New Pages 7 & 8 today–and, as promised, they contain a special cameo, my Grandpa Andrew Sharp:

Captain Andrew Sharp was my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather.  He was an officer in Colonel Edward Hand’s Pennsylvania Riflemen of the 1st Continental Line.  The Riflemen are a lot of fun because the British were terrified of them.  So terrified in fact that George Washington took to putting other regiments who were actually carrying muskets in hunting shirts–just to instill fear in the Brits.  In the 18th Century, a musket had very poor aim, and thus was effective when you stood in a line and fired off a lot of shots in unison.  It acted like grapeshot that way.  A rifle however, was very precise even though it took longer to load.

In my research on the Battle of Long Island, I found out some interesting things about Colonel  Hand’s Pennsylvania Riflemen.  They had been stationed down at a town called Flatbush and because the British had landed and no one knew when they would attack, Hand’s men were kept on constant vigilance for four days.  Utterly exhausted, they were finally relieved of this outer post at two AM on August 27th, 1776 and marched back to the forts at Gownaus Heights.  Unfortunately, they only got about forty five minutes of sleep at the forts before fighting broke out and they were put back on duty.  (The regiment who replaced them were trying to position themselves best they could in an unfamiiar post in the dark, and frankly, were not as competent as Hand’s men.  When Hessian troops attacked not  an hour after the riflemen left, they easily broke through the rookies’ defenses.)

You know that famous flight across the Gowanus Creek where the Smallwood’s Marylanders were massacred?  Yeah, Hand’s riflemen stood on top the hill and picked off British soldiers trying to help the Marylander’s escape.  You know that really famous retreat from Long Island to Manhattan?  Yeah, Hand’s riflemen were some of the last to leave, manning the American posts until the end.

Captain Sharp must have had some fun stories but his death certainly takes the cake!  He was a backwoodsy frontiersman, raising his family in Indiana County, Pennsylvania (where my family still lives today!)  I guess things were pretty rough with the Natives there, so he decided to take his family to Cumberland, Kentucky where his kids could go to school and grow up in a real town where they didn’t have to fight for their lives.  So the Sharps and and a family of their neighbors packed up their belongings and forded down the river Oregon Trail style.  Outside of Pittsburgh, however, some Native Americans, angry at other frontiersmen, decided to take it out on my grandpa and opened fire on the rafts down the river.  Two of the neighbor family’s kids were killed.  A musket ball took off one of Grandpa Sharp’s eyebrows. Unfazed, the grizzled veteran kept firing.  Grandma Sharp reloaded the gun while Grandpa took aim.  He killed at least one of them and they ran away.  But not before he had been shot two more times–one in each side.

The families were able to make it to Pittsburgh, where Grandpa Sharp was put on the mend in Fort Duquesne.  All was going well for forty days until the Fourth of July.  And we Americans like things that go BOOM on the forth of July.  So in celebration of the momentous day, cannons were fired at the fort.  Unfortunately, the blast of the cannons was so strong that Sharp’s wounds reopened and he hemorrhaged to death.

His story is actually recorded in all the “History of Indiana County, PA” volumes because he was the last settler killed in a fight with Natives in Pennsylvania.  His family went down to Kentucky, but eventually moved back to Pennsylvania.

Well, my hat’s off to you, Grandpa Sharp!  You must’ve been a cool guy and definitely rough around the edges…!  My tribute to you is utterly ridiculous, but… you sired a girl who loves to laugh.

So THANK YOU for all the donations yesterday!  We raised enough to cover our legal fees–you guys are awesome!!  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please read yesterday’s post and help us out if possible.  If we can raise enough to cover the cost of my convention tables and that hole in my bathroom floor, I’ll see you here next Friday.  And I think you really want that because the next update contains a brand new character who is one of my favorites in The Dreamer cast!  As well as a very familiar face who I’m sure a lot of you have been, perhaps, a bit worried about…!  :)

This is going to be a semi-serious post, so you have my apologies in advance!  This week, Mike and I were suddenly hit with several big bills.  Some of them aren’t your fault, but some of them are.  :)  We incurred some hefty fees from an attorney in regards to the future of The Dreamer.  It’s good stuff, but it still costs money.  You guys also like The Dreamer way too much:  this past week you officially maxed out our bandwidth.  Which is another good thing, but we had to upgrade our service.  Things that weren’t your fault:  a simple floor repair in the kitchen turned into having a 4′ x 8′ hole cut through our kitchen floor, a 4′ x 4′ hole cut in our wall, and another big hole cut into our bathroom.  All on top of the repair we were initially anticipating.

So here’s how The Dreamer works right now:  I make absolutely no money.  But it’s my full time job.  That’s only possible because Mike is all sorts of awesomeness and works his butt off so you guys get this web comic each and every Friday for free.  Don’t panic:  we have absolutely no plans to change that.  But Mike’s job only covers our living expenses.  And over this past year that I’ve been doing The Dreamer, we’ve incurred all sorts of expenses on the webcomic that have drained our savings.  I’m sure you like getting paid for your job…?  It would be nice to get paid for mine.  :)  Out of pocket we’ve had to pay for comic printing costs, convention costs (table space, travel expenses, lodging, food, etc), travel costs (to do my fancy pants research), web hosting space, advertising, art supplies, a new computer/monitor (mine died) which required buying a software upgrade on the entire Adobe Suite, a new scanner (mine died), and my printer died but I haven’t been able to replace it yet.  Not to mention attorney fees, copyright fees, printing fees, post office fees, accounting fees, small business registration fees, etc, etc.  Oh yeah, and the transmission went out on my car and I spent all winter here, trapped at home without any transportation.  (I got a little batty!)

