Scientific Romance

Hey Mom,

I’m a sucker for World War II. As a former political science and history major, it’s one of my biggest passions. Because of my creative side, I relish in speculative fiction set within the era too. So when creators take World War II and cram it full of alternative scenarios, weapon systems that never saw the light of day, and ask questions that some might fear to answer, I’m game.

World War II is one of those times in human history that has been mined by every media outlet for stories both real and fictional. There is something about the time period that sparks a certain sense of nostalgia in virtually everyone. Because younger people’s exposure has been through sensationalized video games and movies, the romanticism grows more and more each year. The entire time period feels like a fantasy at his point.

One day I hope that I’ll be able to tell my own World War II story. I have a story that I’m proud of, one that I feel is different, and has the stones to ask questions people have been afraid to ask, let alone answer.

Because of my recent failure in trying to raise money for my first “pro” short film I’ve been looking towards comic books as the next medium I’d like to explore. When talented people bring World War II and comic books together, I’m very interested to see those interpretations. I like to compare and contrast my work to others and see if my work could make the cut. In the last year or so I’ve picked up three series that are set within World War II.

Dust Wars

This is the first series I picked up when I started collecting comic books again. In fact, this series is what brought me back to comics. After picking up the second issue, I began looking through other comic books as I search for the first and third issues across town.

I was aware of Dust when I went hunting for the comic book. I’ve been a fan of model making for some time and stumbled across the world of Dust while researching mechanized walkers for my own project. When I found the property I thought Dust was my dream realized. Somehow Paolo Parente took everything from my mind and made it happen. World War II with mechs, more or less, has long been a dream of mine. I opted to buy the comic book because, outside of static models and a few pieces of artwork, there was no story other than the loose descriptions I read on the official website. I wanted to see if this guy had completely beaten me to the punch.

After a month or so I finally got all three issues and read through them in one afternoon. Dust Wars is probably one of the worst comic books I’ve ever read. The dialog is absolutely terrible. The pacing of the book is absolutely terrible. The art is the best part, but it even feels as if corners were cut. Sometimes art can save a book, but not this time. Dust Wars reads and looks like a couple of junior high school kids decided to cobble together a comic book.

I’ve followed Paolo Parente’s work since his time on Mutant Chronicles, another obsession of mine, and he is an incredible artist, but he is a tried and true pin-up artist. Dust, and by extension Dust Wars, is no different. Tits, pulp, and action really sums up Dust as a whole. The plot is a silly, treading way to far into the fantasy realm for me and there are zero dramatic stakes that would make anyone give a damn about any of the characters. I’ve since given up on anything Dust.

Iron Siege

Up until right now I’ve not realized what a terrible name Iron Siege is for this comic book. You can probably tell where this is going… but the book is about zombie like ghouls. I understand it’s a siege upon these men by the ghouls, I just don’t understand the iron part. Iron is usually associated with Germany in a World War II context, Iron Cross, Iron Reich, etc. etc. The Germans are the B set of characters in this story, so I’m kind of at a loss.

Like World War II as a whole, I’m a sucker for interesting comic book gimmicks. The understated elegance of Marvel Comic’s blank cover variants are completely awesome to me. I enjoy them more than any of the finished covers they put out. So the Golden Age format to these books was a huge draw. When a comic company does something physically different to a book in this manner, they generally want attention to be drawn to it, they want to indicate the book is special.

The extremely well painted German officer and American Sergeant made the book pop immediately to me on the shelf. Not to mention it had, what I thought, were zombies. I thought “Cool, a World War II zombie book.” So I gave the book a chance and waited until I had all three issues to read it. The book isn’t about zombies, but Ghoul like creatures like I stated above.

A running trend in these books is that the interior art is not even near the quality of the cover art. Obviously due to time, I understand entire books can’t look like their covers. There are deadlines. Like Dust Wars, the interiors look painted, but here in Iron Siege the art looks like it was scribbled out and half realized, kind of like concept art, except shit. There are a few boxes of wonderful renditions, but most just seem like splotches of color are substituted for details. No doubt the book is atmospheric, but it just looks rushed rather than artistic.

The book’s story, for all its attempts at creating atmosphere, is the boat anchor. I could have forgiven the art if the story was more engaging, but because there isn’t a lot to hold my interest in the balloons, I get really critical of the art. The story isn’t as laughable or as cheesy as Dust Wars, but the story is lacking the depth between the action scenes I would have liked to have seen.

Operation: Broken Wings, 1936

The last, and most recent book I’ve picked up is Operation: Broken Wings, 1936. Unlike the other books I didn’t wait until I had all three issues before reading. After getting burnt before, I was tired of paying for shoddy material. Unfortunately, I have no damn clue what is going on and I wish I had waited. I hate getting incomplete stories, especially when the story is as incomplete as this one.

This, above the others, seems based in a realistic world, meaning that there is no alien technology, and no zombie like ghouls. The laws of science and physics are firmly planted in known reality, so far anyway. I think it will stay this way, but after two other titles with a loose grasp on reality, I felt I should point it out.

This book deals with the more subtle arts of deception and intelligence gathering. Despite this change from fantasy to more reality, the book can’t help but be slow. It’s not awful; definitely the most interesting out of the bunch, but the book doesn’t firmly given us a reason to care. In fact, the main character comes off as a jerk. His only redeemable quality is that he is a German military man that doesn’t like Hitler. Wow, profound. I’ll probably give the second issue a shot just to see if the story unfolds to my liking.

I picked the book up on the cover again. I really have to stop doing that. But, I believe that in comics covers should really be the judge of the book. I don’t expect the art to be up to the quality of the cover, but I do expect the cover to represent, in some fashion, what the context of the book is. Not the series, but THAT specific book. The cover of Operation: Broken Wings, 1936 is some guy standing in front of a Panzer III or IV. Panzer III’s and IV’s didn’t see service until 1939 so I don’t get it. The tank looks slightly fictionalized too with an odd looking manlet cover. So with that, I’m not 100% certain this is a “realistic” fictional tale… if that makes any sense. I guess we’ll see.

Peter Panzerfaust

I purchased Morning Glories #14 this week and saw a preview for a book called Peter Panzerfaust, another World War II themed tale. From what I’ve read on the internet, the story seems to be a take on the Peter Pan fairy tale. The little press release floating around has all the right ingredients and the creators know how to hook me with their buzzwords. This change to a potentially more whimsical tone in the World War II era is interesting.

Of course I’ll buy the first issue to give it a shot, I just hope it has some depth beyond having a guy and some kids prancing about France, blowing stuff up with shape charges.