Comic Book / Nathan Hales Hazardous Tales

"My one regret is that I have but one life to live for my country."

Hangman: I didn't know there was going to be... killing in this story.
Nathan Hale: What are you talking about? You are going to kill me at the end of this story.
Hangman: Oh yeah!
Nathan Hale: It's history, no one gets out alive.

—Big Bad Ironclad

Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales is a graphic novel series from Amulet Books, written and illustrated by Nathan Hale.

September 22, 1776. Revolutionary spy Nathan Hale, found guilty of treason against England, has been sentenced to death by hanging. While the Provost in charge of overseeing the hanging attempts to find the official papers, the kindly Hangman offers to help Hale decide on his last words, and after a bit of trial and error, he decides they will be "my one regret is that I have but one life to live for my country."

Things get a little weird after that.

Only a few seconds after uttering his planned last words, Nathan Hale is put in the history books - literally, a giant magical history book called The Big Huge Book of American History swallows him - and is promptly spit out seconds later to the confusion of both the Hangman (who saw everything) and the Provost (who just got back from finding the papers and has no idea what is going on). Now aware of the entirety of American history due to his time in the book, he decides to tell stories of the future to his soon-to-be executioners in order to prolong the time before his hanging, even though he's aware that there's nothing he can do to change his fate.

The series has run since 2012, and as of October 2022, there are 12 books in the series:

• One Dead Spy, a Revolutionary War Tale
• Big Bad Ironclad!, a Civil War Tale
• Donner Dinner Party, a Pioneer Tale
• Treaties, Trenches, Mud and Blood, a World War I Tale
• The Underground Abductor, an Abolitionist Tale, describing the life of Harriet Tubman
• Alamo All-Stars, a Texas Tale
• Raid of No Return, a World War II Tale
• Lafayette!, a Revolutionary War Tale
• Major Impossible, a Grand Canyon Tale
• Blades of Freedom, a Tale of Haiti, Napoleon, and the Louisiana Purchase
• Cold War Correspondent, a Korean War Tale
• Let's Make History!, a tie-in book that teaches readers about the process of making the series and allows them to create their own Hazardous Tales comics.
• Above the Trenches, another World War I tale, focusing on air battles

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Get on with the tropes or we'll hang ya! And then we'll hang ya anyways!

• Actually Pretty Funny: Hale lets out a chuckle at Hangman's desire to hear about "pander bears".
• Airplane Arms: In the beginning of Raid of No Return, the excited Hangman does this upon learning about "these amazing flying machines". At the end of the story, he gets back into it, and the Provost joins him.
• Anthropomorphic Animal Adaptation: Invoked in Treaties, Trenches, Mud and Blood. After the Hangman thinks the story of World War I is too boring, he requests that the story be told with cute little animals, much to the Provost's annoyance and Hale's begrudgment. As such, the different nations and their people involved are represented by different animals. This imagery returns in Above the Trenches.
  • The Austro-Hungarian Empire is represented by the Griffin, the symbol of the House of Hapsburg.
  • Serbia and its people are represented by Wolves, their national animal.
  • Russia is a Bear, it's national animal.
  • Germany is the Eagle, designed after its Coat of Arms.
  • France is a Gallic Rooster.
  • Belgium is the Lion, its national animal.
  • Since there can't be two overlapping animals, the United Kingdom's animal is not a Lion, which is also England's national animal, but instead a Bulldog, much to the Provost's anger.
  • In the same vein, The United States of America is not a Bald Eagle, but a Bunny.
  • Australia is represented by Kangaroos.
  • Canada is the Beaver, its national animal.
  • New Zealand is a Kiwi Bird.
  • India is a tiger.
  • Senegal is a Buffalo.
  • The Ottoman Empire/Turkey is represented by an Otter, obviously.
  • Japan is represented by the Tanuki, the raccoon dog.
  • Italy is a cat.
  • Greece is the mythical phoenix.
  • Bulgaria is a bull.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: The Provost thinks that the idea of a magical history book is nonsense, despite Hale being able to create visions of the past and future and having met the ghost of Crispus Attucks. He comes to accept the idea after seeing El Gran Libro Enorme De La Historia Mexicana in Alamo All-Stars, though.
• Artistic License – History: Occasionally taken regarding some elements for dramatic effect, but always addressed in some manner (usually via the Correction Baby segments at the end of the books). For instance, the Correction Baby segment at the end of Big Bad Ironclad! addresses the fact that the flag used to represent the Confederacy in the story is the Confederate battle flag and not the actual national flag, explaining that it looked too much like the Union flag when drawn from a distance or at a smaller size.
• Berserk Button: Do NOT tell the Provost that the British forces will lose to the American colonists.
• Beware the Silly Ones:
  • Will Cushing, from Big Bad Ironclad, is a walking, talking embodiment of this trope. He's a goofy prankster with a bad sense of humor who got kicked out of the Navy twice for his mischief. He also rose to the rank of lieutenant commander during the war and was even able to sink an ironclad with just a bomb on a stick.
  • Manfred von Richthofen is shown as a goofy, naive aristocrat kid that his higher ups try to discourage his desire to serve as a pilot in his first scene. History buffs will know that this kid will sooner be known as the Red Baron, the German Ace Pilot who was credited with 80 combat victories, the highest kill count of any flyer in the war.
• Big "NO!": Hangman lets multiple out during Donner Dinner Party whenever an animal or a beloved pet is implied to be eaten.
• Birthmark of Destiny: In One Dead Spy, Nathan Hale shows his large black mole on his neck, which was believed to be a sign of bad luck and an omen that he would die by hanging. The Hangman immediately parodies this by showing his birthmark, which resembles comic panels, which he says meant he would end up in an award-winning comic series for children.
• Brainy Baby: The Research Babies, who do the research required to write each book, and their leader Correction Baby, who discusses any mistakes made at the end of each graphic novel.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Happens frequently.
  • In Big Bad Ironclad!, when the Provost says that Hale's tale will be his last words, Hangman jokes that he already said his last words in One Dead Spy.
  • Several fourth wall breaks are made in Donner Dinner Party, for the reasons expressed in Darker and Edgier below.
  • The Provost orders the Hangman to get off of the endpapers in The Underground Abductor.
  • During the opening of Alamo All-Stars, Hangman expresses confusion about the nonstandard opening, claiming that "this isn't how we start these books."
  • Later on in Alamo All-Stars, Davy Crockett interrupts his own biography, not wanting to waste pages on himself and instead focus on the story of the Alamo, and encourages the reader to buy his own autobiography.
  • In both Lafayette! and Raid of No Return, Hangman messes around with the title page. In The Underground Abductor, he makes a sand castle on the endpapers.
• Character Catchphrase: Hangman's "WE HANG SPIES!"
• Darker and Edgier: Donner Dinner Party is significantly darker than the two books that came before it, going into detail about the grisly fate of the titular Donner Party. Hale even tells the reader that if they're easily squicked out, they should skip certain pages.

