'Red Bull' Featured in 'True War Stories' Anthology

Fifteen captivating tales of humor, horror, and other wartime experiences are presented in the forthcoming 250-page comics anthology "True War Stories." The 250-page hardcover, co-edited by Alex de Campi and Iraq War veteran Khai Krumbhaar, will be published by Z2 Comics in November 2020. However, a 30-day Kickstarter campaign launches today, Tues., Aug. 18, 2020. Through the crowd-funding effort, readers may preview and pre-order the book.

One of the featured "True War Stories" is related to the 2010-2011 deployment of the Iowa National Guard's 2nd Brigade Combat Team (B.C.T.), 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division.

Written by former Iowa National Guard citizen-soldier Randy Brown, "In the Valley of Lions" originally appeared as an essay in Volume 2 of "Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors." As "Charlie Sherpa," Brown writes about citizen-soldier culture at the Red Bull Rising blog; about modern war poetry at FOBhaiku.com, and about military writing at The Aiming Circle. He also edited a 2015 collection of U.S. Army public affairs journalism about the Iowa brigade's deployment, "Reporting for Duty: U.S. Citizen-Soldier Journalism from the Afghan Surge, 2010-2011."

"As far as I can tell, the last time the 'Red Bull' unit patch showed up in a comic book was in 'Combat Kelly' No. 21, published in 1954," says Brown. "Unlike that story, however, this 'Red Bull' tale is the non-fiction—the real deal. I hope it adequately portrays some of the strange context and significant sacrifices our citizen-soldier neighbors made for the United States, for the people of Panjshir Province, and for the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA).'"

Art on the 13-page comics story "In the Valley of Lions" is by Ryan Howe. Colors are by Kelly Fitzpatrick.

Brown's original essay contrasts a 2-day U.S. Department of State-sponsored "tourism conference" held in Pansjhir Province in June 2011, with a July 2011 insider attack that resulted in the deaths of Sgt. 1st Class Terryl Pasker, 39, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and civilian law enforcement advisor Paul Protzenko, 46, of Enfield, Mass. Also injured in the attack was Master Sgt. Todd Eipperle, 46, of Marshalltown, Iowa. Eipperle was recognized for his response to the attack.

Later in 2011, the Red Bull Rising blog posted additional information about the attack here.

Published annually published by Southeast Missouri State University Press, Cape Girardeau, Mo., the "Proud to Be" series is an anthology of military non-fiction, fiction, poetry, photography, and more. For a Red Bull Rising review of the 2013 volume in which "In the Valley of Lions" first appeared, click here.

For more information about "True War Stories," and to pre-order one or more copies—including editions autographed by the co-editors—visit the Kickstarter campaign here.

The Quest for Combat Kelly & The Red Bull Story

And, just like that, my quest for my comics holy grail was over: "Combat Kelly," issue No. 21, published in 1954. Thirty-two pages. Original cover price: 10 cents. Potentially jam-packed full of racist attitudes and Red Bull history.

Granted, my quest had been a passive one. Something to look for at comics conventions and dealers. Something to browse through Internet auction sites, whenever I had trouble sleeping. A year or two ago, I'd almost successfully purchased a copy—fair condition, yellowed-but-readable pages—but that had somehow slipped through my keyboarding fingers. The seller's asking price had been about $20.

Imagine my surprise, when I randomly found the whole issue had been posted for free on-line. I had been clicking in the dark, and, suddenly, there it was.

Having grown up in the early 1970s, I'd never read any Combat Kelly comic books. Closest I got to war books was a few hand-me-down copies of Sgt. Rock ("Our Army at War") or G.I. Combat. Maybe an issue of Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandoes.

Combat Kelly? Until researching the topic for the Red Bull Rising blog, I'd never even heard of him.

Combat Kelly was a character first published by Atlas Comics—one of the ancestors of Marvel Comics—from November 1951 to August 1957. The setting was the Korean War, which was fought between June 1950 and July 1953.

My search for issue No. 21 had little to do with Kelly himself, but in a secondary "back-up" feature, one that contained, to my knowledge, the only comic-book mention of the U.S. 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division.

Although the unit patch is correct, the story doesn't call the "Red Bull" by name. Instead, it uses as its title an earlier moniker: "The Sandstorm Division." When it was first formed in August 1917, the unit took its first nickname from the weather and terrain surrounding Camp Cody, N.M. Most references say the name changed in World War II, to better reflect the unit patch designed by artist and citizen-soldier Marvin Cone.

