Today, the story of the Baratarians and the Battle of New Orleans in an entirely different form: comics. Above is the first page of Reed Crandall’s “Pirate and Patriot” from the December, 1960 “Treasure Chest” collection. The story is necessarily truncated and features, by name, only Jean “Lafitte” when referencing the Baratarians. It is interesting to note that Crandall was obviously influenced by the movie The Buccaneer which came out in 1958. Andrew Jackson looks suspiciously like Charlton Heston and Laffite surely has a bit of Yul Brynner about him.Click to enlarge and enjoy, Brethren. I am entirely indebted to Mr. Door Tree whose hard work and dedication over at his wonderful Golden Age of Comic Book Stories made it possible for me to bring “Pirate and Patriot” to you.
I'm pretty sure I read this when it came out; read most of the Classics Illustrated as well. Good stuff - maybe that's why I liked history and literature so well...
ReplyDeleteThanks, Pauline! :-)
Ahoy, Pauline! I can't get page #13 to enlarge for me, but I got the gist of it... No love for the cannons that did the real damage at the battle and the whole Treaty of Ghent BS... But who expects historical accuracy in their comic books, anyway, right?
ReplyDeleteIs this the first appearance of comics at Tripe P or am I just being forgetful as usual?
I wish I could blame it on too much grog, but that will be later on tonight...
Ahoy, Charles and Timmy!
ReplyDeleteCharles: If you remember this one - even vaguely - you should click over to Mr. Door Tree's site. It's just nonstop comic goodness, believe me!
Timmy!: I do believe it is the first appearance of comics here. And yeah - a big GRRR! on that third panel; I can't seem to make it work.