Amidst an abundance of photographs and engravings from 19th Century NY, I’ve had no luck finding any photos of an engine room from a big Hudson steamboat. Nobody thought they were interesting enough to record? I visited the Nachez paddlewheeler in New Orleans, which gave me ideas, but The Lorelei is nothing like it. So I had to invent it, building a little model, to see how furnaces might cast shadows, and how to stage the scenes down below.
And for making coal heaps, a little broken piece of styrofoam, sprayed black, and voilà!
woah! that model looks amazing, so does the comic. Have you been making models for all of these scenes? that looks incredible.
Well, the shading has turned out beautifully so far, I cannot wait to see more of it.
The mini engine-room is ingenious, and ardent of you!
models only when I can’t find the reference, or can’t imagine something clearly… Since I don’t have much spare time, I only make models when I have to.
That model is pretty genius, I can’t even imagine how long it took though.
This comic is going amazingly so far, I can’t wait to see more.
FYI, the links to “Long Night Moon” at http://sailortwain.com/about/ are both broken (on the hyperlink and the image).
So when’s the graphic novel of ST due out…?
Not sure if this will help, but we have an 1898 San Francisco steamboat ferry here in San Diego at the Maritime Museum http://www.sdmaritime.org/steam-ferry-berkeley/ If you contact their library info@sdmaritime.org or call them at 619-234-9153 you might be able to get some photographs. Please email me if I can help in any way.
Really enjoying this!! Many kudos to you.
Thanks, Warren. But it’s strange, the links do work for me…
Thanks, Anne! Actually I did see that one at last year’s ComiCon. I think the engines are all updated, but worth a try. Much appreciated. Hope you’ll keep coming back.
I love that you built models.
Wow, that little steam room model is amazing. A lot of love is being put into this comic, and I’m enjoying every minute of it.
I just love the comics. Keep them coming.
Mark — for me they both form this URL: “http://sailortwain.com/about/%22http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0689854269?ie=UTF8&tag=sailtwai-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0689854269%22″
– that is, your URL is prepended to the Amazon one, which is in quotes.
Firefox 3.5.8 on OSX.
ok, I think it’s fixed now.
@ Mark – oh, yes!! Count me in as a fan. Your series is taking me to a completely different world, so vivid and – smellable. <<—- Seriously. I can smell it all. The details and the background work you are pouring into this are making it very rea! Thanks!
Anne: funny you should mention smells. Scents come into all this a great deal, later!
Re the links — yes, they’re working! Yay!
Mark – can’t wait!
Oh well; yes I can actually, as I am thoroughly enjoying the journey you’re taking us on. Seems you are hitting the mark, then! Looking forward to this.
PS Mark – what is your policy for allowing others to add you to their blogrolls? I’d like to add you to mine and was trying to find your contact info but couldn’t. Would you rather I didn’t? I’ll respect that, of course.
Just discovered this web comic by accident. I really like it. The charcoal/spray paint look makes it look like Peter Kuper’s (?) redo of Spy vs. Spy. A nice look to it, nicely paced, good writing.
Were turbines in common use n steamships in the 1880s? I thought most steam engines were still reciprocating engines at this point. The Parsons turbine didn’t come into common use, even for electrical generation, until after about 1900. Just checking.
I work in the engine room of the uk’s last sea going paddle steamer the PS Waverly. One of the tasks that we have to do, is climb into the paddle wheels and make sure all the nuts are still there so that the paddle boards don’t fall off.
I’m so involved in the story now that I am believing you engine room setup