History major Max Norr chose to
make a historical comic for the independent
study project for History 105.
Norr also has a passion for art, she took
drawing 1, but said that she “never took
any extensive art classes.”
“We started by reading Maus, which
is by Art Spiegelman,” said Hammerman,
“what’s cool about Maus is it’s
a graphic novel and it’s based on this
man spiegelman, whose father survived
Auschwitz.” Her assignment was based
on her love for art and graphic novels.
She had to “pick a time in history and
a primary source, and do a one page
graphic comic thing on it,” said Norr,
and “I wasn’t quite sure what topic I
wanted do. “I’m into historical aviation
and wanted to do something from
WWII,” says Norr, but was also “really
interested in the concepts of the janissaries.”
Norr chose this idea because “it
didn’t seem like there are many fictional
works based on the topic.”
The comic is set in the 15th century
and is a fictional depiction of that time
period.
“It’s like a Janissary handbook,”
Norr said.
The comic attempts to bring to light
the religious tension during the time period
of the Middle Ages.
“In the middle ages, your government
was your religion and economic
structure.”
Hammerman said that “in modern
Oregon or the United States you can be
any relgion you want, you could convert
to Budhism tomorrow and that would
be okay.” she added “In the middle ages
your government was your religion and
economic structure,” stated Hammerman,
“empires were religion and the Ottomans
were Muslim.” “The Ottoman
Empire was created by Turkish tribes
in Anatolia (Asia Minor),”states britannica.
com, “that grew to be one of the
most powerful states in the world during
the 15th and 16th centuries.” “They
lived a lavish lifestyle,” Norr said, and
slavery was part of their culture. “They
would kidnap these young Christian
boys, ages seven to nine and train them
in their ways,” said Norr. “They would
teach them combat tactics and skills.”
These boys were the Janissaries and
were the elite infantry units for the Ottoman
Empire. The Ottomans would
take spoils from the regions that they
defeated. They would adopt the fallen
empires cultures and traits into their
own society.

Will Nye | The Broadside
(Contact: [email protected])