I’ve just finished inking some unruly pirates on page 10, panel 3 of my work-in progress circus-meets-pirates-historical mystery graphic novel and thought I’d share them here. These fierce individuals are the captains of the most ruthless and powerful pirate crews in 1909 New York.

Out of this group, only Sadie the Goat, notorious “Queen of the Waterfront” in the late 1860s is a (semi) historical figure. Shrouded in legend, her life was mythologized in various memoirs and pseudo-documentary accounts of the history of New York and Hudson River piracy. Now I mean to reveal the true, untold truth about Sadie and the unbelievable adventures she had on her famous sloop, where she was said to fly the Jolly Roger proudly and force her victims to walk the plank at sword point. Forty years after the world believed her career was finished, here’s my Sadie alive and full of fire!