I've been pushing pencils and brushing ink on the second book in the Little Brown "Guts & Glory: Vikings" series (and already have sketched the cover for the 3rd!) when I found out that "Guts & Glory: Civil War" is available to be purchased. I had a blast drawing this book. It combined more than a few of my favorite things- History, Accuracy, Action! I love illustrating history as exciting/terrifying and as closely to how it actually was that I can... and this book let me do so!
Ben Thompson is a terrific writer to illustrate for. He's understands that history and non-fiction is exciting and is often done an incredible disservice by how it's taught and presented in textbooks. I wish I had more time and couple of extra arms to illustrate every cool or surprising moment that he describes! I've done a lot of American Civil War illustrations and Comics and when this book came up I was wondering if I was burnt out on the subject (A few articles and sites have said I'm Civil War Buff- I am not. History Buff, yes. Civil Rights Buff, yes. Civil War has a lot to do with those) Thompson's text was so much fun and enjoyable without downplaying the severity of war that I was excited to draw the Grey and Blue all over again!
So please purchase it! I promise you will learn more than a few things new about the Civil War!
•The Illustration above is the 1st Louisianan Special Battalion "Wheat's Tigers"
•The Illustration below is of the CSS Hunley- the Confederate Submarine and my favorite thing to have drawn in the book!