Right now we’re in the middle of convention season again and all the costs which that incurs, and with these unexpected major home repairs I’ll be honest–we just can’t do it.  Here’s the truth:  Right now I don’t make enough off The Dreamer to cover the cost of my pencils and paper for each issue.  Some of you are the awesome and donate regularly each and every month, and if you don’t know this yet:  I love you!!  The old familiar ring of Paypal emails in my inbox makes me happy that some of you think this project is worth keeping around.

So we’re not going to quit The Dreamer, but what happens next is up to you.  You can help us out, and help us get this business out of the red, or I’m going to have to take a break from The Dreamer for a couple of weeks and do some freelance work that pays.  That sounds like suck to me, so I surely hope that you guys will help us out!  I came up with a few ways that you can donate to the cause so you will get something back besides warm and fuzzy feelings:

-Any sized donation will receive our brand new spring/summertime Bea & Alan wallpaper.  If you can’t make out the image, Bea is letting Alan listen to a song on her pink iPod under one of his apple trees.  It’s so cute for the summertime!  And… I’m just noticing that it matches the neon-puke green wall in my office!

-A $5 donation will get you a downloadable PDF of the brand new short story I wrote about Nathan Hale, with an all-new cover image.  This is the story of how Nathan went from being a school teacher to an army officer.  It also sheds some light on his love life.  If you like Nathan Hale, this story is full of info on him that you’ll never read in The Dreamer.

-A $25 donation will get you an autographed 2008 sketchbook.  Even if you watch me on DeviantART there’s stuff in there that hasn’t been anywhere online.  Including some of my work for DC Comics.  If you don’t watch me on DeviantART then this is a real treat.  And its all new material from last year’s edition.

-A $50 donation will get you a (signed if you want it) Dreamer mini-poster.  (They’re 11 x 17).  We have four images to pick from: The new Issue #1 cover, the Issue #2 cover, the First Kiss, and the old donors-only wallpaper of Bea & Alan walking through the snow.

-A $100 donation will get you an original page from The Dreamer.  (Except the First Kiss.  Can’t sell you that one because it’s actually a page in my sketchbook.)

(Use the “Donate” button (on the top of the side bar here at The Dreamer Comic.com) for all donations except the short story.  For the Nathan Hale story, use the “Buy Now” button underneath.  Make sure to save it to your computer when it’s finished downloading!)

So that’ll be the deal for the next week.  If we make enough to keep our heads above water, then I’ll see you back here on next Friday.  If we don’t, I’m going to have to spend a couple of weeks doing freelance work and making some real money.  So help out the cause!  Because Issue #4 is so much fun from start to finish you don’t really want to have to wait for it!  And be honest, you don’t need one more frappuccino this week do you?  Or another pair of GAP jeans..?  Not when Alan’s life hangs in the balance!

In all seriousness, I love you guys!  There will still be an update tomorrow, have no fear!  I’ve been working all week on it, even as the repair guys rip apart my house.  All that hammering and sawing and interruptions of, “Um, ma’am, you really need to see this…” has made for some unusual but unforgettable work days…!  :P

New Pages 5 & 6 today! Nathan is able to finish his thought.  My apologies for the abrupt end to last week’s update.  But, the wait is over!  Go find out what on earth he was getting at.

(At least Nathan doesn’t think Bea is crazy… But what she thinks of him is yet to be determined.)

Who knew “cogito, ergo sum” without looking it up?  :)

This week’s update highlights a common plight of the Revolutionary Soldier: hunger.  The poor soldiers were starving in 18th century, rural America which was about as close to the Garden of Eden you’re likely to get this side of heaven. The British soldiers’ letters home were filled with awe over the beautiful American farms, fruit trees, flowers, and over-all abundance of produce.  And yet the Contiental Army was starving.  The more you learn about it, the more interesting it gets.  Soldiers on both sides burnt farms, cut down fruit trees, and slaughtered animals to keep their enemies from getting the food.  Farmers hid what they could to keep their families alive while both armies plundered their livelihood.  The Continental dollar was a joke, as was Congress’s ability to raise money to support their army.  And so the soldiers spent the better part of seven long, cold, thankless years scouring the countryside for food.

So Bea helping Nathan out is no small deal.  I think the two of them are going to be all right after all.

Next week’s update is especially fun, since there’s a very special cameo in it:  My great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather.  :)

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Voting incentive this week is the illustrated cover to a short story I wrote about Nathan Hale, which tells the story of how he went from School Teacher to Army Officer. It also sheds light on his love life. My favorite thing about this story is that it’s all true–I was able to actually put all my Nathan Hale trivia to use. Look for it next week, when it’ll be available to download. But for now VOTE to see the cover!

If you didn’t read my blog earlier this week, Issue #3 of The Dreamer is now available for download at WOWIO!  It contains the script to the first eight pages of that issue, with all my edits and everything.  Remember, everytime you download The Dreamer, I make money even though it costs you nothing!  So we both win.