• Dark Is Not Evil: The Hangman dresses in all black and his job revolves around the execution of others, but he's a friendly, kindhearted person who's just doing his job and tries his best to reassure his victims before their demise.
• Didn't Think This Through: In Major Impossible, Andy Hall and William Hawkins are carrying the group's food supplies and decide to toss some of it away to make their boat lighter. Hale even points out what a mistake that will prove to be.
  • Later on, when John Powell is stuck on the side of a cliff, George Bradly takes off his pants and uses his underwear to pull him up. The Hangman asks why he didn't just use his pants.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Bill Richmond shows up in Big Bad Ironclad! to deliver the new hanging rope, then becomes a main character in Major Impossible.
• Easy Amnesia: At the end of Lafayette!, the Provost plans to tell the British army Hale's story so the Revolution will fail, but he falls and hits his head, forgetting the story and how they win.
• Everybody Calls Him "Barkeep": Provost and Hangman are only ever referred to by their job titles.
• The Executioner: The Hangman, who is meant to hang Nathan Hale. Interestingly, he nearly subverts almost every subtype that's associated with the trope. While he does wear a mask, he's by no means shunned by anyone, and he's very comfortable talking about his life and giving his full name. He doesn't appear to be tormented by his job, but he's also not completely blood thirsty nor is he apathetic. He actually doesn't like it when people die or are horribly injured in the stories. He also expresses empathy when meeting Nathan Hale, regretting that he doesn't have an extra life to give him. Ultimately, the Hangman is a pretty friendly guy, albeit goofy and dim-witted.
  • Really, the only subtype that applies to him is Dynastic, as he shows off a picture of a relative of his, who was also an executioner. This is mainly Played for Laughs.
• Exploiting the Fourth Wall: At one point in Donner Dinner Party, Hangman panickedly flips farther in the book after getting too squicked out.
• Foregone Conclusion: Nathan Hale will die by hanging before the end of the day, a fact he is aware of due to his time in The Big Huge Book of American History.
• Formula-Breaking Episode:
  • Alamo All-Stars is the first to immediately start the story without first reestablishing the narrators and setting it up, something that Hangman lampshades. It's also the first to introduce additional narrators, Vicente Guerrero and the firing squad executing him.
  • Major Impossible not only utilizes flashbacks throughout, but is the first book to not have the Provost commentate, due to him getting knocked out by Bill Richmond.
  • Cold War Correspondent has Marguerite Higgins tell her own story instead of Hale telling it for her.
• Funny Animal: Per the Hangman's request, a handful of historical characters within the stories are changed into talking animals. In Big Bad Ironclad, Gustavus Fox is a fox; in Blades of Freedom, Léger-Félicité Sonthonax and Étienne Polverel are cats, and in Treaties, Trenches, Mud and Blood, literally every country and respective citizen involved is portrayed as a different animal (see Anthropomorphic Animal Adaptation above). This doesn't affect anything, it's just a way to keep track of the various characters.
• Furry Confusion: Discussed in Above the Trenches. When the Lafayette Escadrille pool in their money to buy a lion cub and name it Whiskey, Hangman asks for clarification that this is a real lion cub and not a small Belgium child (as Belgium and it's people are portrayed as lion in World War I stories).
• The Grim Reaper: The Specter of Death appears in Donner Dinner Party, though his appearance is purely symbolic.
• Hit Me, Dammit!: The Hangman and the Provost both ask Bill Richmond to show them a punch. He knocks them both down easily.
• Irony: The Hangman, whose job is to hang people, gets pretty shaken when people die in the story, especially if the death is gruesome. This gets lampshaded a lot.
  Bill Richmond: You are one queasy hangman.
• Hypocritical Humor: In the biographical segment at the end of Raid of No Return, the Hangman scolds Nathan Hale (the author, not the spy) for playing around in a real life cockpit, saying this is not biographical page behavioral. In the title page at the beginning of the book, Hangman does the exact same thing, with Nathan Hale (the spy, not the author) telling him off in the same way.
• Manchild: The Hangman, befitting his role as an Audience Surrogate for younger readers.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Raoul Lufbery in Above the Trenches was born French but lived in America for much of his life, so because all the characters are portrayed as animals (see Anthropomorphic Animal Adaptation above), he is portrayed as a rabbit with a rooster beak.
