Graphic Novel Review: True Stories of World War II

 

True Stories of World War II
This collection of short graphic stories (very short) by Capstone Press — True Stories of World War II —  shines the light on the heroics of some soldiers from the Allied side of the equation, bringing forth some stories that of regular people in irregular times that might otherwise get lost to the history books. The introduction notes how the leaders and generals get all of the headlines but that it was the regular people on the battle fronts that paid the highest price for freedom and victory.
Here, we read about a US soldier’s grim trek through the Bataan Death March, the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima, a freedom fighter in France who barely escapes with her life after saving the lives of many; and survival at sea after a battleship gets torpedoed by the Japanese.

I was pleased to also witness the tale of Jacqueline Cochran, who was a pioneering woman aviator who convinced the US military (over strong objections) to allow woman to fly aircraft during the war. The male-dominated military would not allow combat missions, but the scope of the efforts of these valiant women who paved the way for equity in the armed forces is a story that we should not let be forgotten. I had never heard of Cochran before, and the story here had me doing some searching around about her, and she was an amazing woman: fearless, confident, brave. She was not ever in the history books that I remember reading.

The artwork in this collection is just so-so, and some of the writing is weak, unfortunately. The amount of space dedicated to each of the stories makes it difficult to bring these heroes completely alive. It’s barely a taste of those who sacrificed in the war. For some young readers, though, the graphic stories might be enough to pique their interests about the generation that changed the world and lived through times we can’t quite imagine.

Peace (in the book),
Kevin

PS — you can view a sample of the book in Google Books.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *