New Page #27!
This is the final page in Issue #16. We’ll return with Issue #17 (the FINAL issue in Act 1: The Consequence of Nathan Hale) soon enough. But first, I think we need to catch our breath.
(At least, I do…)
I’ll have a special tribute on Friday so be sure to check back as usual! Next week I have Nathan Hale related content lined up from a few of my friends who are my ‘go to’ people when I have a Nathan related question. I love picking their brains, so I asked them to share a little of their expertise with all of you.
On this page I wanted to pay tribute to George Dudley Seymour, (the original Nathan Hale fanboy to whom much of the preservation of Hale’s legacy is owed). Seymour, in an essay included in his definitive work Documentary Life of Nathan Hale, says that he believed that Hale’s emphasis when delivering his famous last words was on “My Country,” as this was the most scandalous part of the statement.
The term “American” began as a disparaging insult. Now she was a nation that this young man and many like him were willing to die for.
Treasonous rebel.
We love you, Nathan. You will be missed.
hhjkjkdsfhhqahwpoeoiqwujlijrwilqhrwrhwhkjfhewkjhw!
Computer voice: *We are sorry: Your communication is terminated due to overload of feels. Please stand by.*
Emotional and physical feelings, at that. I woke up this morning with severe pain in my neck and I swear it’s sympathy pains for Nathan. It is on the left side, over and around my own mole of doom…
Oh dear… That is something! Maybe you and Nathan are related somehow….
I’m pretty sure it would have shown up in my family tree by now if I was, but that’s not to say Nathan hasn’t played an integral role in my life that is far more relevant than whatever might show up in my genealogy.
It’s said that a sizeable number of people living today are all descended from Genghis Khan one way or another, so you could be a distant relative of Nathan via Genghis Khan and not know it!
Well we’re ALL related if you go back even further than that. I’m thinking something more direct. :P
You mean like in a Biblical sense? That would do it. :)
Mind you, I would have mixed feelings if a DNA test showed I was related to Genghis Khan, but then we can’t exactly choose our ancestors, now can we? :P
My DNA screening that I did was pretty interesting. While I hail from the British Isles and Germany by family history, my DNA says I’m almost completely central Eurasian (Eastern European and Middle Eastern), which explains my physical appearance a lot.
(To clarify “appearance” I mean that I look very Middle Eastern, and Slavic, at the same time. People mistake me for a different nationality every day. lol)
As the saying goes, “You make me asdfghjkl.” :(
I’m speechless. At this page. So sad, and so beautiful.
Ok, now I can cry.
I love you Nathan, always and forever! <3
Crying huddle! *we all grab Nathan plushies or Nathan memorablia and weep*
poem goes to mind: Oh Captain, my Captain!
All right! Nathan mourning party, stat!
We will get through this together. I am just so sad I cannot cry. I am weeping in my heart.
Nathan!I love you! I hope you can hear me in heaven!
Sorry if I am not making sense, My emotions are on overload.
Just heartbreakingly beautiful scene Lora. yOu drew it like no one else ever could!
Lora made the right choice about where to stop on this page.
Yeah, anything more would have been too much. In several different ways.
Pass the tissues, please, because I’m there with you.
Captain Hale, it’s been an honor.
*hands tissues AND a bottle of water*
Need to replenish the water here…
Aww! I knew this was coming, but its still sad.
So moving! So pretty!
I think you speak for all of us on that one.
oh my gosh….I…I cannot even see the page. Literally weeping. I will comment later.
:,,,(
Even though I’ve known this was coming for years now… I still… so many feels… /cries <3
This “witnessing” of Nathan Hale’s execution reminded me of my experience on the day of Jason Lantieri’s funeral in Killingworth. Jason was only 25, an Army paratrooper, and was killed in Iraq. It was my day off from work at the library, but I felt drawn to visit town. As soon as I saw the massive American flag hanging over the main route through Killingworth, I knew I had to stay. A troop of girl scouts were meeting in the community room and the leaders asked that I tell them when the funeral procession was approaching. When I saw the first cars, I made a general announcement to everyone in the library.
Staff and patrons lined the lawn in front of the library, and the whole area up and down Route 81 went eerily quiet (townspeople lined the entire route of the procession, as I later saw in photos). When the cars carrying Jason’s family and friends went by, we could see that they were crying, but they were also saying “thank you” as they passed. It was so inherently important that their community bore witness to the event, just by being present.
So that was the memory I unearthed when seeing “myself” at Hale’s last moments. They were both young men, dying in service to their country – but most importantly, people they didn’t even know, who may not have even known them, showed up to bear witness.
In this digital age, we can “experience” most anything through videos and messaging, and we can be “involved” by signing online petitions and such. But we have to remember that human contact – being present and looking one another in the eyes – remains the most important gift we can give each other. If you have the opportunity to bear witness for your fellow beings, never pass it by.
Well said, sir.
Amen, Tamesin.
Well said, Tammy. Well said.
Brent – 0 (reset for my win over Christmas)
Caera – 3
Jen – 1
David – 1
Faith – 2
Amber – 2
Tammy – 3
Trevor – 1
Lora (for a free week off) – 2
Julie – 2
Teresa – 1
Rebecca – 1
Dana – 1
Susan – 1
sailormoonsonic – 1
Gina – 1
Collette – 1
Hear hear! *raises glass*
The fact people today can show such respect and honor encourages me. It seems more and more often these days no one cares about anything but their video games.
I just got chills and a lump in my throat reading that — well said, and so movingly beautiful.
Fall in! Dress Riight!Dress! Ten Hut!! Salute!
That’s all I can do right now to pay my respects to wartime casualties, who suffered far more than can be explained to some who wasn’t there. I served in peacetime in the 1980′s Coast Guard, which is but a pale reflection of wartime service. So I can’t say much, except to say “Thank You”.
And thank you. Peacetime service is nothing to sneeze at. My father was in the Navy in the 80′s.
In wartime or peacetime, the Navy AND the Coast Guard will be there.
Thank YOU, Steve. Ditto to Caera’s father.
:)
It strikes me as cruel that this post is labeled under “history fun”….
oh, crap! Yeah, that’s just the category tag. ^^;
Busted! ;D
Nathan! No!!! MY FEELS!!!
Brain’s currently numb, so I’ll let this video talk /for/ me. Maybe after a bit, I’ll say something deep, emotional and meaningful…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eal4fep7pK4
Quick warning: Video’s rated PG-13 and deemed inappropriate in a few parts…
It has the Duo Maxwell scream. It’s perfect.
Elijah Wood’s Frodo’s scream encapsulates my own feels.
I’m going to watch LOTR today I think, just because of that one clip.
“Now he belongs to the Ages.”
— Edwin M. Stanton
<3
Originally, Stanton said, “Now he belongs to the angels.” But the newspaper reporters didn’t think it sounded snappy enough, so they changed it.
Sorry. Geek moment. O_o Still a very fitting quote.
You are kidding! I did not know that.
I did, and I agree with the reporters. “Ages” just SOUNDS better. More “statesmanlike”, you might say.
It is what editors are for…
Nooooooo….
“Did you ever know that you’re my hero….
You’re everything I wish I could be.
I can fly higher than an eagle…
’cause you are the wind beneath my wings.”
Well, at least the latest cameos are out there now…
Is that a Youtube tribute I hear coming on???
I think it is called for. Youtube needs more Nathan Hale tributes
I think I might make one myself, at some point.
I sat here for half an hour, trying to think what to type, but there are no words. Nathan already said them.
He did at that. He did, at that.
It could be because I’m reading this at just past 1:00 in the morning, but I just started making these distressed animal-like whimpering noises.
I’ve been known to do that. No matter the time of day. I make this sound when I’m thinking hard that apparently sounds like my friend’s cat. When she introduced us we had our own conversation. Hahaha!
I swear I’m not human…
I think that I kind of just decided to ignore the fact that Nathan was going to die, so I convinced my subconscious to believe that you weren’t actually going to do it. But now the proof is in front of me and there’s nothing left to do but cry. And be thankful, I suppose, that people as good and brave as Nathan exist.
So long as such people exist, I have hope for the future.
All good things must come to an end… But I suppose we all regret Nate had but one life to give…
The good die young.
Well then I’m gonna live forever. *ducks rotten fruit for ruining the moment*
AHAHAHAHA!
Lora, I think this is your best page of the entire series. Great job! Such a powerful image and words, you certainly did them justice.
Thank you. It was a very emotional page for me to draw…
I know I couldn’t have done it. Drawn it, I mean.
Few would have had the guts to do it. Well done, Lora
Knowing that it’s coming certainly does not make it better…. Excuse me, I’m going to go spend my morning at work crying :(
Beautiful work Lora.
I’m pretty sure half the people I know are wondering who Nathan is and where I know him from, and how he died. I never bother to explain these things when I express my sadness online. :P
GAH!!!! T_T I think if the Nathan sequence in these last few pages was shared in high school history classes, a lot more teenagers would GET IT!
Maybe now it will be. I’ve met a lot of teachers who have told me they’ve used The Dreamer in their classrooms!
If my mum taught high schoolers she would too, but she teaches elementary school students and she doesn’t have her own classroom. She goes from classroom to classroom and works one-on-one with the students who need extra help. She won educator of the year last week. :D
Well, good for HER, by Jove!
I’m very proud of her. :)
Emotions=gone! I’m just too emotional about this to feel anything, self-preservation!
