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Brave Crow Comics returns with ‘Lincoln’

Submitted photo This page was taken from Orville Evjen’s newest graphic novel “Lincoln.” The novel is available for purchase at the Pride of Dakota Holiday Showcase Saturday and Sunday at the North Dakota State Fair Center. Admission is free. The event runs Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Following the success of his Lewis and Clark graphic novel in the region, Orville Evjen of the Turtle Lake area wanted to highlight another famous person in history who made a great impact on the United States. Now, he’s returned with “Lincoln.”

When Evjen finished his Lewis and Clark novel, their bicentennial was in full swing and helped shine a light on the work he had done. He and his cousin, Diane Schell, traveled around North Dakota collecting information for the 2004 release.

“During college in 2009 was Lincoln’s bicentennial birthday,” Evjen explained. “I was looking for another book to do, something historical and something to do with a president, so that was just perfect.”

Abraham Lincoln made the perfect focus for Evjen’s second graphic novel. His novel mainly focuses on Lincoln’s formative years before his presidency.

“It was really nice working on the historical part of it and make Lincoln interesting for people to look into,” Evjen said. “There’s a little fiction but that’s just because it has some spiritual parts to it. It’s all done historically accurate, I just added in some instances where he has a near death experience so I have a guardian angel watching over him and things like that.”

One tricky thing for the graphic novel was getting Abraham Lincoln’s signature look down. Evjen had to perfect his portrayal and then replicate it throughout the novel.

“You have to draw him in every part of his life — his happiness, his sadness,” Evjen said. “Trying to get the story the way I want it to go and not to put in every little thing, that was probably pretty challenging.”

Evjen writes and illustrates the graphic novels himself and has the help of his cousin, Diane Schell, to edit and research. Lincoln took six years for Evjen to write and illustrate and was first released in 2018. Now, he is traveling North Dakota with the different craft shows and will be in Minot Saturday and Sunday for the Pride of Dakota Holiday Showcase at the North Dakota State Fair Center.

In the future, Evjen hopes to create a part two to the “Lincoln” graphic novel that will focus on Lincoln’s presidency.

To learn more about Brave Crow Comics, visit https://bravecrowcomics.com/.

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