Against all Odds
Edited by Steve Holland
War Picture Library Collection vol 2
Published 2008
cover price £14.99
Prion Books continue their series of graphic novels by collecting another twelve of the books from their long running War Picture Library. Once again Ste
ve Holland is in the driving seat and his selections, as usual, provide much variety between th
e covers of this handsome publication.An interesting introduction which looks at the outbreak of war and talks about how it must have been as a kid during the 60's and 70's reading these books and imagining the conflict our fathers and grandfathers fought.
And then we're straight into a cracking story about an arrogant air ace who has to face up to his Finest Hour. The artwork of this story is typical of the publication with clean, uncluttered frames that contain tremendous detail and mood. No full colour splashes, no upper case BOOM'S and ARGHH'S - with the British comic book art of the period it was very much a case of less is more.
The full list of contents:Finest Hour
Troubled Sea
Foxhole Glory
The THink Blue Line
Strike Squadron
Banzai
Road From Tobruk
Up Periscope
Rogue Lancaster
Paratroop
Valley of Death
Snarl of Battle
Another story that stood out for me is Paratroop which is something of a rarity in that it is both a war story and a detective tale at the same time. This works perfectly and I found myself racing through the pages.
What I especially like about these books is that while they are basically boy's own war adventures they often touch on the horrors and hardship of the period and can offer up some remarkable mature storytelling. These days the comic book has grown up and graphic novels often tackle adult themes - Batman has often been used to depict dark psychological themes, Hellblazer walks a landscape Hammer Horror would have cried away from, sexual relationships are often tackled in the four colour format, and Viz Comic pukes up satire that would have caused outrage back in the day.
The fact that the strips collected here come from the 60's and 70's show how far ahead of their time the books were.
12 stories, 700 + pages, all collected together in a sturdy and attractive binding.
Excellent.
5 comments:
Are you a fan of graphic novels? I can't get into them myself and have never quite figured out why. These look well done, though.
I like a lot of graphic novels - some are better than others of course.
Ah but these aren't graphic novels. They're "proper" comics which have infiltrated the pretentious graphic novel shelves!
I find War Picture Library (well, these early issues anyway, i have some later ones i have found on market stalls and they are a bit silly) to be a lot grimmer and more realistic than the likes of Commando and Battle Picture Library. "Foxhole Glory" especially, and also the story in the first volume where a German pilot ends up in the RAF.
I suppose it helps that this was the earliest of the war-themed pocket libraries (the introduction to the first volume claimed it was the very first pocket library, but that was far from the truth. It was probably one of the first comic-strip ones though - but text ones had existed for decades before), and many of the writers and artists had seen action themselves
I guess I can't tell the difference then between graphic novels and proper comics. My main problem with them all is that you're through reading them in five to ten minutes or so.
True they are not graphic novels by the root definition. But these days anything that is collected in book editions are termed graphic novels. Though I would argue that each strip is a self contained graphic novel in itself. Since they were not series stories but stand alone's of the length of a short novel.
CHARLES - each story is more than ten minutes of reading. Some are surprisingly layered too with several themes running through the story.
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