• Mosquito Miscreants: In Blades of Freedom, a talking mosquito is given its own story much to the annoyance and disgust of the main cast.
• No Fourth Wall: Played with. The main characters are fully aware that they're in a graphic novel, as they make many jokes and nods to it, even talking directly to the audience at times. However, the Provost and Hangman express surprise and take insult when Hale explains that they are just fictional characters that the writer created while almost everyone else is a real-life historical figure. This doesn't seem to affect that much in the long run. Additionally, multiple characters within the stories and events being discussed are aware of the medium their in.
• "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: In Lafayette!, when asked, the Correction Baby confirms (with a visual) that yes, Adrienne's very large hairstyle was real.
• Not So Above It All: The Provost, for all his seriousness and his uptight personality, does sometimes take part in the Hangman's silly antics, like when he joined him in pretend flying at the end of Raid of No Return. In a more general example, the Provost is a romantic of sorts, as he enjoys when the stories have a bit of romance in them.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: At the end of Treaties, Trenches, Mud and Blood, when the countries take apart and pack away War, Hangman loses his goofy composure and gets really upset, asking why they even let it out in the first place before it killed so many people and angrily screaming that they should never let it out again. If anything, it shows how terrible and horrifying WWI was.
• Painting the Medium: The illustrations of events are created by Hale to better show what happened.
• Politically Correct History: Averted in the stories. It would be hard to tell the real historical event like the Civil War, the life of Harriet Tubman, and the Korean War without portraying the bigotry and/or racism that greatly affected said events. This is however Played Straight with the narrators, who all live in 1776 America. For example, Nathan Hale, Provost, and Hangman are all pretty much in agreement that slavery is a very evil thing.
• A Rare Sentence: In the beginning of Above the Trenches, Hangman exclaims "Yippie! We're going back to World War I!", causing Nathan Hale to dryly comment that he might be the first person in history to say that.
• Running Gag:
  • In Big Bad Ironclad, characters frequently discuss the underwater toilet that John Ericsson designed for the USS Monitor.
  • Alamo All-Stars: The firing squad shooting their guns in the air, causing a dead bird to drop right on the Provost's head.
• Shout-Out: In Cold War Correspondent, Maggie Higgins points out that General MacArthur's plan was considered to be a bad decision by future historians, as he committed a land war in Asia. Hale chimes in:
  Nathan Hale: A classic blunder.
• Sixth Ranger: Bill Richmond officially joins the storytelling group in Major Impossible.
• Sleep Cute: Lafayette and General Washington are have one after a long and tiring battle.
• Spoiler Cover: Well, Spoiler back-cover. The Hazard Level of Above the Trenches literally says nearly every character in the story dies a horrible, painful, death.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: In-universe example in Above the Trenches. Upon the reveal that Manfred von Richtofen was the Red Baron and had eighty confirmed kills, the narrators ask why the entire book wasn't about him. Hale justifies it by that a story about the Red Baron's career of being a careful and methodical fighter that only attacked when he knew he and his team could win would be boring.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Lafayette is shown vomiting off the side of the ship a lot on his voyages to the American Colonies and back.
• War God: In Treaties, Trenches, Mud and Blood, Ares, the Greek God of War, is introduced at the beginning of World War I as a metaphor, showing soldiers running and falling into his melting pot. At the end of each year of the war, Ares is shown to have grown bigger, uglier, and more monstrous, until he becomes a full on Mechanical Abomination, representing the evolution of weapons technology and the millions of lives being claimed by the conflict. He is taken apart by the different nations when the war ends. However, he makes a brief return to signify the start of World War II in Raid of No Return.
• War Is Hell: The books hardly shy away from the horrible, violent, and tragic parts of the many wars they cover. Treaties, Trenches, Mud and Blood arguably displays this trope the most prominently, especially with many real life quotes they have at the end describing how terrible World War 1 was.

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