(on a side note, I’M RIGHT THERE! But if I had been there I would have A) been a boss and saved him, or B) sobbed my eyes out)
This was moments before the sobbing. You had to be strong for him!
That’s it! The time to sob is friday’s update!
But I thought Lora said Friday’s update was going to cheer us up. O.o
I love that the last shot of him is of his back. For some reason it speaks more volumes than it would have if we’d seen his face last.
That’s true. I’m sad we didn’t get to see his pretty face on last time, but it’s so well done…
I’m glad we didn’t get to see his face. I don’t want the memory of his face with a noose around his neck. It’s hard enough seeing it from behind.
Well don’t look at the sketch Lora posted on deviantart some years ago then…:P
This is terribly beautiful and sad. Well done Lora!
“Nathan Hale I was acquainted with, from his frequent visits at my father’s house… His own remarks… left at that period an indelible impression on my mind. Hale remarked to my father, that he was offered a commission in the service of his country, and exclaimed “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.” These were some of the last expressions I ever heard fall from his lips.” (Dr. Eneas Munson, Jr., c. 1836)
Thanks for sharing Rachel!
You & Dr. Forman make this blog much more educational! Stop by as often as you wish!
My pleasure! It just so happens that one of my strict New Years resolutions is to be a more active conversant and less of a lurker on awesome websites like this one. It’s about time, right??
Though I’m not gonna lie… I have been semi-avoiding this site for the last few weeks… for what I’m pretty sure are obvious reasons. But now… here we are. *sigh*
Most of my friends did the same. I could not stay away though. I am rather addicted.
@Rachel Smith: For readers who do not know their Latin very well (and that would include me), the quotation translates, “It is sweet and proper to die for one’s country.” It was written by the ancient Roman author Horace in his Odes II, but is usually unattributed in late 18th and early 19th c. American contexts. Friends recalled Joseph Warren uttering these very words on the evening prior to the Battle of Bunker Hill. I infer that many Revolutionary era college students had read Horace as part of their Latin studies, and shared memorable quotes to one another in Latin.
I don’t know Latin, but I knew the phrase. Thanks for translating it though; it’s nice to have smart people on here. :)
My brother studied Latin in high school but I’ve never studied. Too busy with Mandarin. O.o
Lol, my dad *wanted* me to study Mandarin in college (a “useful” language, so I could “make some money translating on the side”), but instead I chose Latin. Drove him crazy. ;) Although, in my defense, Latin is vital for studying 18th century intellectual history and the history of education. Those founding fathers sure loved to use it to show off their fancy book larnin’.
@Sam Forman: I’ve always been struck by how that one quote seemed to be a self-fulfilling prophecy for both Joseph Warren and Nathan Hale.
Latin is an extremely useful language! It’s practically a must for Science and History! And Classics. If I had studied History or the Classics I’d have gone for Latin in college. But I did Professional Writing.
Also, I started studying Mandarin as a kid for kicks (not kidding) so when I barely made it through Spanish in high school, I decided to stick with a language that I knew I could actually learn.
Why Mandarin worked for me and Spanish didn’t, when I live in South Texas an am surrounded by Spanish and English 24/7, is beyond me.
I just wish I could get a working microphone so I could start up my Rosetta Stone again. :(
You may live farther south in Texas than me, but you are not alone in your “affliction.” I took French (much to the dismay of my parents who didn’t think it would be useful at all in Texas…nevermind that it got me a trip to France with my aunt :P), and I picked it up fairly well (though my tendency towards perfectionism made it almost impossible for me to speak the darn language for fear of “doing it wrong”).
I actually learned some Spanish as a young child (and I still remember a few words), but when I tried taking classes later in life, I just couldn’t get it. :)
Now…if only I could afford Rosetta Stone… :) I would love to actually become comfortable speaking French (so I don’t lose it all), and then pick up Spanish (since I do live in Texas and intend to stay here)…and then for giggles, I’d like to learn both Russian (I can say two or three sentences in Russian) and Japanese (my husband is a quarter Japanese, and we both want to visit the country someday). :P
Yeah, Rosetta Stone is expensive. Mine was a gift; it’s the only way I wound up with it.
I cant read this. This image alone is too much. Someone tell me! I cant look… This shot alone is making me cry as I quote along.
It’s beautifully drawn though.
EXCUSE ME. THIS WAS JUST RUDE.
HOW I AM SUPPOSE TO PUT MY HEART BACK TOGETHER AGAIN?
Have some consideration for my heart next time won’t you?!
OMG I know, right? ;)
I kinda wrote this for all fallen war heroes, but i reread it and thought Nathan.
Rest in peace, the battle is won
Your part is over, the fight’s just begun.
