Sunday 7 December 2008

Emmanuel Guibert - Alan's War

This is a very good book and is the story of Alan Cope's Second World War experiences as a young GI. The drawing is very interesting, I read on the Comics Reporter that he first draws in water and then adds ink to the water to create his special effects. They look a bit like old photographs or perhaps murky photocopies of old photographs. It's a very strange effect i've never seen in a comic before. The faces are very simple but very precise, as are all the vehicles, tanks and uniforms. Alan Cope doesn't see much combat, I think he only gets shot at once, and talks in a very calm and measured way, I guess it's because he is talking about the war many years later when he's had a long time to think about everything, though he does see some horrible things happen, usually by accident. A lot of it is him talking about all the people he met during the war and how he tries to get back in touch with them later. I really enjoyed the book. Guibert talks about another book he is doing, about Cope's childhood in California, and I'd really like to see that too.

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