Lynn native brings Dungeon Rock tale to life in comic book

LYNN – Lynn residents and pirate hunters alike know the lore of Lynn Woods’ Dungeon Rock and one city native is telling the tale in comic book form.The Boston Comics Round Table, which has been producing the “Comics from Boston” anthology twice annually since 2006, has released Inbound 4: A Comic-Book History of Boston, a book comprised of 36 historically accurate, New England-based incidents, written and drawn by local, independent comics.”My choice was to do Dungeon Rock. I grew up Lynn and my dad was a scout master, so he told me the story,” said comic creator Ron LeBrasseur.LeBrasseur spent time researching the tale of Dungeon Rock at the Lynn Public Library and the Lynn Historical Society, where documents and pictures gave him inspiration for his comic, “The Lost Pirate Treasure of Dungeon Rock.””My story is a five-page cartoon-style comic that tells the story of Thomas Veale landing in Lynn Woods, hiding in the rocks and his imprisonment in the earthquake. It splits between Veale and Marble. (Marble) was a spiritualist using a medium to try and find the location of the alleged treasure,” LeBrasseur said. “He wanted to start a spiritualist movement and he wanted Lynn to be the center of it. He dug for years and he never found anything, but after his death the city took an interest in the area and decided to buy the woods and make it a public park. The story is cut half and half – half about the pirate in the 1600s and half about the guy looking for the treasure in the 1800s.”LeBrasseur, who now resides in Beverly, said that he had been reading comics for years and began drawing cartoons when he was a kid.”I did a strip that started at the Lynn Daily Item called Void if Removed, with Peter Phelan. I carried that to college and it has always been an interest of mine,” said LeBrasseur. “(Inbound 4) was a lot of fun to do. I hadn’t done research for a project like this before – I usually make the stories up – but this time I had to do the research and the leg work which I think made it more interesting.”Inbound 4 covers three centuries of social and political events including Shay’s Rebellion, Mark Twain’s encounter with the Boston Literary Society, and the Gardner Museum art heist.”It does make a good Christmas present,” LeBrasseur said. “We got them back from the printers last week and they look really nice. We are selling them on our Web site and we’ve been doing craft shows, book fairs and things like that. It seems to be getting a positive vibe.”Inbound 4: A Comic-Book History of Boston can be purchased at http://www.bostoncomicsroundtable.com/inbound-4/, and locally at Harrison’s Comics and Collectibles in downtown Salem.