This was published before I read more than a handful of comic books, so I didn’t see it at the time. The “’Taint the Meat…It’s the Humanity!” blog has a thorough overview.
The Stan Lee Papers at the University of Wyoming hold memos from Marvel Comics editor Tony Isabella to different artists, commissioning them to create the pictures for each month. (Start on page 37 of this digitized file.)
For example, to Gil Kane in January 1975:
Gil, this scene should show Conan and some Minute Men fighting British troops at Lexington. The British troops are wielding bayonets. I’m enclosing some reference (an old engraving) for you to (what else) refer to and whatever information on the battle at Lexington I can dig up. We’ll try to get you some additional reference before the end of the week.That image ended up not showing any British troops at all, just the Cimmerian warrior urging on the Minute Men as they fired from behind a rather flat stone wall.
Deadline for sketch: IMMEDIATELY!
It’s rather funny to see the company’s effort to be historically accurate while inserting giant green monsters and flaming men into the Revolutionary War.
This is great, JL! I'll need to add it to my presentations on the Hopkins portrait (which is apparently the source of the so-called "First Navy Jack" flag). It would be interesting to know which French copy he used -- I'm aware of at least two.
ReplyDeleteAs a descendent of Jonathan Harrington on my Father's side, I appreciate this. We were at the State House and Wharf for the 250 this year. I was at Grand Lodge most of the day, this article feels very timely, part of that cycle, even... Thank you! ^^
ReplyDeletePeter, I think the earliest version of the ersatz Esek Hopkins might be the print discussed back here. That print said it was published in London, but it may have been imported from across the Channel—but not from France. It makes sense for British people to be interested in Hopkins as the new American naval commander and for French people to catch up months or years later.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there's much doubt that the original "Thomas Hart" engraving was published in Britain. However, there were several copies published in Europe, including at least two in France. One of them had the words on the flags translated into French and is a fairly crude copy -- maybe that's the one that Robbins used. I discussed the background of this engraving in some detail in my "Raven" article on the First Navy Jack.
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