Need help with a graphic novel. (Gun Related)

[Pigspitter]

Okay, in an effort to tide my boredom this summer, I decided to write a graphic novel I've been thinking about for a while. The title is "The Lieutenant" and it is set in London, Berlin, and primarily Paris immediately after World War II. The protagonist is, as the title implies, a U.S Army Lieutenant who fought in the war and is finishing up his commitment in Paris with Army Intellegence. Needless to say, somethings happen and he fight various nefarious underground groups and characters left over from the war. However, I can't decide what to arm him with. I know that he will carry his 1911, but I'm not sure what else. I really like the idea of a wire stock M3 with jungle clipped mags and I'm pretty sure that would fit the image of the story. However, I can't decide if he should carry a rifle and what it should be. I like the idea of a M1 with some stock work done and a fleur de lis stlye blade bayonet, but it might be cool to have him fight with a rifle that he pulls off of a corpse. If that's the case then any rifle that would have been found in Paris would do. I'll post some images once I get them worked out.

 

[Jim Watson]

Sten as airdropped to le Resistance or a MP 38 left/captured from the last German out. Anything else would be a giveaway to the opposition.

I don't know what you mean by a fleur de lis bayonet.

Need to work on your spelling if you want to be a novelist.
Like "intellegence."

 

[Pigspitter]

Sten as airdropped to le Resistance or a MP 38 left/captured from the last German out. Anything else would be a giveaway to the opposition.

I don't know what you mean by a fleur de lis bayonet.

Need to work on your spelling if you want to be a novelist.
Like "intellegence."

Sorry, it's a little late for me. I like the look of the M3 and I want people to know that he is still serving in the US Army and not AWOL. The "fluer de lis bayonet" would be a bayonet in which the blade was shaped like the little french flower thing. It would be over the top, but it's a comic book.

 

[308sc]

when you finish let me know I would like to read it!

be sure to arm him with a French Ruby pistol..at one point..maybe as a last resort back up he found laying around.

 

[yhtomit]

Try a De Lisle I'd like one of those, and if your protagonist is in cities much, could make it plausible as a rifle-without-(much)-sound.

timothy

 

[Pigspitter]

You read my mind, in the first chapter he's gonna go stumbling drunk into some tunnel in Paris to escape the rain, and is going to have to pick up a Ruby when he first encounters the dark side. The De Lisle would be practical, but I couldn't draw in the stylized muzzle flash in the fog swirling around the bullet wash.

 

[308sc]

looks to be a good book then...if I continue reading your mind correctly.

 

[Pigspitter]

I'll be glad to take creative suggestions and I'll run the story by you so I can maintain historical accuracy while keeping it fictional. I'm thinking it's gonna have the Hitchcock cinema style with a film noir style story-telling and a healthy dose of gun play and Frank Miller-esque baddies. I really can't think of anything else that would fit the 1940s Parisian setting better.

 

[ReadyontheRight]

How 'bout he carries the .45 and the M3...but you have him conveniently find an M1 Garand and shoot it proficiently (clicks the sights for windage and elevation) when he needs to make a longer shot? Even better have him sight it in before a battle he knows is coming.

 

[Pigspitter]

the lieutenant is going to have extensive combat experience, but I don't expect to leave him with much notice of the battles. However, he will have one or two that he knowingly walks into, but they will probably be close quarters.

 

[The Tourist]

Even at that time in history people carried "sanitized" weapons.

Why not a Red Nine Broomhandle? It doesn't scream 'American' or 'British,' and 9x19mm ammunition would be easy to get.

 

[ReadyontheRight]

OK. Close quarters weapons. Good point for the hero. But it always bugs me when Jack Bauer or whomever doesn't grab a rifle when they need it.

Just an idea here...

An experienced Lt would choose the time, place and weapons of any (final) battle with the bad guys. Sun Tzu. Leonidas. Bob the Nailer...

What if he sets up an ambush with a superior force of bad guys. He moves from an M1 Garand to the M3 to the 1911 to one of those cool British (SAS?) fighting knives with the brass knuckles?

I just want to see a Garand accurately represented in a graphic novel.

Are you the artist as well? Accurate close-up pics of period guns would go a long way. As a matter of fact...as many accurately-drawn guns as possible weaved into the story would make it unique.

 

[Pigspitter]

Ready, I think you'll be glad to know that the main baddies are seedy underground types who use whatever they could come across. So you'll see many different guns. I want him to carry a rifle with him whenever he know's he'll need it, but I want there to be a lot of mystery when it comes to his enemies.
I will be the artist; however, I haven't picked up my Wacom Bamboo yet (I do a lot of photo manipulations) so I can't transfer them to the computer for a while.

 

[ReadyontheRight]

Cool!

 

[Mongrel]

ahh..comic book or not, I can't bear the thought of desecrating an M1 with a Gil-Hibben like fantasy bayonet *sigh* but it's your story lol

Also, not sure as I have no combat experience in WWII, but the idea of "jungle clipped" magazines on an M3 grease gun maybe be pushing the period as well.

Lastly, the combat knife described as 'British' was actually U.S. made and is known, I believe, as the "M1918 Trench Knife".

You have a great foundation for a story, good luck with it!

 

[Tom Servo]

Sounds interesting. Have you shopped it to any publishers yet?

Are you doing the drawing/inking/copy yourself?

 

[bthest86]

Perhaps you could invent a fictional firearm altogether, something made for the OSS or a neet German design. Or a the tanker Garand with the folding stock would be interesting to have.

 

[gtmerkley]

Ya, may be a stg44 pistol!

 

[Jim March]

Special-needs guns would include a scoped/accurized version of a Springfield '03, a common US sniper rifle of the time. And for when something really needs to be dead, a Browning 1919 heavy machine gun.

Might be fun to pick up an original captured German assault rifle...

 

[Brass Rain]

I hope you plan on putting some of it up here when you get it down on paper.

 

[Pigspitter]

A M1 Garand with a folding stock? I might have to take a little poetic license with the pistol grip (not liking the look), but that is in the lead for his rifle. I've reconsidered the bayonet and am leaning towards one of the outlandishly long British bayonets (can remember what rifle it was used on).

 

[ACP230]

Officers were often issued the M1 Carbine.

 

[bwavec]

How about the Thompson .45 subgun ? Use box or even some times the drum mag.....

 

[bthest86]

A M1 Garand with a folding stock?

You could always go with the carbine "tanker" Garand in the top photo if you don't like the look of the folder.

 

[General Geoff]

that is the most god-awful ugly garand I've ever seen. I'm sorry, but it just is.