I finished my pages early this week and I’ve been totally thrown off as to what day it is ever since. In fact, tonight I almost forgot to post them. This is what I get for working ahead! Here you go, though, new Pages 17 &18!

(Look like Fred isn’t getting any special treatment for being the boss’s son.)

Wonderful news here on The Dreamer front! One of my color assistants, Dream Team member Michael Motter, asked his lovely girlfriend Asha to marry him this week… and she said yes! Many hearty congratulations to you guys! I think I can offer them up a hearty Hip, Hip, Huzzah from the entire Dreamer family!

And last week Revolutionary War historian J.L. Bell featured The Dreamer in his blog, Boston 1776! That gets another Huzzah from me!

See you next Friday!

Hey everyone! Thanks for the grace & understanding as I missed last week’s update. Here you go, new Pages 15 & 16!

The Adamses and the Warrens were family friends, as a result of the political partnership that grew between Dr. Joseph Warren and Samuel Adams. Dr. Warren inoculated all of John Adam’s kids during a Small Pox outbreak one summer, and also inoculated Samuel Adams’ son, who went on to study medicine under Dr. Warren. Samuel Adams & Joseph Warren were the real trouble makers in Boston, and they kept fighting for a break with England, even when things became relatively peaceful. In fact, Moderates like John Adams and John Hancock abandoned the cause for several years while the more stubborn Samuel Adams and Dr. Warren kept on fighting. In the end, they got their way, but if you look at the roots of American Independence, I don’t believe it would’ve happened without these two men and the friendship that formed between them.

Oh, and about this Peace Delegation business, you can read more about it here if you’re interested in the history behind The Dreamer. The house on Staten Island where the peace talk took place between John Adams, Ben Franklin, Edward Rutledge and Lord Admiral Howe is still standing, and you can visit it today! I doubt that a peace would’ve been reached in any case, but the Americans had just signed the Declaration of Independence, and refused to withdraw it. This, of course, was part of the British terms to end hostilities.

In other news, nominations for the Web Comic Reader’s Choice Awards are quickly wrapping up! Thanks for those of you who already nominated us! The nomination I’m most proud of is the one for Best Website since Mike did an amazing job on the site redesign! (And in case you missed it, Mike says “Thanks!!” for all the birthday wishes last week!)

And since we’ve got some famous faces in today’s update, I thought that for the voting incentive I would point out some of the other cameos that have appeared in the pages of The Dreamer! Since I didn’t update last week, I put some extra effort into the voting incentive so I hope you have fun reading through all of them!

So VOTE this week for some extra Dreamer Cameo fun!

I know that I write about a lot of real people, and I try to respect the people I’m writing about as much as I can. But after I’ve done my research and developed the characters, I give myself the liberty of writing the characters and not the historic person. I don’t know if that makes sense, but after I’ve researched as much as I can, and I can “see” the character in my mind, that mental picture of the person is the one I use in my stories, and then I give myself permission to run with it and have fun.

But then sometimes things happen like, say, I visit Nathan Hale’s house and get to touch his army trunk when the docents aren’t looking (I’m sorry, Diana, I did do that!) and I’m suddenly reminded that he was a real person. Well, that happens every time one of Thomas Knowlton’s great-grand kids emails me. It happened again today when a fellow named Scott Knowlton emailed me to say that one of his friends sent him the Thomas Knowlton character design I did, and he thought it was funny because my drawing looked like him. Funny, because he is the real Thomas Knowlton’s great x6 grandson. (He sent me a photo of himself and they actually do look alike!)

It turns out that his family is in possession of the real Lt. Colonel Thomas Knowlton’s sword and powder horn! And he had a photo of the powder horn (he says there’s still gunpowder in it!) and was kind enough to not only send it to me, but give me permission to post the photo here so that you all could see it.

(Click on pic to view full sized!)

So cool! Thanks, Scott!!

I apologize, but there will be no update this week. I was shooting to do a one page update but my brain shut down and I didn’t get as far as I needed to. I’m sorry. Have you ever pushed yourself too hard for a too long and then when you get to the finish line you just crash? That’s what happened to me. I’ve been looking at Baltimore Con as the end of the madness, and apparently so was my brain because this week, even figuring out simple 2 point perspective was stumping me.

But I won’t leave you with nothing! If you haven’t read it yet, the Baltimore Con recap was posted earlier this week, and contains the world’s coolest Cosplay ever!

The Indy Comics Panel I was on at Mid Ohio Con was taped, and released here in seven installments for your watching pleasures!

I did a really fun, almost silly at times, interview for Fantasy magazine!

And Jeff Ritter interviewed me about the graphic novel release at The Trades.com!

Some other cool news this week: The Dreamer was nominated for the S.P.A.C.E. (Small Press Alternative Comics Expo) award! In both the general and the webcomic categories!

There will be a full update next Friday, and you can VOTE this week for an early preview if you like!

Or, sign up for the Fan Flow where you always get to preview updates early!

(Mike Innes, taken at Valley Forge earlier this year.)

Friday is MIKE’S BIRTHDAY!!! So wish him a happy birthday, everyone!!