By Don E. Smith Jr. • 6/10/09

“Marveling About A Lesser Known Hero
During the
American Civil War”

In recent years - in the world of comic books - the term “Civil War” has been dominated by Marvel Comics with Captain America leading an anti-government group of super heroes against Iron Man’s pro-government super heroes.

But one independent creator, the Florida based Justin Murphy, is leading his own rebellion thanks to his graphic novel Celburne.

Cleburne written and penciled by Murphy, tells the story of Confederate General Patrick Cleburne, a transplant from Ireland to Tennessee, who put forth a rather controversial proposal, for the pro-slavery South.

Cleburne suggested freeing a third of the slaves in the Confederate-controlled-South in exchange for their service in the “War of Northern Aggression,” as the South called it. Ideally, at the end of the American Civil War, had the South won, those slaves would have been free men.

Well, the proposal met with controversy, and it was this story that Murphy brought to life in his graphic novel.

And as part of CosmicBookNews.com’s “Declaration of Independents” feature, Murphy spoke about how his graphic novel is winning respect, not just in the comic world, but in historical circles as well. It just recently won ForeWord Magazine’s “Book of the Year.”

CosmicBookNews: Cleburne is based on a true story?

Justin Murphy: Correct.

CosmicBookNews: How did you stumble across him?

Justin Murphy: I’ve always had an interest in history and the American Civil War.

I always found the Western Theater in the Civil War to be sort of untouched by writers. I mean a lot of people know about General Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and General Ulysses S. Grant, and they know a lot about the Eastern Theater of the Civil War, but they don’t know about the Western theater.

So I began my research looking to into a single aspect and I started looking into the leaders and I stumbled upon Patrick Cleburne being one of the most successful division commanders. He was the most successful division commander in the Army of the Tennessee.

What drew my attention to him was when I found out about his controversial proposal to enlist freed slaves as Confederate soldiers. Not only does he have an “out of the box” forward thinking mindset that costs him basically ruining his career.

But he also died a very heroic, almost in a Hollywood like way on horseback leading his men against this desperate charge.

His story even had a romance in it and everything amazing about him and you can fit into this one year, his last year of life.

In that last year, he meets the woman he falls in love with, he puts forth his controversial proposal and he dies in battle. So when you had all this up, this was good recipe for a story.

CosmicBookNews.com: Were you at all worried about the “political correctness” coming after you?

Justin Murphy: [LAUGHS] I am actually counting on a little controversy.

If you will notice in my advertisement run in Wizard Magazine, I depicted several black soldiers in Confederate gear in front of a Confederate flag for the purpose of getting people’s attention.

And I think people are getting tired of political correctness and they just want the truth and if you bring people the truth and they are going to embrace it.

[At the New York Comic Con in February] I have people of all ethnicities, ages and genders buying this book.

I think when the political correct movement rears its head, I think people are tired of it and the reasons why political correctness has perpetuated itself as long has it has is because people are afraid to stand up to it that is all changing.

CosmicBookNews: Right.

Justin Murphy: Politically and history, the South is viewed has being a group of people who hold a similar belief that the white men were superior and that slavery was sanctioned and slavery was defendable, which it was. But there were many men who disagreed with slavery fighting for the South and there were as many in the North who were just as racists as could be.

So there were good men and bad ones on both sides and I think people are intrigued when you can bring someone like Patrick Cleburne who is a Confederate and in a sense came up with a plan, an unorthodox one to abolish slavery.

He is talking about taking one third of the slaves and giving them and their families freedom. Is that not abolition?

It is not abolition in the traditional sense, but with Cleburne, you have an abolitionist, and you have an abolitionist who is fighting in the South and what is not interesting about that?

CosmicBookNews: How would you compare Cleburne to someone a bit more famous, like said General George Pickett?

Justin Murphy: Confederate General George Pickett is remembered for Pickett’s Charge during the Battle of Gettysburg, but he was not leading his men in combat the same way George Cleburne lead his men into battle during the Battle of Franklin. Cleburne did not lead his men from behind a field glass, surveying the action, the way Pickett did.

Sure, historians argued that it was within Pickett’s right because he was a division commander, but how many more people have heard about Pickett because of Pickett’s Charge than someone who is virtually unknown in history like Patrick Cleburne, who is more worthy of remembrance because he led his men on horseback and died because of it?

CosmicBookNews: Talking about the more comic book aspects of this project, you got some pretty heavy talent working with you.

Justin Murphy: Yeah!

We have Al Milgrom who did the inking for the book. He was an inker and penciler for Marvel Comics and he was an editor for DC Comics and he has been in the comics industry longer than I have been alive. [LAUGHS].

I knew I could trust him with the work.

I also hired old school pro, James Brown as the colorist. Like Milgrom, he was someone who I knew I could trust with the work. Brown who had done some work for Marvel and other independent creators.

He did some work on Captain America, and ironically, Marvel’s “Civil War” miniseries,

Both Al and James were both experienced guys and I knew I could rely on them with deadlines and I also knew they could enhance the qualities of the book that were not my strongest.

CosmicBookNews: Have you received any feedback from the Historical American Civil War community?

Justin Murphy: Yeah, I am getting a lot of respect from the history community. In fact, they are about half the readership and the history market is about half the market for this book.

Many of them had to get past that this was a comic book, but once they did that, they realized this project had the potential of attracting younger readers. But for the most part, the historical community has embraced it.

I was just in Cleburne, Texas and they hosted me at their expense. I did two lectures on General Cleburne at the [Lakeland Museum] where his pistol and his saddle are on display.

And the museum is carrying the comic book. And they even added me as a "Cleburne Scholar.""

In fact, Thomas Cartwright ended up writing the forward to the book. He is the former curator of the Carter House and the Franklin Battlefield and he knows more about the Battle of Franklin and Patrick Cleburne than just about anyone.

Also, Craig Symonds, who wrote Stonewall of the West: Patrick Cleburne and the Civil War, gave offered some advice and council that went into the book.

CosmicBookNews: Was there any historical-based criticism?

Justin Murphy: Well, there were some purists who are not going to get past that it is not a “traditional” history book and that it is an illustrated book. Granted these are the same people who would have problems with some history movies like “Braveheart” or “300.”

And yeah, there were a couple of fictionalized characters in Cleburne, but I say to these critics, that movies like “300" - which was based on a Frank Miller comic of the same name, got kids interested in the Battle of Thermopylae and Leonidas.

And “Braveheart” got a lot of people into Scottish history.

Were these projects accurate? Not terribly, but that is not the point. The point is to pull people in and to get viewers and readers to go further than project and read about the actual events that occurred.

My book does that as well. Granted it is for more accurate than those projects, but a piece of entertainment. Simply, it is not a history book and Cleburne will get people interested in this lesser known aspect of the Civil War such as the idea of black Confederate soldiers or the tale of black Southerners who Confederacy in some capacity.

CosmicBookNews: Justin, thanks so much for your time! It has been a pleasure.

Justin Murphy: Thank you!

For more information about Cleburne, visit www.rampartpress.com.

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