The comic-book story accounts for only six pages of the 32-page issue. Ten pages (including inside- and back-cover) are advertisements. There's also a 2-page prose (text-only) story. In the 6-page main story, Combat Kelly and his pal Major Thorn get double-crossed by a South Korean they've rescued from execution, who turns out to be the notorious North Korean agent "Red Mary." Kelly and Thorn escape by flying a liberated MiG jet fighter. Asians are depicted in racist caricatures—agent "Red Mary," for example, is a cross between the Dragon Lady stereotype and Disney's Creulla de Vil. The lesson I take from all this? This comic is a document of its time. I should not be expecting high levels of artistic achievement, nor historical accuracy.

There are three other stories, other than the main Combat Kelly story. One is a retelling of a German horse cavalry during the First World War. "True War Stories that Made History … Told by Combat Kelly" opens with the narrator's statement: "The story of the Battles of Belleau Wood is in all the history books, but it's be a different story if it hadn't been for a couple of Marines who loved horse, and hated heinies!"

Filling out the issue: a 5-page story, art by Robert Q. Sale, regarding Cpl. Cookie Novak's rescue of a Korean child and later capturing the guerrilla "Bloody Mary." The plot—not to mention the naming the principal baddies as "red" or "bloody" something—feels a bit repetitive, even within a single issue.

And, what of the plot of "The Sandstorm Division" story? Drawn by Dave Berg—an artist who would later work for Mad magazine—the story takes place in World War II, during the division's crossings of the Volturno River in October 1943. In history, the operations were in the offensive against the southernmost German defenses in Italy, the Volturno Line. In the comic, the "Red Bull" patch appears five times in six pages—twice in caption boxes, and three times on the right-shoulder sleeves of Combat Kelly and Captain Thorn. (Thorn wasn't promoted to major until Korea.)

Here's how one comics database summarizes the story:

Combat Kelly is on a mission with the Sandstorm Division 34th Infantry Division battling Nazi forces under the command of Captain Thorn in Italy. Fighting Nazi soldiers, Combat spots an enemy boat along the Volturno River and tosses a grenade into it, it explodes just as it is passing under a bridge just as a German supply truck filled with ammo passes over it. The resulting explosion destroys both vehicles and destroys the bridge, hampering the Germans' abilities to get supplies into Rome. However it also eliminates their ability to get over to enemy lines.

However, Captain Thorn calls for steel boats while a pontoon bridge is built to travel across the river with supplies. Along the way Combat and Cookie's boat is attacked by German soldiers. Pinned down by enemy artillery fire, Combat and Cookie use a boat to cross the river and sneak up on the enemy base using dynamite to blow them up, allowing their forces to sends tanks and other vehicles across the water safely.

Unfortunately, other than thrill of seeing a "Red Bull" patch on the pages of a four-color comic, there's not much else that's special about the story. The writers might have plugged any unit connected with the Volturno River into the story. Apparently, they did just enough research to properly emplace their characters in both time and terrain.

The story invites a question, however: I wonder if they somehow got it right that the 34th Infantry Division didn't take on the "Red Bull" name until after the comic's publication date of 1954?

That sounds like another quest!

Comics Journalism Book Review: "Rolling Blackouts"

Book Review: "Rolling Blackouts: Dispatches from Turkey, Syria, and Iraq" by Sarah Glidden

Sarah Glidden's "Rolling Blackouts" is an essential exploration of what it means to ask questions and tell stories. You should experience it.

I say "experience," rather than "read." Or "view." Because "Rolling Blackouts" is what other people might dismiss as a comic book.

What should one call, however, a 304-page illustrated navigation of national identities and communications theory, one that crosses borders and shares private experiences, and that seeks concrete answers while also celebrating ambiguity and complexity? Is the preferred term "graphic non-fiction novel"? A work of "Comics journalism"? To the uninitiated, these terms seem dismissive, inadequate to the artistic and rhetorical accomplishments at hand.

Although it defies easy labeling, Sarah Glidden's second book is imminently accessible. Each page is designed on a 9-panel grid, and filled with elegantly drawn pictures, warmly colored with watercolors. Action and exposition is primarily driven by dialogue—interactions among characters—rather than by authorial narration. To put it another way: There more word-balloons more than text boxes.

