WAR STORY: D-DAY DODGERS (Best of the Week!)
"D-Day Dodgers"
Highly Recommended (10/10)
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DC Comics/Vertigo imprint
Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: John Higgins
Colors: Pamela Rambo & Digital Chameleon
Letters: Clem Robins
Editors: Tony Bedard & Will Dennis
Price: $4.95 US/$8.25 CAN |
Notice the cover on this book? It's a photograph, courtesy the Imperial War Museum. That tells you everything you need to know about this book. Ennis delivers an important story of a war that's usually glorified, and I find myself thoroughly convinced by the reality of it. I know this is historical fiction, but I could swear that Ross, Lovatt and Dunn were real people. Though Ennis has visited the notion of war and the nobility of soldiers in his writing before time and time again, never has he done it better than this.
September 1944. Second Liuetenant Ross, a greenhorn British officer, joins British and Irish troops on a campaign in Italy. He finds officers and grunts who have spent far too long in the shadow of those fighting in France, but still they trudge on. An aristocrat back home insensitively refers to them as "D-Day Dodgers," and the insult looms over the men just as they're ordered to undertake a mission that's bound to be the death of them.
Higgins's art here reminds me a bit of some other UK artists's work, like Carlos Ezquerra and John McCrea. His simple style allows the reader to picture himself in the parts of the various soldiers, and he conveys the grimy, dark nature of war quite well. Rambo's colors reinforce that sullen tone.
Ennis's characters are familiar ones for anyone who's into war fiction. We've seen similar characters -- the greenhorn, the tired veteran, the gruff but likeable sargeant -- in any number of movies, such as Saving Private Ryan, Platoon... even Aliens. One could argue that they're cliches, not characters, but I wouldn't agree. Instead, I see that the character archetypes keep turning up because they represent universal truths of war.
Given that Nov.11 is fast approaching, the timing of this story is perfect. When one thinks of World War II, thoughts turn to the triumph of freedom, or perhaps of the atrocities committed against the Jews. But in this story, Ennis demonstrates that like Vietnam and other unpopular conflicts, people viewed WWII soldiers with distrust. He shows us that in any war, ordinary men are capable of deeds both horrible and unbelievably noble. I found Ennis's suggestions about the influence of the media on war -- even in 1944 -- to be particular novel for a WWII story. It would seem things haven't changed as much as we might think.
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