Ladies Making Comics

Webcomics Wednesday

Under the Apple Tree by Sarah Winifred Searle

Rosie is forlorn when she and her mother leave the suburbs of Boston for Maine, uprooting her social life and disrupting her last year of high school. Understandably, she believes it is the end of the world and she is doomed to waste away in the boondocks.

But, unfortunately for her, small town life isn’t nearly as dull as she feared.

Rosie finds herself facing a fate forced upon her by events long past: she must discover the truth behind tragic events buried in the history of her new home and bring a man’s spirit to rest. She digs into the past to uncover secrets about her town, all the while handling the trials and tribulations of being an idealistic young woman growing up in an era of great change.

It is October of 1943. World War II looms darkly over the nation’s head, and like many families, Rosie and her mother are left to fend for themselves while her father and brother are away in the military. Rosie is making plans to attend nursing school after graduation, determined to pull her own weight, and even in the little town of Kennebunk, the enemy isn’t as far away as one might think.

(For more insight into Searle’s inspirations and such, check out this interview she did with Seacoast Online, a Kennebunk paper)