The illustrations offer setting and mood, giving readers a more-immersive experience than what might be possible via text, or even photo.

The book relates the 2010 story of four friends who make up a Washington-based non-profit journalism enterprise called The Seattle Globalist, who travel to Turkey, Syria, and Iraq in search of stories regarding the Iraqi refugee experience.

Glidden goes along for the ride, intending to observe and report on the process itself. Dialogue and events depicted in the book are based on her recordings, impressions, and memories of events. She notably and explicitly avoids labeling the work as memoir.

Multimedia journalists Sarah Stuteville and Jessica Partnow are life-long friends, who also knew former Marine artilleryman Dan O'Brien from high school days. As a military veteran, O'Brien goes along to file occasional video impressions of what it's like to return to Iraq, having deployed with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines to Ramadi in 2007. Alex Stonehill is the team's photographer.

Via Stuteville and others, Glidden learns about nuts-and-bolts journalism terms like "lav-mics" and "B-roll," and experiences first-hand the embarrassing, excruciating pain of transcribing interviews from digital recordings. Meeting other journalists in the field, she explores the limitations and advantages of embedding civilian journalists with U.S. military personnel, and how various types of sources are sometimes limited in their abilities to directly tell the stories of the refugees they're trying to help. Language is sometimes a barrier to effective reporting, a problem that Glidden's own visual, sequential medium seems uniquely able to depict.

Stuteville's standards of journalism are appropriate to all forms of non-fiction storytelling, whether blogging or Tweeting or writing for an old-school print publication. As such, "Rolling Blackouts" would be a useful text in journalism and communications classes:

• Is it informative? Is it trying to inform people about a topic or a time or a person?

• Is it reliable? Is it true and can we find out that it's true?

• Is is accountable? Do we know who did it, and if we find out that something was untrue, will they take responsibility for it?

• And is it independent? So did the person report this for no reason beyond getting to the truth, or did they do it because they were paid by an interested party?

"[Journalism's] not a medium and it's not a result and it's not a voice," Stuteville tells Glidden. "It's an expectation."

For the most part, Stuteville and her team are pragmatically idealistic, recognizing the freelance realities of marketing stories to editors. Some stories are necessary, because they'll help pay the bills. Other stories just won't sell.

Some of the dramatic tensions lay between individual team members as characters. Stuteville, for example, openly wants to leverage the powers of journalism to document a narrative change in her Marine friend O'Brien, but is repeatedly frustrated by her professional and personal inability to make that connection:

Dan O'Brien: "I feel a lot of pressure to give you good sound bites right now. I feel like the fate of your entire project is resting on me and I'm just blowing it and you guys are like, 'This guy hasn't said anything cool yet.'"

Sarah Stuteville: "Not at all. A good journalist doesn't go into a story already knowing the conclusion. People never say the stuff you want them to say … and the revelation that happens is never the revelation you were expecting. The story never goes the way it's supposed to. Which makes it kind of fun!"

Contrast this statement of editorial zen, however, with a later conversation between Stuteville and Alex Stonehill, the photographer:

Stuteville: "To me, the story of Dan is in the things he asserts that aren't true. The louder he says, 'I'm not that f---ed up veteran, the war didn't define me, I don't have bad dreams or anxiety …' the more I know it's true." […]

Stonehill: "Yeah, the best way for this to go from an editor's perspective is for Dan to meet some Iraqis and then have a nervous breakdown and be like, 'Oh, I'm so f---ed up over what I did and I have PTSD and war is so terrible.' That's the Hollywood narrative they want. But that's so f---ed up!" […]

Stuteville: "Dan was a little hippie kid from Seattle who was completely seduced by the bravado and romance of the military. He went in and he felt like he became a man, and some guys died, but he's glad he did it. And I don't get the sense that he will ever be un-glad that he did it. And you're not supposed to tell that story. No editor wants that story."

In a work full of professional trade secrets, clear-eyed self-examinations, and celebrations of ambiguity, Glidden has told a series of stories that is simultaneously behind-the-scenes, and insightful meta-commentary. She has effective captured the journalistic yin-yang by showing, not telling. As a non-fiction storyteller and as a military veteran, Stuteville's struggle is my own, as is O'Brien's. Glidden has provided a bridge, which privileges each perspective without judgement.

That's not just story-telling. That's art.

"Rolling Blackouts: Dispatches from Turkey, Syria, and Iraq" is available in hard cover via Amazon and other booksellers.

