Book Review of a Bundle of Battlefields Graphic Novels

During the Thanksgiving Weekend, when I wasn't helping my wife decorate the house for Christmas, I caught up on some of my reading. 

I selected the remaining unread Battlefields graphic novels in my collection, all written by Garth Ennis.    

The first story, Happy Valley, is about a newbie pilot joining a veteran Wellington bomber crew in 1942. 

It might sound cliche, but this story made me laugh--and yes--made me cry.

 

I decided to continue with the air war trend and read The Fall and Rise of Anna Kharkova.  This story is actually book three in a trilogy about Anna.  The first being Night Witches followed by Motherland.

I haven't read the first two books, because I've been buying the Battlefields series haphazardly at Half Price Books.

Anna's Fall and Rise covers a twenty year time span where she experiences a double-whammy of cruelty.  First from her German captors in the final days of World War II, followed by her own country's cruelty to it's own citizens.

The final book in my ad-hock trilogy was Dear Billy.  

This story is an extended letter by Nurse Carrie Sutton to her pilot boyfriend Billy Wedgewood.  In her letter, she confesses to Billy how she was captured, raped, shot and left for dead by the Japanese during the invasion of Singapore.  She then goes on to explain how she exacted personal revenge--and her inability to cope with the impending peace.

I've always enjoyed war stories more than any of the other genres of comics, but I only vaguely recall any of the Sgt. Rock, or Sgt. Fury stories.  

Garth Ennis knows how to tell a poignant 5-star war story you never forget.