#jack hardigan

[artkfwks]

got a sigarette?

[kittychief]

Owning a business is hard. Sometimes you need a hug, some words of reassurance, and to have a cigarette with your lover, or co-owner, or the man you used to fly right next to. Sometimes he can be all of that.

Tried to make these lovebirds look older— this drawing is meant to be during the later years. :)

[shadows-on-the-sky]

Do you think Fred was Jack's first love?

That's an interesting question, dear anon. To be honest, I don't think I've ever thought about it before!

Considering that he appears to be in his late twenties at the time of the story, it's quite likely Jack has been physically attracted to other men before Fred. I believe Duane was (subconsciously) in love with him, but Jack seems to only consider him a friend — of course, things might have turned out differently if Duane had chosen to act on his feelings. Perhaps at some point Jack found himself in a situation similar to Fred’s:

He had had this problem quite recently. The teacher was an instructor in Primary Flight Training, in which Fred received eighty hours of flight time in that classic craft known lovingly as the Ryan Yellow Peril. He had wanted almost desperately to be closer to the man, but the teacher had other students as well and hardly noticed Fred. When he was off duty, he drove home to a wife and three kids, leaving Fred in a barracks full of noisy flight students, many of them bullies, who spent their spare time telling dirty, untrue stories and gaping at poorly composed pictures of girls with cleavage showing.

Which means he probably never fell head over heels in love, but he did experience a few unacknowledged crushes that didn’t lead anywhere. I imagine this was a common occurrence among gay/bi people at the time. But Fred was the first guy he really devoted himself to.

[renaultphile]

Remember that playing card....

I know it's the wrong suit but....imagine if Fred had done this version......

[neptunes-blue]

It’s 3am but I drew my first full body since march 2023, are you proud of me guys guys guys are youproudof me guysguysfuys

[voughtcorsair]

fred trusteau & the jack of hearts

fanart for ensan case's wingmen, a gay romance novel about two naval aviators in the pacific theatre of wwii. published 1979. it can be downloaded here

[glassonlyrecycle]

[image id: two pencil drawings in a comic format. the first is a detailed drawing of ww2 us navy teletype machine (similar to a typewriter) with a quote from wingmen by ensan case "finally the teletype printed one last story and fell silent". the second is a drawing of jack hardigan from the waist up sitting in front of the teletype. his hand is held to his face as he looks at the message with relief. the quote in the previous panel is continued: "it said that ensign trusteau was alive and well on the essex. his shot up plane was being patched together again. and jack almost started crying, which his pilots interpreted as meaning that the old man really cared about his pilots." end id]

[image id: three photos of ww2 teletypes, a machine similar in appearance to a typewriter but with more mechanical bits. the first one is a color image and the second two are b&w. the middle image is labeled as a diagram with the different parts and the third is from the back of the teletype with two young men leaning over the front of it. end id]

[artkfwks]

I'm so glad I've stumbled upon this book, I love them so much omg

Here's my headcanon on how they would look like!