Poetry Book Review: 'The Ghosts of Babylon'

Book review: "The Ghosts of Babylon" by Jonathan Baxter

In his 2016 collection "The Ghosts of Babylon" (Blackside Publishing), former U.S. Army Airborne Ranger and private military contractor Jonathan Baxter has produced a sublimely profane work of war poetry, one that is full of soldierly humor and gritty experience. The 142-page book has a punchy, pulpy sensibility, aided in part by integral black-and-white illustrations by Mark Reeve. In addition to dramatic splash pages, some of Reeve's artwork is incorporated behind or placed into specific poems, illuminating particular stanzas as if they were comic-book panels.

It is heady, grabby stuff: Real "Biff-Pow" Poetry.

More generally, Baxter's verse glides in and out of rhymed couplets and quatrains, blended with less-structured streams of consciousness. It sometimes feels like one of those loopy foxhole conversations with an incessantly nattering battle buddy—that one guy in the platoon who won't shut up, who reads a lot of books. That guy you begin to wonder about, after a while. The guy who seems on the cusp of either losing his sh--, or figuring out the punchline to the universe.

Baxter's smorgasbord of literary references include the Bible, the Epic of Gilgamesh, Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," and Shakespeare's "Hamlet"—nothing too foreign to scare off the grunting, guard tower crowd, but, at the same time, exotic enough for ivory tower tastes. It is a heady and surreal buffet, full of jester skulls, ecstatic latrine episodes, and the occasional giant robot. As he writes in "The Thieves of Baghdad": "I'm getting my myths all mixed up now / so busy writing my own down."

Throughout this chaos, Baxter captures scenes, moments, and aspects of 21st century soldier life that I've not seen addressed in any other poetry. Don't get distracted by Baxter's fireworks—he's out to illuminate some particular truths. There are moments of wisdom and insight that ignite like tracer rounds, spaced throughout Baxter's threads of feverish, belt-driven deliveries of language and image. It is either mad genius, or inspired madness. It's a roller coaster, but worth the ride. Just hold on.

In the "Ghosts of the Khyber," for example, he relates a haunting series of stories, and connects Rudyard Kipling's "Young British Soldier" to the fighting men of Alexander the Great, Soviet-era Spetsnatz, as well as 21st century fighters. In "When That Was Your War," he similarly compares and contracts his own fate to that of soldiers in World War I:

[…] You tripped on the bodies of your brothers
As you walked through the smoke and the fire
And lay down before the God of War
Like offerings at a funeral pyre […]

[…] And I sit, relaxed and serene
On a secure forward operating base
In my climate-controlled KBR unit
It is a most comfortable place […]

[…] Tonight I'll go to the gym and work out
Go to the chow hall and grab a plate
And later in my climate-controlled bathroom
I'll leisurely masturbate [...]

In "The Assaulters," Baxter explores the experience of serving on a Quick Reaction Force (Q.R.F.), unpacking the universally magical moment before something explodes, reality intrudes, and the mission starts:

the assaulters lounge
sprawled languidly in the oppressive heat
like so many hunting dogs

on the Stryker's ramp
relaxed, our heads back against the door frame
muscles charged with latent energy

leaning back in our kits
we sit, helmets off, radio traffic
idly crackles in the background

waiting on THE WORD […]

It is in this pre-contact purgatory that Baxter identifies a camaraderie that will be lost to veterans in peacetime:

[…] some of us try to settle
into the REAL WORLD, where we try to speak
a new language unstained by tobacco

or dead baby jokes
where civilians measure your cock by your
salary, car, or social status

and not by your competence
or by how well you shoot or by the
weights you can throw around in the gym

or that certain assurance
in your voice as you cross that last threshold
in that yawning and hungry darkness

lit only by your taclights […]

In "//NOTHING FOLLOWS," he leverages the end-line found on the DD-214—the form that summarizes a soldier's active-duty time upon separation from service—as something of a recurring refrain:

[…] The six deployments fit into one box
a jumble of numbers, lines and dots
I sift through the dates
each recounting a different place in my life

That one was my first
That one there was the worst
We lost Ricky there
That one was my first to Afghanistan
the land where time began
That one was my favorite and
//NOTHING FOLLOWS […]

But some things do follow, of course. We continue to carry the things we carried. In a wonderfully concrete addition to his barbaric yawping, Baxter's publisher devotes a number of back-pages to sharing some on-line, non-profit, and other resources, prompted by questions such as:

• Are you contemplating suicide or experiencing a psychological health crisis?
• Do you demons stir and murmur deep?
• Are you struggling to find a purpose and a mission?
• Do the deep wounds of war possess your mind?
• Is the bottom of the bottle numbing your inner war?