But never fear that you could have done more
I am who I am because you went to war
You fought for freedom and liberty
Fought for our protection, for our country.
And so strongly the call to freedom did burn
In silent vigil you watch, now its our turn
So rest in peace, the fighting is done
the battle is over, the war has been won.
Beautiful. You should make a song out of it.
Im actually working on a melody for it. Thank you :)
Strong visual storytelling. Well played, Innes. Well played, indeed. :)
Happenstance brought me to this wonderful website this past weekend. The engrossing story line kept me glued to my laptop. (I read all the issues in a matter of hours.) What gorgeous artwork and coloring, possibly the most beautiful comic I have ever read.
What impresses me most, though, is the intricate balance between 1776 and the 21st century. I love the Revolutionary period in this country, anld Innes, you have brought these brave and honorable men to life. I may only be an English teacher, but I will add your comic to my class library. Students need to read this!
Now excuse me whilst I mourn for Nathan. :’(
Wow! What a time to become a Dreamer! Welcome to the club, and here’s some tissues I brought for the Nathan pity-party.
And you’re a teacher? Go you! My mum’s a teacher and I suspect at some point in the future I might wind up being a school librarian. Not the same, exactly, but… ;).
Thanks for the welcome, and especially for the tissues. I think we all need those!
Being a librarian is an important job, much more than people give it credit. I’ve always wanted to be a librarian, actually. Must be from my love of books. You should be a school librarian. It’s a rewarding career!
Yes, I worked in the law library at Baylor, and the Armstrong Browning Library, a research library and museum, when I was a student. I decided after this year that I never want to work corporate again so I am going back for a library master’s. I am really excited about it too. :)
Two of my aunts are librarians, so I happen to know that librarians are awesome (so you’d fit right in Caera!). :)
Also, of the five school professionals I remember and still adore the most, two were English teachers, and two were librarians (one was my high school junior Calculus teacher…he was an incredibly rare and wonderful thing…a math teacher that I loved).
I got along really well with my HS Librarian. She even helped my friends and me start the library club.
Librarians rock. http://librarianavengers.org/worship-2/
LOL That’s awesome.
And so true! I cataloged our UPS driver once.
Hahaha what?!?!
How many acts are you planning on doing by the way?
Great page and chapter by the way, the tension really builds up to this last page.
3, and the second and third ones aren’t as long as the first. Right, Lora? ;)
What is it with all the sweet, innocent characters dying in my fandoms lately?
Three weeks ago, Samandriel. Now Nathan, unless the Doctor materializes the TARDIS around him.
Fandoms aside, what’s with the sweet and innocent dying in real life?
Sorry, that was a dark comment for me to make. :/
This is how it would work — the TARDIS materializes around him, he goes off with the Doctor to live for years experiencing all sorts of awesomeness and life happiness, then, at the end, the Doctor brings him back so as not to cause a tear in the space/time continuum, then delivers a new set of letters Nathan wrote. Because they contained stories of the full life he’d had anyway, he asked his family to hide them after reading them, which is why they aren’t in history books. …. It’s a little known fact that Nathan Hale, in the moment before he died, seemed to have aged like twenty years …. :D
I like this story. It’s a good story. Let’s go with this one.
Yes! Do it!
Oh, and that’s why we don’t see his face in that last moment — because Lora knows, but the men in black won’t let Lora show us the truth about Nathan’s strange aging.
Ah I see.
*holds up neuralizer given to me by Thaddeus Stevens- I mean K*
This page is too sad. I will be Mourning to Nathan’s death and from this update starting now.
This is me Mourning after seeing this page https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150619007204662&set=a.405680924661.179490.306522074661&type=3&theater
Nathan!! D’:
I think it’s a lot more emotional to see this instead of just reading about his death in a book. A lot better and interesting, too. c: But now I’m excited to see Bea’s reaction…!
(Just add this to my list of Sad Things, including 30 Rock ending. Jfghsks. I’ll shut up now.)
This is such a solemn and sad scene, and in a desperate attempt not to break down into tears, I notice the slit in the back of Nathan’s breeches. What is that about?
That’s how pants were designed back then. No zippers, so they had a button-up front and tied in back.
Nathan Hale died for his America. Freedom and Liberty that was just a dream in his day are within our reach. It doesn’t mean we are perfect and we have never always been right. It was started by “Dreamers” and as other Americans put it “I have a Dream…..” and “they gave the last full measure of devotion”.
This is the only downside of historical fiction. From the minute Nathan introduced himself I knew what was going to happen eventually. But it’s still terribly sad.
So I’ve been reading this comic for years, and I have to say this last chapter is near and dear to me. I am actually related to Nathan Hale through my mother’s side of the family. I am so happy to see someone do such a great job illustrating and telling the world his story.
Thank you! Glad you found The Dreamer!