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---------- Forwarded message --------- From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <h-rev...@lists.h-net.org> Date: Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 8:25 AM Subject: H-Net Review [H-War]: Hankins on Prorokova and Tal, 'Cultures of War in Graphic Novels: Violence, Trauma, and Memory' To: <h-rev...@lists.h-net.org> Cc: H-Net Staff <revh...@mail.h-net.org> Tatiana Prorokova, Nimrod Tal, eds. Cultures of War in Graphic Novels: Violence, Trauma, and Memory. New Brunswick Rutgers University Press, 2018. 237 pp. $29.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-8135-9095-0; $99.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8135-9096-7. Reviewed by Mike Hankins (eSchool of Graduate PME, Air University) Published on H-War (August, 2019) Commissioned by Margaret Sankey The field of comics studies has grown extensively over the past few decades, and it makes sense that it would start to intersect with other fields--in this case, military history. For students of comics studies and the history of art and literature, this book presents more of the type of analysis typical in those fields, applied to specific works of sequential art that deal with wars, both historical and current. For military historians, however, Tatiana Prorokova and Nimrod Tal's collection of essays offers several new lenses through which to explore wars in specific and general senses and should be especially useful to military historians who explore memory and culture. Each of the eleven essays in the volume takes a specific work (or group of related works) of sequential art having to do with war in one way or another and uses various tools to analyze it. The book is, therefore, more a product of art history than traditional military history, but it offers a useful bridge between those fields. A brief introduction attempts to bring these diverse chapters together, asserting that "stories about the military are part of the modern battlefield" and emphasizing that one of the major goals of the volume is to "de-center" war narratives (p. 1). That means that the volume aims to both eschew a traditional "center and periphery" framework and focus on subjects that have garnered less scholarly attention. Since many famous works of war comics are American and focus on the Second World War, this book considers no material related to that war and includes only a small sampling of US-related subjects. Outside of this brief introduction, the chapters are centered on their subjects and left to speak for themselves. Little attempt is made to convey a broad argument about a relationship between comics and war or about specific qualities of the comics medium. However, several of the essays do touch on exactly that point. Joe Lockard's "Nat Turner, Slave Revolts, and Child-Killing in U.S. Graphic Novels," Kent Worcester's "Graphic Narrative and the War on Terror," and Prorokova's "The Haunting Power of War: Remembering the Rwandan Genocide in _99 Days_," among others, all emphasize that there is something unique about the medium of comics that allows it to explore war narratives in ways that are different from literature, film, or audio recordings. Like a film, comics unfold in time, yet, like when reading a book, readers can move back and forth in that narrative at their will or linger on certain images and text more than others. Indeed, comics have a "grammar" in how images and text are presented and juxtaposed in ways that can encourage readers to take certain approaches in unfolding time in their minds.[1] Worcester makes this point most clearly when he emphasizes that the nature of comics allows for dense, layered narratives, that its sequential panel structure is especially suited for the documentation of history, and that comics are essentially democratic in that anyone can make them with few barriers to production and distribution. His assessment dovetails nicely with Yasmine Nachabe Taan's points in "Blogging in Times of War: The July 2006 War in Lebanon and Mazen Kerbaj Imagining the Unimaginable" not only that digital platforms for distributing comics make the medium more democratic but also that the comics form is easier to get around government censors in some countries, and thus comics provide a way to look inside a conflict that other mediums might not. Each of the eleven chaptes has something worthy to offer, yet there are a few standouts that warrant a closer look. One of the most thought-provoking pieces is Silvia G. Kurlat Ares's "The Malvinas War in Argentine Memory: Graphic Representations of Defeat and Nationalism, 1982-2015." Ares shows how every aspect of comics, from the narratives themselves to the art styles, carries political weight. Ares asserts that these works are not searching for "truth" but for "significance." She notes that the comics under discussion "create something that blends testimony and fiction, interpretation and explanation," depending on the point of view of the authors, whether they are attempting to critique or support a government, nation, or war, or some other idea, such as chivalry (p. 168). Iain A. Macinnes shows a similar theme in his