Drunk Elephant Comics

1 April 09

The Relic Hunters!

Have you heard of the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum? It’s a Dutch Colonial Style farmhouse right in Manhattan, built circa 1784, and has since been converted into a historical museum. I was contacted by the museum to create a comic strip for their April Fool’s newspaper they were producing. The concept was to show the exploits of two men, Bolton and Calver, who were relic hunters in the area of the Farmhouse. At the turn of the century, these two were tearing up most of northern Manhattan looking for Revolutionary War relics. Bolton even wrote a book on their exploits, Relics of the Revolution, which of course you can download for free from Archive.org.

Apparently, it was quite common for them to run into young boys who asked them “What yer lookin’ for?” ad naseum. I used that piece of information and I took visual inspiration from this picture of Calver at a dig site (photo is property of the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum):

I’ve also been told that the squirrels in that area are quite numerous and very friendly. If you are looking for something to do in the NYC area, this seems like it would be a unique experience! I’m happy to have volunteered my time.

Take a look at the strip (opens a pop up window)

I kind of want to replace the text to say “Look here, boy, I drink this
squirrel’s milkshake…”