War Story: D-Day Dodgers

(Vertigo, 2001)
™ and ©2001 DC Comics, Inc.

Much of Garth Ennis’ post-Hellblazer works seems to content itself with gratuitous violence and potty humor. But this giant-sized Vertigo one-shot reminds us that Ennis can be a sensitive craftsman who does real credit to himself when covering a serious topic. War Story focuses on the tale of a group of British soldiers slogging through Italy late in the days of World War II. These fighters are largely unsupported and unrecognized because, while they were busy battling through places like Anzio and Salerno, a little thing known as D-Day was going on in France. This high-profile push against the Germans got all the public support and most of the power of the Allied war effort behind it (to say nothing of the lion’s share of the glory in most history books). So what did these brave soldiers in Italy get? As one of Ennis’s hard-bitten characters might say: “Bollocks!” John Higgins supplies great artwork for one of the war’s great untold sagas.

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Notes

Writer

Artist

#1

December, 2001
Cover Price: $4.95
5 copies available from $2.98

Garth Ennis

John Higgins