Another is a 2003 comic strip biography by Chester Brown called вЂњLouis Riel,вЂќ about how a 19thВ century Canadian schizophrenic and rebel leader of the indigenous-French Metis people opposed actions by the government.Д®ight years ago, Bennett found his own fantastic piece of the past to retell. His favorites include the 1980s Pulitzer Prize winning вЂњMaus,вЂќ in which cartoonist Art Spiegelman interviews his father about the Holocaust, and characters are drawn as mice, cats, and pigs. вЂњA lot of graphic novelists are doing really adventurous historical graphic novels right now,вЂќ he tells the Elko students at the start of class. But his central focus is making graphic novels about history. With nods to the open range, beef cattle and sheep ranchers moved in.Д¬artooning History Bennett has many enthusiasms: He plays an 1856-replica banjo in a band called The Hardtacks he teaches comics workshops around the country and he educates young artists in schools on the joys of cartooning. ElkoвЂ™s first quasi-permanent structures went up just a few years after American leaders declared the Civil War to be over. Elko took root a century after Henniker, in 1869, on the banks of the Humboldt River and astraddle the First Transcontinental Railroad.

Some 2,500 miles to the west, Elko lies in a haunting terrain of dried-up lakebeds and chunky mountains where inland-flowing streams sink blithely into the desert ground. (They owned a fruit orchard and dairy and his grandfather served for many years as a town selectman.) Bennett now lives on a road named for his grandparents. Surrounded by lush, forested lands around the Contoocook River, which flows through the Merrimack River into the Atlantic Ocean, Henniker grew up serving farms taking advantage of fertile soil. BennettвЂ™s hometown of Henniker was settled in 1761, almost 100 years before Elko had a name. The two have a parallel of place, too вЂ“ albeit one that extends across different centuries. Having a curly beard that sweeps toward his clavicle, he looks like a youngish Abe Lincoln clad in hipsterвЂ™s clothing.Д«ennett and his students represent simultaneous moments in American history that rocked the country into a new age: Folks attending the Gathering admire the Wild West as it was during the decades when 19th century dreamers, wranglers, and shysters spilled out of Midwestern farmlands to settle its unforgiving ranges: Bennett values stories of heartbreak, valor, and change that emerged during the 1860s Civil War. The person who is less than usual is Bennett.ДЄ New England native from New Hampshire, the wiry cartoonist wears khakis, converse tennis shoes, and a wool driving cap turned backward - duds that are far from the GatheringвЂ™s more common attire of boots, jeans, and cowboy hats. These are the usual suspects who land in Elko every winter for the week-long celebration of western music, arts, and dance. There are also city folk from places like Las Vegas, Reno, and Chicago - an investment banker, an insurance broker, a communications specialist, and a member of the media. The group includes two retired octogenarian ranchers, a couple of practicing ranch owners, and a 20-something buckaroo. In the first days of the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada last January, graphic novelist Marek Bennett peers excitedly through wire-rimmed spectacles at the adults whoвЂ™ve clustered in the convention center to learn cowboy comics.

Historical cartoonist brings dots, lines and curves to National Cowboy Poetry Gathering

Unearth the oncoming storm zip