SeacoastNH.com Presents
Historic Portsmouth #326  

The “City of the Open Door” certainly has a sense of humor, but it’s not often that Portsmouth makes it into the comics. Here’s a rare example from 1959. Back then every kid knew DELL made comic books, not computers. (See photos and text below)

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Today this illustrated adventure might be called a “graphic novel” since it is part fact, part fiction. These two panels come from the 10-cent comic version of the Warner Brothers movie “John Paul Jones.” Here, after fleeing from a murder trial in the West Indies, Capt. Jones meets Gen. George Washington at Valley Forge, an historic event that never actually happened. Jones was assigned to fit out and enlist a crew for the sloop of war Ranger. The Ranger had recently been built at what is now Badger’s Island in Kittery by merchant John Langdon. Jones took on the task as captain of the Ranger in July 1777 and finally got her to sea in November of that year. Jones and his Piscataqua-region crew sailed off to harass the British in one of the few memorable sea battles of the American Revolution. (SeacoastNH.com Collection) 

Comics (c) 1959 Warner Bros