The Sailor Twain/ Journey into Mohawk Country Connection, Part deux; kinda like the Rainbow Connection, but with less singing frogs

Devotees of this blog will recall a post I made about a month ago detailing an unexpected and hitherto unrevealed link between First Second Editorial Grand Poobah Mark Siegel's awesome ongoing webcomic Sailor Twain and my own historical graphic novel Journey into Mohawk Country (follow the link if you missed it).

Well, I'm a little late in reporting this (mainly due to the mother of all flu bugs laying me out cold since late last year) but in the December, 27th installment of Sailor Twain some very familiar faces made an appearance.

That's Harmen van den Bogaert, the author of Journey into Mohawk Country, flanked by his companions Jeronimus de la Croix and Willem Thomassen, as based on the below drawing by yours truly. Now we know what happened to our Dutch heroes after Journey concluded. Who knew Mermaids played a part?

Pretty cool stuff, if I may say so myself. It's really great that Mark has woven these two tales together like this, and I'll bet Harmen van den Bogaert is pretty high atop the list of characters least likely to be featured in two separate graphic novels. If you're not already reading Sailor Twain, I hope this convinces you to start.

The Sailor Twain/ Journey into Mohawk Country Connection; kinda like The French Connection, but with less car chases

Broke out my Mohawk Country tee for the occasion

So are you reading Sailor Twain by Mark Siegel yet? Mark Siegel, in addition to being a ridiculously talented cartoonist and illustrator, is the Editorial Director of First Second, the publishing house that puts out my graphic novels. Sailor Twain, or The Mermaid in The Hudson is his online comic being updated every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Recently Mark held a Sailor Twain Meet-up in the Flatiron building, a wine-tasting party for the new Sailor Twain wine(!).

Here's Mark showing off a model of the steamship Lorelei from Sailor Twain

The booze in question.

Everyone who attended was given a small bottle like the one's pictured below. Once opened, there was a message inside, as befits a bottle.

That's mine, third row, second from the right.

Each of the messages was a "Hudson River Artifact", a tantalizing clue to the mystery of Sailor Twain and, one would presume, the Mermaid of the Hudson River. You can read the messages that people received on the Sailor Twain Facebook Page.

My friend Joe Infurnari got a message in his bottle that was particularly interesting to me. Here's a scan of the text here:

It reads: ‎"To a sympathetic ear,

Harmen van den Bogaert met a sorry end, I've heard from later arrivals. We are both victims of the river, yet his end is still not so sorry as mine. I have been here since 19639 and have no hope of any rescue.

-- Captain Dick van Leeuwen,
(scribed by Ned Blum)"

The Harmen van den Bogaert mentioned above is the gentlemen whose actual real-world journal serves as the text for my graphic novel "Journey into Mohawk Country", published by First Second. The real life Harmen did indeed meet a sorry end, read all about it here.

When worlds collide

Pretty awesome, huh? I'm pretty gosh darned psyched that Mr. van den Bogaert has made an appearance in the world of Sailor Twain (and I hope he makes an actual in-comic cameo at some point as well). I just had to share it with all of you.

Warm up : Mohawk

Today's warm up topic was "man eater".

I've had the interesting experience recently of rereading a book of my own, Journey into Mohawk Country, after having not read it for years. It's a strange experience, that, revisiting your own work after a long time away. I found I still liked it, and what's more, that I desired to draw something again in that style. Hence, today's drawing.

By about now, you're probably wondering why, with the topic of "man eater" I drew a picture of a Mohawk warrior. Well, history lesson time: The name Mohawk isn't even a Mohawk word. In fact, the people we call the Mohawk don't even have an "m" in their language. Mohawk is a Dutch derivation of an Algonquin word (the Algonquin were one language group of the Native Americans; the Mohawk belonged to the Iroquois) meaning "man eater" or "eater of flesh". Why? Well, the Kahnawake (that's one spelling of what the Mohawk call themselves; it means "people of the flint") did engage in a little bit of ritual cannibalization. A Mohawk brave might eat a small sliver of flesh from a worthy fallen foe, or even a tortured captive. It had the twofold effect of granting some of the vanquished enemy's power to the eater of the flesh, and it's hard to imagine a more effective act of psychological warfare than actually eating a part of your opponent. It's part of the reason why the Mohawk were such a dominant military presence in what would become the northeastern United States for so many years.

MOCCA fest in NYC!

Hey, if you're in the NYC area this weekend and are a fan of some of the best comics art there is, come on down to the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art's annual Art Festival! There will be tons of great stuff to see, and yours truly will be signing copies of Zeus, Athena, Ball-Peen Hammer, Journey into Mohawk Country, and whatever else you stick in front of me at the First Second Booth on Sunday at 2 pm. Hope to see you there!

Journey into Mohawk Country in the New York Times!

The New York Times ran an article this weekend on Charles Gehring, one of the gentlemen who provided the English translation (from Dutch) for my graphic novel Journey into Mohawk Country. As part of the bonus content, the New York Times ran this big feature on the graphic novel itself, featuring sketches and commentary from yours truly. Please check it out!

interview on Inkstuds

I can't say I've had the courage to listen to this in it's entirety (like almost everyone, the sound of my own recorded voice is anathema to me), but interested parties can listen to my interview with Robin McConnell at Inkstuds.com.

Perseus and Medusa

Just so it's not all about zombies and Beatles this morning, here's a colored page of the mostly wordless Perseus and Medusa section of Athena: Grey Eyed Goddess. Devotees of Journey into Mohawk Country will note that I seem to have a predilection for wordless sequences amongst tall vertical objects. Don't believe me? Check pages 123-130 of your handy Mohawk Country reference copy, doubtless at your side as you read this. I think this may be my thing.

Brooklyn Book Fest

Anyone interested in seeing me gab and maybe getting a few books signed should come by this Sunday to the Brooklyn Book Festival

I'll be appearing alongside Raina Telgemeier and Danica Novgorodoff at the Youth Stoop (which is in Borough Hall Plaza)at 3:00 pm. The official description is excerpted below:


3:00 p.m. Love, War and Adventures in Babysitting…Transforming Stories into Comics. How does a comic artist take a favorite story and make it new? Three new stars in the literary comics cosmos shine the light on their process, adapting award-winning fiction, found historical materials and one of the most popular teen series of all time into graphic novels. Raina Telgemeier (The Babysitters Club graphic novel series), Danica Novgorodoff (Refresh, Refresh) and George O’Connor (Journey into Mohawk Country).


We'll all of us be signing immediately afterword. Stop by for one of your first chances to score a copy of Ball-Peen Hammmer. It should be pretty awesome!

Journey Upstate

So I'm headed upstate to Mount saint Mary College later today to give a little presentation tomorrow morning, mostly about my book Journey into Mohawk Country. I must say, one of the nicest side benefits of this job of mine is the opportunity to speak at events like this. Mohawk Country in particular has been a very rewarding topic for talks, particularly in the upstate New York region, where the story takes place. I especially enjoy sharing some of the copious amounts of prep work and sketches I compiled while working on it.

Audio of me on Leonard Lopate show

What happened? How did it go? What questions were asked?  Did I say any dirty words on the air? What did I do to Leonard that they needed special guest host Julie Burstein to fill in? Find out below....

First second Mohawk Country blog echo

I was a guest-blogger on First Second's awesome blog a while back when Journey into Mohawk Country first came out. Click here to see a whole bunch of sketches and prep work I did while researching the book. Just scroll past the bizarre Zombie comic at the top of the page.