Book Alert: Arrowsmith
Occasionally, I will review graphic novels/tpbs. It's not because of some urge to make my comics collection more respectable; rather, it's because I no longer have the space to maintain an issue-by-issue comics collection - I knew I was doomed when I had to sell off my X-Men collection (#84-#145) way back in the 1980s. Nowadays, I collect them in trades.
Kurt Busiek has always been a favourite of mine. I think that so far, his Astro City collections are the best I've read in the superhero genre - especially 'Life in the Big City', with its exposé of how sad a superhero's social life can be, and why. This time though, he has teamed up with Carlos Pacheco et al to do a fantasy Great War series. Arrowsmith is not just another war story, but it is one which has the ghoulish shadow of the Wildstorm universe all over it. Airmen fly with the aid of sympathetic magic, and countries which are obvious mirror-images of the European powers of 1914-18 do battle. And then one day, amidst fire and brimstone, the allies unleash a weapon to end all wars.
Perhaps the best part about Busiek is his human-interest perspective. Fletcher Arrowsmith is a typical country bumpkin who is smitten by the 'fine uniform' bug and signs up for the Air Corps. Eventually, he's sent over to Gallia (France) to turn the tide of battle against the Hun. In a typical rite-of-passage sequence, he sees his mates die in various brutal and graphic ways, loses his virginity, and becomes a hero with a conscience. And that's in issues 1-6, nicely collected for you. Maybe I've read too many rite-of-passage novels, because this particular sequence didn't quite grip me. But what gripped me was the desperation with which Fletcher hangs on to his innocence, and how that might one day be his saving grace in a world gone mad.
Kurt Busiek has always been a favourite of mine. I think that so far, his Astro City collections are the best I've read in the superhero genre - especially 'Life in the Big City', with its exposé of how sad a superhero's social life can be, and why. This time though, he has teamed up with Carlos Pacheco et al to do a fantasy Great War series. Arrowsmith is not just another war story, but it is one which has the ghoulish shadow of the Wildstorm universe all over it. Airmen fly with the aid of sympathetic magic, and countries which are obvious mirror-images of the European powers of 1914-18 do battle. And then one day, amidst fire and brimstone, the allies unleash a weapon to end all wars.
Perhaps the best part about Busiek is his human-interest perspective. Fletcher Arrowsmith is a typical country bumpkin who is smitten by the 'fine uniform' bug and signs up for the Air Corps. Eventually, he's sent over to Gallia (France) to turn the tide of battle against the Hun. In a typical rite-of-passage sequence, he sees his mates die in various brutal and graphic ways, loses his virginity, and becomes a hero with a conscience. And that's in issues 1-6, nicely collected for you. Maybe I've read too many rite-of-passage novels, because this particular sequence didn't quite grip me. But what gripped me was the desperation with which Fletcher hangs on to his innocence, and how that might one day be his saving grace in a world gone mad.
etched with acid at 10:51:00 pm
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