It was a bit traumatic to research the fashion of 1979 (panel 2) and 1982 (panel 4) …
The story with Willie’s uncle came to me very early on in the creation of Driftwood, probably inspired by some classic cold war stories. While here in Eastern Germany we get reminded constantly about how lethal the border guards were, I had to double-check if you could really get shot dead on the Czechoslovakian border, too. The US army in Bavaria observed that the Czechoslovak border guards around this time were less violent than the GDR border guards, but there were still incidents like the death of Johann Dick, so this story is fully plausible.
The Czech border to Bavaria for a large part runs through hills with spruce forest. During the cold war there was a signal fence a couple of kilometers inland, and another fence and a patrolled strip at the actual border. That fence was about 100 m inland, and there were guards and guard doggies (apparently Wolfdogs) on the outside.
One fun fact is that after 1968, in a gesture of infinite mercy, they replaced the 5000 V electric fence at the border with a double wire mesh fence …
While I did research this somewhat, I am now wondering why I did not draw T-shaped fence posts in the first panel. WTF. I shall return to redraw it. V`(oo)´V
Ah, the changing fashions. And wallpapers!
I remember how the early Driftwoods used to have a lot of details just for the fun of it, but now that a lot of pieces come together (that you have obviously been planning for a long time) it starts to feel a bit creepy in the Alan Moore way…
Heh … I’ll use any opportunity to draw flowery 70’s wallpapers! :3
Probably I’m being totally obvious now, but maybe it says not only something about gender and fashion, but also about their characters that Willie’s dad has barely changed his style at all, apart from the sideburns, while her mum has gone through significant makeovers between each point in time when we see her …
Argh, nooooo, I don’t want to be creepy in the Alan Moore way!