I am writing a Western comic book set in the fictional town of Wuston, Arizona
in the year 1890. The first chapter of my comic “Frontier Homicide” can be read on my website here http://www.mrsticky005.com/Frontier%20Homicide%20Chapter%201.pdf
story is by me, art is by Adrian Rodriguez
I would appreciate any and all help on making this comic as true to
1890 Arizona while still keeping it an entertaining and engaging read.
Here is some stuff I am interested in knowing
What technology would be available in the year 1890?
What guns would be used? By outlaws? By Law Enforcement?
What methods of catching criminals would be used?
How would the American Indian Wars affect life in Arizona?
Anything else that would help in the making of this comic is much appreciated
and if you know some good websites or books that would help as well I’d appreciate that as well.
I believe you even though this sounds like a homework assignment. May I kindly ask what research you have already done and what you have learned? That’s a pretty big amount of questions to get specific answers here in the GQ thread.
I don’t go to school anymore. Honestly I haven’t really done much research.
Of course I don’t expect to get ALL the answers here but I think it’s a good
starting point as any.
Thank you for the reference.
Are you suggesting that I am somehow lying?
Thank you. I will.
Yeah I learned that after I already got the comic drawn and everything.
Which is why I’m trying to do more research BEFORE all that.
I realize that this probably sounds like I’m being lazy and trying to avoid doing as much research as possible. Well that’s because I AM. Honestly, I don’t want to waste a lot of time* if someone else already knows the answer. Is it cheating? Maybe in school it would be but like I said I don’t go to school anymore. Still I do plan on doing my own research as well but I’m just trying to cover all bases. I just want to make a good comic book and while I could just as easily say “screw it. It’s fiction.” because well it is, I think learning this stuff would be worth it.
Just to clarify I don’t mean learning about the time period and culture of 1890 Arizona
is a waste of time. Rather it is cutting through all the extraneous information to get
to what I’m actually looking for especially when using the internet.
And yes it has been YEARS since I’ve done serious research on anything.
Perhaps I should have before but it’s too late to worry about that now.
I’ve noticed that a lot of artists, even professionals, can’t seem to get the hang of drawing old west guns. Most of your guns look like modern large-frame revolvers with huge grips. Check out a real-life Single Action Army from Cimmarron (NOT Ruger… their older-model guns have abnormally large grips). Take a look at the proportions, how it sits in the hand, and learn what the different parts are called.
Don’t draw the guns so that they sit vertically over the palm and fingers. Also, they did not use side-open cylinders in those days (page 4 is an anachronism). Check out what an ejection lever of the time looked like and why it is different from a modern ejection lever.
Most gun stores will stock at least a few SAA clones and can show them to you. I also recommend you go to a SASS competition and ask them how it’s done. They’ll show you how to properly hold and shoot a rifle (page 4, last panel is incorrect). Make sure you ask what it was like back then… Some of the things they do for modern competition shooting are not historically correct. There are also lots of how-to videos online.
As for the Indian Wars… by 1890 the Wild West wasn’t very wild at all. Every now and then a gang of Indians would cause trouble or try to rob somebody, but it rarely required military intervention. The biggest thing going on in 1890 was the Ghost Dance movement, which was really more of a plains Indian thing and did not have a big impact on Arizona.
Yeah, but the extraneous stuff is often where the gold is.
You want to tell a story and you want the world of that story to be as real as possible. Say you have given yourself 10 research questions that you deem important to your story. You can get the answers to those ten questions and plug them into your story and that’s all well and good, but when you actually do some heavy reading on the subject matter you end up immersing yourself in details that take you beyond 10 answers to 10 questions bringing you to a fuller understanding of the world in which you’ve set your story. You find certain vital facts that you never would have thought to have addressed in your initial 10 questions. You also come to realize that some details that you didn’t think were important actually are important. Your initial 10 questions may be focused on 1890 Arizona but your research gives you the context of 1890 United States, 1890 Mexico, 1890 interstate commerce, 1890 cultural values, etc.
Some of what you end up learning may not make it directly into your story, but your fuller understanding of the subject matter will make your writing infinitely better.
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especially when using the internet.
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Try a library. Research on the internet makes it easy to dismiss certain sources quickly in an attempt to find a better source, easy to dismiss longer treatments in an attempt to find concise summaries. Go to a library, limit your resources to the books on the shelves, read an entire book before moving onto another source.
I consider what you are doing in this thread as research. I get better information here than I do in most traditional places.
The skepticism that some posters have is because sometimes students come on here for an easy answer, when going through the traditional bullshit research is an important part of the assignment. The powers that be on this board and many posters have decided that we will not help students do what they should be doing themselves.
For what it is worth, I believe you. As far as firearms, Winchester repeating rifles had become very popular at the time. The '73 lever action was popular and was very similar in design to the modern lever action Winchesters. Anyone with extra money had a repeater. Old farmers probably still used breach loaders, or real cave dwellers might have still used muskets.
Watch a few eps of Hec Ramsey and Brisco County Jr for some over-the -top fun ideas mixing modern with that era. A few miles and a couple of years off, but still close. Might work for a comic book.
I’m pretty sure he’s suggesting you are asking just to post a link to, therefor promoting your comic. Something I don’t believe BTW.
Equally rude (IMO) is Mahaloth’s post. This new fad of contorting every other info request into shout-downs of homework is tiring.
ETA: Lots of luck on your comic, it’s a tough biz to break into.
I know that I’d draw a multi-page comic book, turn it into a pdf and post it to The Straight Dope if I was in a hurry to get the answer to a homework question by the next morning.
Just to clarify I’m not the artist just the author. Even so thanks for the advice.
That’s a lot of good information on guns that I would have never even thought of.
especially when using the internet.
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Try a library. Research on the internet makes it easy to dismiss certain sources quickly in an attempt to find a better source, easy to dismiss longer treatments in an attempt to find concise summaries. Go to a library, limit your resources to the books on the shelves, read an entire book before moving onto another source.
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That is a good idea.
Because that’s the way the artist drew it. Though I never gave specific
directions for how the old woman was to be drawn.
I suppose that she is dressed too modern?
Thank you for pointing that out.
Well even if I do get an “easy answer” here I would still have to verify it.
But as I said before this gives me a good head start because there’s a LOT
that I wouldn’t have even thought of. Thank you for the information.
Sounds like a similar concept to my own comic with the whole murder mystery set in the west.
Well I’d be lying if I said this WASN’T to at least in part to promote my comic
I mean if I can kill two birds with one stone then why the hell not?
But the main point was to find out more information or where to look for it.
Well actually I’m just the author. The artist drew it.
And for those wondering…yes I did pay the artists.
As a rule, neither men nor women went out hatless, especially older women. It’s also unusual in that time period to see women with bare arms. It would have been seen as risque.
I don’t think you were rude.
I think it is possible to interpret the OP as, “Do my research for me.”
I think a more correct interpretation would be, “Point out my glaring inaccuracies and point me in the right direction so that I can streamline my research process.”