The Comics Of War
Written 04 March 2008.
In class we discussed the different ways that we can approach writing about war. Novels, biographies, short stories, poems, almost every type of literary device in the world today can be used to bring forth the story of war and tragedy. In class, we read the graphic novel “Maus”, which brought the discussion to asking whether or not a comic can be successfully used to depict such horrific acts.
Some argued yes, and others argued no. It certainly made me think about World War II differently, and I could understand the arguments for both. It made me curious however, to see if the Iraq war now had cartoonists depicting the Iraqi insurgents as snakes, and the allied forces ferrets…. or something.
Nothing in my Google reader had anything to do with comics, so it was time to go searching the endless worldwide web. After approximately 26ish minutes of searching, I came across something interesting. TALES OF THE IRAQ WAR by LETUFF. I couldn’t help but be sucked in by the endless supply of cartoon that Letuff has to offer. However, I couldn’t help but notice right off the bat that these were all anti-war cartoons. Some are very powerful. Here is are a couple samples of some that he put out for the 5th year anniversary of the war:
Now as moving and thought provoking as most of the 252 free cartoons he has are, this wasn’t quite what I really was looking for. This cartoonist does not relate quite to “Maus”, but it did offer a unique perspective on another anti-war effort, trying to get his message heard from the world.
I went back to my searching through Google, and I stumbled across another comic writer. This one, however, detailed more of a story line and less of a political statement. This comic was written by Joe Sacco, who is a very famous comic book writer. Sacco traveled to Iraq for a short period of time and wrote a comic about his time with the troops. He calls it “Complacency Kills”, and I thought it was a very good representation of our troops, and some of the struggles they have in a day to day living. He depicts the Marines as very trim and athletic, quite the contradiction to Letuff’s comics.
Some would argue with against this type of medium being used to tackle the monster of depicting war and tragedies, saying it trivializes the sacrifice people have made by making them ‘inhuman’, but I believe it has its benefits. Growing up in a society where the babysitter can be replaced with a television says a lot about our culture, so perhaps the only way we can educate some children and adults in the future is through graphic novels.
Read “Maus”, and “Complacency Kills”, and make your own decision about how best broach the topic of war and sacrifice. I think they both do a damn good job.
“Complacency Kills”, by Joe Sacco
TALES OF THE IRAQ WAR by LETUFF
