Comics Project: Drawing from Town Histories

Published town histories provide an excellent starting point for drawing out local history stories.  They’re usually packed full of useful documents, tall tales, rumors, gossip, and intriguing leads.

Here’s how to use them: 

1. Look up your town’s official history:
   • Your local historical society or library will have a copy (either for sale or for borrowing).
   • Try a simple web search on “(Your town name) + town + history”
   • Try the same search at a digital archive site, like ARCHIVE.ORG or GOOGLE BOOKS.
   • OR check our Live Free And Draw: NH TOWN HISTORIES page, which lists sources used to create comics on this site.  (If your town is not yet there, please send us a link to any resources you find & we’ll add it on!)
   • For more notes on sources, see NH Almanac’s Town History Guide.
   • Also check UNH Library’s online TOWN HISTORY BOOKSHELF.
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2. Look through the table of contents, or scan the helpful headings at the tops of the pages.  Find an interesting section… HINT: any chapter titled “Miscellaneous” or “Anecdotes” is sure to surprise you!
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3. Once you choose a story, you might want to mark it up (NEVER in a library book, of course!) and divide it into sections, pages, and panels.
4. Draw a short comic out of whatever you find there!
   
   
5. Share your work, either by emailing/facebooking/tweeting it to LIVE FREE AND DRAW (you could be a guest artist on this site!) or posting/publishing it in your own way…
   Here’s how the above example turned out:
   
   Remember, everybody draws differently; check out Marek’s COMICS WORKSHOP site for resources & education tips.
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MORE SAMPLE COMICS:

Many LIVE FREE AND DRAWcomics are based on stories found in 19th century NH town histories.  Each post lists a SOURCE category, which displays all comics created from that source. For example:

• Leander Cogswell’s History of the Town of Henniker
• William Little’s History of Weare, NH