Ideally, poetry inspires empathy, questions, and conversations. Baxter has seen fit not only to prompt such moments, but to offer his fellow veterans some potential solutions as well.

Baxter's "The Ghosts of Babylon" is available in trade paperback here.

Gold Star Museum Hosts Special WWI Events April 1

"Iowa Goes Over the Top." Illustration by Francis Webster, from "Somewhere Over There: The Letters, Diary, and Artwork of a World War I Corporal." Note mentions of the Iowa National Guard's 168th Infantry Regiment, and of the American Expeditionary Forces.

Blog editor's note: The following is based on press materials provided to the Red Bull Rising blog and other media outlets.

On Sat., April 1, volunteers and staff at the Iowa Gold Star Military Museum, located on Camp Dodge in the Des Moines-area suburb of Johnston, Iowa, will offer a series of special presentations commemorating the 100th anniversary of America's entry into World War I, The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and admission is free. All galleries are open. The Camp Dodge military installation is open to the public via the main N.W. 70th Avenue entrance. Note that photo identification at the gate is required for adults (a driver’s license is acceptable).

"This program honors the centennial of the United States entry into World War I," according to a museum news release. "WWI began with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, in Sarajevo, on July 28, 1914. While the U.S. was initially a neutral state, continuing German attacks on American vessels in the Atlantic Ocean led President Woodrow Wilson to declare war on Germany on April 6, 1917."

Special presentations are scheduled from 10:20 a.m. to 2:15. The schedule includes:

• 10:20 a.m.: Welcome and introductions

• 10:30 a.m.: Tom Clegg, living historian/re-enactor: "The Common Soldier in WWI"

• 11:30 a.m.–12:15 p.m.: Mike Vogt, Iowa Gold Star Military Museum curator, presents "Camp Dodge during WWI"

• 12:30–1:15 p.m.: Author/historian Darrek Orwig presents on Cpl. Francis Webster. Webster, trained as an illustrator under Des Moines Register political cartoonist Jay "Ding" Darling, captured the daily life of Iowans serving overseas in WWI with the Iowa National Guard. Webster was killed in action during the war.

• 1:30-2:15 p.m.: Greg VanWyngarden presents "James Norman Hall: An Iowan serving under three flags." Born in Colfax, Iowa, Hall served in the British Army during World War I, then became a pilot for France's flying force, Lafayette Escadrille. Taken prisoner by Germany and later honored as a war hero, Hall wrote "Mutiny on the Bounty," "Men Against the Sea," and "Pitcairn Island."

More than 114,000 Iowans served in the U.S. armed forces during WWI, including 3,576 Iowans who died during the war from battle wounds, injuries, and illness. Camp Dodge became the organizational location and training site for the U.S. Army’s 88th Infantry "Cloverleaf" Division during WWI, one of 16 cantonment sites nationally. More than 111,000 Soldiers were inducted and trained at Camp Dodge during the war.

Seventeen National Guard divisions, including the 42nd Infantry "Rainbow" Division, were assigned to the American Expeditionary Forces during WWI. The 42nd Division was comprised of soldiers from many states, including the Iowa National Guard’s 168th Infantry Regiment from southwest Iowa. The 168th Infantry was commanded by Col. Ernest Bennett and later, by Col. Matthew Tinley. During U.S. participation in WWI, the 42nd Division was credited with 164 days of actual combat. While 42nd Division casualties included 2,810 killed and 11,873 wounded, the 168th Infantry suffered more than 700 Soldiers killed and 3,100 wounded.

For more information about these commemorative events, contact Mike Musel or Mike Vogt at 515.252.4531.

Established in 1985, the Iowa Gold Star Military Museum is the only federally recognized repository for military artifacts in the state of Iowa. The mission of the Iowa Gold Star Military Museum is twofold: to preserve Iowa’s military history and honor the military service of all Iowans.

