of 1863, New York experience a race riot as a result of forced conscription. The working class Irish were angry that the rich could buy their way out, and were further worried that free slaves would diminish their labor power. 120 people were killed, and over 1000 people were injured before the riots were suppressed.
It’s impossible to overstate just how important this conflict was in determining the current political state of America. Most civil wars are brutal ones, but what was especially pernicious of the American Civil war was how bloody and all encompassing it was. The seeds for the conflict had been sown at the very inception of the new nation. By claiming that all men are created equal, it was only a matter of time before the very obvious paradox of having a nation promulgating slavery while simultaneously espousing the rights of the individual would force its population go to war with itself. Had America existed with the code of the Hammurabi, which specifically condones slavery, it might have been a different story. An inherent instability existed in the foundational documents of America.
The conflict was inevitably going to be won by the Union. Not only was 90% of Americans living in Union states, the Confederates had almost as many slaves. The Union Army was twice as large, and far more While it could be argued that the South had only to commit to a defensive war, their lack of naval power and the Union blockade chocking their economy. Some 1500 Confederate “runners” had been destroyed by the end of the war.
When a conflict first rages, there is always a great amount of vigor and excitement that can be found from those who wish war. How durable this vigor is is entirely dependent on how long, and how brutal a campaign is. It didn’t help that only a fraction of Confederates actually owned slaves. The vast majority or poor individuals, themselves the puppets of wealthy slaveholders that shared little in common except for their skin color ,
Western movies were prone to show the grandiose and epic scale of the civil war, but rarely are we interested in how everyday people were affected. The civil war was a personal war, pitting family members, friends and neighbors against one another. It struck me as odd that there is still so little information on the lives of common people stuck in the middle of this fight. This graphic novel aims to explore these themes.