Some examples of pre-contact Mohawk fashion. There was a lot of cultural diffusion in the early days, and I had to be careful not to depict the Mohawk and Oneida in incongruous attire. The Mohawk in particular were influenced by certain European cuts of jackets, and traded beaver pelts heavily for European shirts and glass Read the Rest…
Some stock faces of various Mohawk and Oneida. Some of these guys are in the final book, some or not. It was nice to always have a ready assortment of Mohawk “extras” for the many, many crowd scenes I would have to draw. My sketchbooks are stuffed silly with little doodles like these.
Journey into Mohawk Country takes place during the period of time between Native Americans first being introduced to firearms and their actually procuring some for themselves. Throughout the journal, the Mohawk show a keen interest in the guns that Harmen and company carry, and on several instances request that the Dutchmen fire their weapons. These Read the Rest…
When editor Mark Siegel told me that he was looking for some non-fiction graphic novels for the new Firstsecond imprint, I pitched the idea of what would eventually become Journey into Mohawk Country. Using as my only text the actual journal kept by a 17th century Dutch barber/surgeon, I would fill in the gaps of Read the Rest…
Here I am working out the bodily proportions of Harmen van den Bogaert, Journey into Mohawk Country’s author and protagonist. This is pretty much the final design, as he appears in the book. But he didn’t always look like this: I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say that I drew him thousands Read the Rest…
Early on in the development of what would become Journey into Mohawk Country I had not yet even decided what style I would be drawing the book in, let alone the appearance of the main characters. This is a sampling of the very earliest drawings of the character of Harmen van den Bogaert, the author Read the Rest…
When last we checked in on the evolution of the appearance of Harmen van den Bogaert, he looked more like a character from a Marvel Comic than Journey into Mohawk Country. This drawing represents something of a quantum leap in his design. His initial depictions were a bit distant and remote—this was my very conscious Read the Rest…
Unlike the character of Willem Tomassen, who arrived pretty much intact from the start, Harmen’s other companion, Jeronimus de la Croix, underwent some significant changes as I worked on Journey into Mohawk Country. Here we have assembled a smattering of early concepts; some of it works, some doesn’t. In the journal, Jeronimus comes across as Read the Rest…
These are some sketches of the “cover that almost was” for Journey into Mohawk Country. The three Dutchmen, dwarfing a miniature Mohawk River Valley, which was actually merely the strip of hair in some sort of giant slumbering Mohawk. Thank goodness I came up with the final cover idea at the last minute, and everyone Read the Rest…
This is the earliest group shot I could find that I drew of the three main characters in Journey into Mohawk Country. Notice that at this stage of the project I had not yet even decided on a drawing style for the graphic novel, these characters being depicted in a much more “realistic” style than Read the Rest…
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