Saturday, January 09, 2010

New England's Dark Day


As promised, here is the 2-page comic I did for Inbound #4: A Comic Book History of Boston, the anthology I've been promoting put out by the Boston Comics Roundtable. The book features 144 pages of true-to-history comics created by local independent comic artists and writers. Jump over to the site for more information.

For my comic I chose an event called New England's "Dark Day" of 1780 (here are a few sources for further reading 1, 2). Basically: sky turns pitch black at noon; townsfolk think it's the end of the world. Which means I get to draw tormented characters. But this wasn't a mere eclipse—supposedly the smoke from a massive forest fire may have combined with a low pressure system to make eerily dark clouds. It would sure freak us out if it happened again today.

I should add, this was the first comic I inked with a brush pen (after switching over from nibs).

You can purchase a copy of the anthology, here. And it's currently available all around Boston—even in bookstores!

Previously:
A Comic Book History of Boston
"Dark Day" Teaser for Inbound

3 comments:

Erin Snyder said...

First up, nice choice of events. Nice comic, too.

Reminds me of an Asimov story, "Nightfall." It's about a planet with multiple suns that only goes dark once every 10,000 years or so.

ETCIllustration said...

Thanks so much for the compliments on my blog! I hadn't realized that you were the man behind "New England's Dark Day," one of my own favorites from Inbound #4. (I should have put two-and-two together after talking with Keith Zoo, but I can be pretty dense that way!) It's great to be included in an anthology with such talented folks.

David DeGrand said...

Love it! The use of just the greytones is perfect, well done sir!