Battlefields: Dear Billy #3 (of3) – Review

By Garth Ennis (writer) Peter Snejbjerg (pencils, inks) Rob Steen (colors).

The Story: Since this is the first review of a three-part series, and the final installment in it, please allow, dear WCBR reader, for me to delve into the general story of the entire Battlefields: Dear Billy title.

This series stars an English nurse named Carrie who survives the worst kind of abuse by the hands of her Japanese captors during the second world war. The way she processes her pain, in both sickening and beautiful ways, fuels this brief but memorable story. Her rotating roles of both hero and villain, victim and oppressor, add depth and realism to this story that is rarely found in any literary medium, let alone comic books. In these pages, Garth Ennis does an almost unspeakable  job of displaying the human condition in all its glory and all its dirt, with all its warts and with all its halos.

What’s  Good: There is noting wrong in the slightest with this comic. It should be studied and emulated. Ennis’ prose is uncannily subtle and powerful. One can get lost in the beauty and transcendence of a single sentence at the top of a panel, and then need to squirm uncomfortably from another line at the bottom of the same panel.

Peter Snejberg’s illustrations are open, simple, and powerful. A perfect compliment to Ennis’ narration.

What’s Not So Good: It ended.

Conclusion: There was a time, I am told, long ago that a comic book reader could get all different kinds of comics. Sports comics, western comics, space comics, and war comics. Must have been great to be a fanboy back then (I for one would love a good NFL based series). Well, Dynamite Comics publishes a true war comic here, breathing hope into a stifling Superhero based comic market. (On the side, I must add that no other comic publisher excites me more of their current offering than Dynamite).

This is my first foray in Garth Ennis’ work and I have to say, he lives up to the hype. Granted, this shouldn’t be a surprise as I have read that both Brian K. Vaughn and Robert Kirkman think he is one of the, (if not the) best out there. I have been weary of reading titles such as Crossed and Back To Brooklyn, which Ennis helms, because of the nature of their content, but these historical nonfiction tales really call out to me.

I realize that in this review I haven’t revealed much of the specific plot and that is because the story is so tightly written that I am afraid any detail might spoil it for the poor lug who hasn’t read this series yet. Quite soon this series will be collected into a small TPB and sold for less than ten bucks. Buy it! Or, if you can find them, get the whole series now with the three beautiful Cassady covers. I cannot not wait for the next series of Battlefields to hit the shelves!

Grade: A

-Rob G