The Iowa Gold Star Military Museum’s permanent exhibits tell the stories of Iowans who have served in defense of their state and nation, beginning in the early settlement of the state in the 1840s, through the Global War on Terror. An extensive exhibit honors the 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division, which holds the distinction of serving the most continuous days in combat of any division in the European Theater of Operation during World War II. The museum also contains one of the finest military small arms collections in the Midwest. Additionally, an exhibit detailing the history of the Iowa State Patrol is also on display.

iFanboy: 'Sheriff of Babylon' Comic was First a Novel

Cover artist: John Paul Leon

In a June "Talksplode" interview with Josh Flanagan of the iFanboy comics podcast, writer Tom King and artist Mitch Gerads discussed their creative collaboration in producing the critically acclaimed series "Sheriff of Babylon."

The 72-minute interview is full of technical and personal insights. Flanagan, King, and Gerads are long-time acquaintances, and the conversational vibe is relaxed and candid. The interview stands as a must-hear primer in military- and comics-writing how-to. Podcast listeners can access "Talksplode No. 67" via iTunes and Stitcher, as well as directly via the iFanboy website here.

Set in 2004 Iraq, "Sheriff of Babylon" is a wartime crime drama published monthly DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. A 160-page trade paperback collecting the first 6 issues is scheduled to be released July 19, 2016. The volume will also be available digitally on Comixology and Kindle. The series is currently scheduled for 12 or more issues.

The story is loosely based on writer King's experiences as a former operations officer for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in Iraq, and elsewhere in the Middle East.

The series is located in a very specific time and place, King told Flanagan:

I try to describe everything in the book as someplace that I've actually been or [...] seen. The book nicely gets approved by CIA, so I know I'm not going to get […] arrested. Part of this is just me, having gone through that, and working those issues out. Which is what I think all good comics should be: It should be bleeding onto the page, and putting your hopes and fears into it.

I should caveat, however: I feel that some of our audience is people who have served in Iraq, and served there for years. I was there for […] five months, in the spring and summer of 2004. So I only write about the exact time I was there […] It felt like you were in a weird, Casablanca place, like the normal rules of human society don't apply here, but we're all trying to apply them here, so it's this weird double-standard. Like, "We don't have laws, but we kind of have fake laws. How real are those laws"? That's why it's called "Sheriff of Babylon," because there is no sheriff. There is no law there. And how can you have a crime story where there is no law? There's no government. There's no one there to tell you not to do things.

In news releases earlier this year, DC Comics has announced that King and Gerads were each signed as creatives working exclusively for that company. King is slated to take over writing duties at DC's flagship "Batman" title. Although Vertigo titles are not strictly "creator owned," as briefly covered in the interview, King and Gerads apparently each have a partial ownership stake in "Sheriff" as intellectual property,

King's first novel, "A Once Crowded Sky," was a literary book-length story about superheroes published in 2012. In an iFanboy exclusive, King revealed to Flanagan that "Sheriff of Babylon" had been written first as a literary novel, which remains yet unpublished. He typically does not write from an outline, he said, but the novel's manuscript provides him the structure for the comic's first narrative arc.

"I sort of had a choice, whether to publish it as a novel or as a comic book. I chose comic book," King said. "The outline for the first 12 issues is a novel I've already written. So that makes it both easier and harder to write. It's a bizarre transcription, with me deciding what to leave and leave out, of me editing myself."

Originally from Minneapolis, artist Gerads is celebrated for his realistic depiction of military action and equipment—in the interview, King called him the greatest military artist working in modern comics. While he has never served in the military, he notes he does have immediate family members who have served in the U.S. Army and Air Force. Nobody in his family was Rambo, he said, and he doesn't consider himself a military brat. Still, he takes the responsibility of telling military-themed stories very seriously.

Along with writer Nathan Edmondson, for example, he was co-creator of the 2011-2015 Image Comics series "The Activity." In early 2015, the series, which focuses on U.S. special operations forces, was reportedly being adapted into a screenplay. Gerads is also well-known for his 2014-2015 run on "The Punisher," which focuses on a paramilitary vigilante character in the Marvel Comics universe.

"Originally, when 'The Activity' started out, it was going to be way more science-fictiony," Gerads told Flanagan ...

It was going to be more "Mission Impossible"-esque. We were going to come up with all of these crazy gadgets. In issue 2 or 3, we had some sort of crazy gadget where a guy was driving a little drone-thing with an Xbox controller. We just thought that would be cool. We got an e-mail from someone in some branch of the military, saying "Hey, super cool—that was my job when I was over there." We sat down and realized […] the reality is so much more interesting than the stuff we were coming up with in our heads."

