A Graphic Novel Breaks Ground

A James-Younger historian shares the genesis of turning his nonfiction Northfield Raid tale into a visual account.

- Mark Lee Gardner

I grew up reading the Classics Illustrated comic book series, especially those about Daniel Boone and other frontiersmen. I got a lot of these whenever my parents stopped at Mart Drug in Chillicothe, Missouri, after taking us to a movie.Like other boys growing up during the 1960s and 1970s, I was also a fan of the usual suspects: Batman, Spider-Man, Justice League. My favorite comic strip in the Sunday paper was Mark Trail, loosely based on Charles N. Elliott, a U.S. forest ranger who edited Outdoor Life magazine from 1956 to 1974. Thus, not surprisingly, I avidly read Outdoor Life,