History

Last week Scipio talked about how sometimes comics can bleed into your other pastimes. But have you ever had your other pastimes bleed into comics? It happened to me this very day.

I haven't had much to do this week at work, so I've been sitting at my desk doing research for a project of mine set in the Napoleonic Era. I don't have a lot of background in that area of history, but I was lucky enough to receive some fine volumes on it for Christmas from my parents. (Thanks Mom & Dad!)

I completed Charles W. Ingrao's The Habsburg Monarchy 1618-1815 yesterday, I started on David Gates' Warfare in the Nineteenth Century today. Both books have proved immensely valuable for my research (as well as being incredibly entertaining). I finished the relevant Napoleonic sections of the Gates book early in the day, so I decided to move onto the later, less pertinant (if still entertaining) sections.

I was reading the chapter entitled "The American Civil War" when I saw it. Right there on page 146. A name I'd seen before, but never in a history book. The name was Jeb Stuart.

Most of you probably know J. E. B. Stuart as the ghostly Confederate that inhabits Bob Kanigher's immortal creation The Haunted Tank. That's certainly where I've heard the name. But here's the kicker: until today I did not know that Jeb Stuart was a real person.

When I saw his name I immediately sat up straight in my chair. I wasn't sure if I was seeing things or not. I read it again. Then a third time. I checked the context to make sure David Gates wasn't playing a joke. He was not. So I jumped out of my chair, ran to the computer, and put "Jeb Stuart" into Wikipedia. Sure enough, there he is.

Now, before you get all on me about not knowing that Jeb Stuart was real, cut me some slack. My specialty is Japan's Tokugawa Era, for Pete's sake! I mean, how am I supposed to keep track of every Confederate general? Besides, I'm from Illinois -- I'm for the other guys.

My point is that here I was, going blissfully about my day when suddenly the real world goes and injects itself into my favorite hobby. For a non-comics reading person, it would go the other way: they'd be surprised to find that someone had taken Jeb Stuart and turned him into a comic book character. Me? I was surprised to find that he was real first.

Please tell me Jonah Hex is also real.