However cutting-edge, the stories in "The Activity" became more non-fiction. "The challenge then was to keep it as real as I could, while also keeping it as entertaining as I could. And that's still the rule, through 'Punisher' and into 'Sheriff.'"

Gerads compared "The Activity" and "Punisher" to producing big, bombastic action movies. However, he said, "Sheriff" demands more nuanced story-telling: "Giving respect to the characters, and giving respect to the fact that this is […] a 'real' story, a time and place that actually happened." Gerads has to infuse the characters found in King's scripts with unique physical identities and facial expressions. He gives each character "some little trait so that you remember them, even if it's subliminal," he said.

King said that the team's ultimate objective is to deliver a compelling story without value judgments. "I think people feel that's it's going to be preachy, that it's just going to be 'War is Hell,' 'War sucks,' or it's just going to be 'Republicans suck' or 'liberals suck.' I don't want a message in my comics. It's not about the politics. It's not about the [Weapons of Mass Destruction] or 'Mission Accomplished' or anything like that. It's just about the day-to-day of what it was like. It's not about winners and losers. It's about a good story."

*****

Gerads and Edmondson's "The Activity" has been previously mentioned on the Red Bull Rising blog here and here.

Mitch Gerads' Original Comics Art Gives Me Butterflies

Original art by Mitch Gerads

Despite yesterday's dusting of snow, it's beginning to feel like springtime in the American Middle West. That means red bud trees and Easter and Sherpa kids' soccer tournaments are just around the corner. In the meantime, I'm pleased to report on something else that has me giddy and feeling younger than I am: the recent acquisition of a page of original work by a favorite comic book artist.

The page is from issue No. 11 of "The Activity," a 2012-2014 Image Comics series that artist Mitch Gerads' co-created with writer Nathan Edmondson. The series, which tells realistic stories of various military special forces and governmental intelligence teams, is currently under development as a feature film.

Usually, "Activity" stories take place overseas. Published in 2013, Issue No. 11 is a story of terrorism on U.S. soil. In "The Butterfly Effect," Team Omaha is dispatched to Minneapolis, where terrorists threaten to detonate a bomb somewhere in the city. Why Minneapolis? "A city big enough for it to matter, but not a city on the lookout for an attack." Eventually, the team figures out they're searching for someone with a large quantity of C-12 explosive. An expert is called in from Colorado, along with a fragile, experimental cargo.

"So how does it work?," asks a member of Team Dallas.

"You just open the crates. They do the rest. You might say we've programmed them. From day one, they're exposed to a variety of chemical explosive compounds. They won't have any problem with C-12. Just don't lose sight of them."

"This is crazy," says one FBI guy.

Says Team Dallas: "At least it will be pretty."

I love the page that follows—the one I purchased—because it tells a nearly complete story, even without the word balloons: The ground team radios that it's in position. An FBI agent takes a crowbar to a crate. Butterflies begin to escape the box. Ground team looks up, through the windshield, the butterflies reflecting in the glass. Finally, the butterflies continue to disperse across the city. There is skywalk—a fixture of Midwestern urban architecture—visible in the background.

To me, the figures on the page seem hopeful, filled with wonder, despite a crazy world and the threat of terrorism.

To me, it feels like spring.

And I can't wait to frame it and hang it in the office.

After graduating from the the University of Wisconsin-Stout with a fine arts degree in graphic design, Gerads started out illustrating for cereal brands in Minneapolis. From boxes of balanced breakfast product, he jumped into the gritty world of military-themed storytelling. He's got an eye for the perfect shot, an attention to technical detail, and a sensibility that lends itself to stories of shadows, subdued colors, and moral shades of gray. For more on Gerads' career, click here.

"The Activity" is collected into three trade paperbacks volumes, available here and here, and here.

In addition to his work on "The Activity," Gerads drew a 2014-2015 run on "The Punisher," a vigilante character owned by Marvel Comics. That run was also written by Edmundson, Gerads' partner from "The Activity." Those comics have also been collected in three volumes of trade paperbacks here, here, and here.

Make sure to check out his original artwork, including pages and covers from "The Punisher," at his on-line store. There's also a great "process" story here, about how Gerads develops his artwork, panel by panel.

