Ypres Memories
This is a graphic novel about the First World War. Although presented as fiction, it’s more in the nature of a drama-documentary. The artwork is competent, but nothing more. To show the horror of war, wounds need to be more than painted-on blood. The image of a running man decapitated by a shell is particularly unconvincing. Where there is interesting detail, a lack of references makes it a lot weaker. For example, it shows the shift of helmet design from the Pickelhaube to the Stahlelm steel helmet and even shows steel helmets with a camouflage pattern, but there is no information on when these changes were introduced, and they seem to occur rather sooner in the story than they really did.
There’s a randomness to the detail. There is an incident involving a tank, but no indication that this was an exciting new weapon or of how it was used. There’s reference to the use of aircraft as artillery spotters but nothing about the building of the trenches. Where close-ups of the trenches are shown, it misses out fire steps and duckboards.
The book does serve as a child’s introduction to World War I, but a well-informed adult is unlikely to gain any insights. It’s an opportunity missed.