exploration of events as distant as the Hundred Years' War. He compares the novel _Crécy _(2007) by Warren Ellis against the very different series _Le Trône d'Argile _(2006), demonstrating that each uses a modern lens to interpret old events in ways that critique chivalry, nationalism, and violence but in different ways and to distinct ends. Lockard's examination of Kyle Baker's _Nat Turner_ series is one of the most rewarding essays in the volume, placing Baker's work in a continuum of comics that examine the Nat Turner Rebellion as well as depictions of slavery and the American Civil War in general. Baker purposefully challenges previous comics on these subjects (many of which promote outdated and rejected Dunning school and Lost Cause arguments). Lockard demonstrates how the juxtaposition of images makes the comics medium uniquely suited for dealing with complex issues, such as the killing of children during the rebellion--an aspect of the history that different comics have interpreted in distinct ways. A similar argument is present in Peter C. Valenti's examination of Joe Sacco's comics about Palestinian children growing up under Israeli occupation. Valenti argues that although these comics clearly have a political point of view, the medium of comics, which combines still images with unfolding time and images with juxtaposed text, allows for narratives with a much deeper level of nuance and sophistication than other media. Harriet E. H. Earle's chapter, "'The Sky Is Darkened by Gods': Spirituality, Strength, and Violence in Gene Luen Yang's _Boxers and Saints_," is especially useful in exploring how comics can be effective in presenting sophistication and nuance in historical war narratives. Yang's work not only makes powerful use of surrealist imagery and color to capture spirituality and emotional components but also tells the story of the Boxer Rebellion from two opposing viewpoints, juxtaposing them with themes of religious belief and devotion. James Kelley analyzes how post-traumatic stress disorder is depicted in _War Brothers _(2004), a graphic novel by Sharon E. McKay and Daniel Lafrance. Similar to Earle, Kelley emphasizes how color and the construction of panels can be powerful visual metaphors in depicting and exploring the memory of traumatic events. For the most part, the book does not examine mainstream popular American comics. The closest that any of the essays get is Macinnes's examination of _Crécy_ by Ellis, who has done much work for Marvel, DC, and Image comics as well as an animated Netflix series. Worcester also offers a brief survey of works dealing with the war on terror, which includes many mainstream popular works, such as superhero comics from Marvel, DC, and Image comics. It might have been interesting to explore how mainstream popular comics deal with the themes of war, either directly or allegorically, especially compared with the works under consideration in the rest of the collection. However, this would have been against the stated goals of the volume and thus is hardly a critique, as Prorokova and Tal's work has accomplished much and stands well as it is. If there is any critique worth mentioning, it is that readers who are unfamiliar with the works being discussed are at a significant disadvantage. Although all of the authors do an excellent job of describing the comics they analyze, including excerpts and illustrations of key moments, this can hardly make up for readers who have not read these works beforehand. With that in mind, this book might serve as a good jumping off point for readers to find comics relevant to their work. Although at first glance the volume appears to be a loosely connected collection of essays analyzing the art styles of various war comics, a closer reading reveals a thought-provoking work about the nature of war, memory, culture, and the ways we tell those stories. As Ares points out, comics can create unique narratives, but they are not dispassionate, and they reveal as much about the author and the culture that the author comes from as the conflicts they depict. The volume is worth the price of admission for the Worcester, Lockard, and Ares chapters alone, although the others have much to offer, including the ones I have not touched on. Even if a military historian finds their subject not covered in one or more of these chapters, they are still useful for the analytical lenses they demonstrate. Like most of the best scholarship, this volume provides new ways to look at old subjects and points the way for future work. Note [1]. These mechanics are explored in depth in Scott McCloud's classic work _Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art_ (Northampton, MA: Kitchen Sink Press, 1993), which should be considered required reading for those entering the field of comics studies. Citation: Mike Hankins. Review of Prorokova, Tatiana; Tal, Nimrod, eds., _Cultures of War in Graphic Novels: Violence, Trauma, and Memory_. H-War, H-Net Reviews. August, 2019. URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=53519 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. -- Best regards, Andrew Stewart _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