Most recently, Gerads has been the co-creator of "The Sheriff of Babylon," a fictional-but-realistic crime story of post-war Iraq, written by former Central Intelligence Agency operations officer Tom King. For an interview with Gerads about "Sheriff," click here.

Coincidentally, the fourth issue of "Sheriff" is due out from today, Mar. 2, 2016, from DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. The critically acclaimed series has recently been extended to 12 issues. It is a dense, layered, and confusing tale—sort of like the place that inspired it. Call it "Iraq Noir." Be sure to check it out!

You can read a free, multi-page preview of "Sheriff of Babylon" No. 4 here.

Book Review: 'Terminal Lance: The White Donkey'

Review: "Terminal Lance: The White Donkey" by Maximilian Uriarte

As mil-humor enthusiasts and web comic fans can attest, Maximilian Uriarte's graphic novel "Terminal Lance: The White Donkey" has been a long time coming. And it has been worth the wait.

The Iraq War veteran and former Marine successfully funded his magnum opus in August 2013. The 284-page book released on Feb. 1, 2016, and quickly sold out. The creator has hinted at making arrangements for another print run.

The White Donkey tells the story of Abe and Garcia, two fictional characters who have previously appeared Uriarte's "Terminal Lance" three-panel comic, which publishes twice weekly on-line, and weekly in the Marine Corps Times print edition.

The titular white donkey is a beast of Uriarte's own memory and experience—an animal that he once encountered in Iraq. The donkey is real. Uriarte writes:

We had five fully armored vehicles, 23 Marines loaded to the teeth with rifles, grenades, crew-served weapons, and all the might and power of the United States Armed Forces. All of it was brought to a screeching halt by the most benign of animals.

A lone White Donkey made us all look like asses.

The donkey is also metaphorical. The white donkey could be Abe's version of Ahab's white whale. It could be his white buffalo. It might symbolize Iraq, or the Middle East. It might even be God.

Nested within such rich ambiguity, Uriarte has created a smart-bomb of a literary device: A graphic novel that's graphic enough to portray the necessary bits about war being an ugly thing; sweet enough to depict the boot camp bromance of battle buddies on the road to war and back again; and downright beautiful enough to be regarded as mother-effin' literature.

It's an asymmetrical weapon designed to breach the civil-military divide. A Trojan Horse, potentially getting veterans and civilians to open up about their respective wartime experiences. Yes, there are jokes. Yes, it is entertaining. Yes, it is a "comic." It is also an important book.

As Brian Castner, Iraq War veteran and writer of "The Long Walk" and the upcoming "All the Ways We Kill and Die" tweeted earlier this month: "Every non-writer vet I know, the guys who don't professionally talk abt books, is talking about this @TLCplMax book."

That's because Uriarte is a skilled observer of the human condition, as well as Marine life. He's an effective writer—direct, to the point, no B.S.—and a fantastic visual storyteller.

Artistically, the book is a tour de force: Freed from the black-and-white tyranny of the newspaper page, Uriate's confidently executed linework is now augmented with a full-spectrum of mono-colored, ink-washed effects.

He varies his color palettes, spread by 2-page spread: Greens for boot camp scenes. Khakis and dusky rose for 29 Palms and Iraq. Blues and grays for home in Portland, Ore. Purple for dream sequences.

Occasionally, Uriarte punches a single object into reader awareness by depicting it in fuller color: An Iraqi flag. A U.S. shoulder patch. A bottle of Gatorade.

Uriarte also experiments with splash pages—scenes that cover a whole page or spread—and occasionally fades to white during transitions. In a few climactic scenes, he boldly keeps his readers' gaze on hard-to-stomach realities, creating slow-motion sequences, splash page after splash page.

This story could not be told as effectively in any other way—screenplay or novel—without diminishing the magic.

In short, "The White Donkey" turns out to be a unicorn. A bright, shiny, mythical ride. A beast capable of inspiring, informing, and enlightening. Do not look away. Do not frighten it. Follow it, if you can.

You might find what you're looking for.

Comics Seeks to Capture Tale of 'Tiger on the Storm'

Perhaps facing similar funding odds as the beloved A-10 itself, a group of comics creators is developing a graphic novel about the U.S. Air Force's 23rd Fighter Group during Operation Desert Storm. The unit continues the lineage of the famed "Flying Tigers" of World War II.

Based on her work on previous war-themed projects, including "Untold Stories from Iraq and Afghanistan" and "Korean War, Vol. 2", comics writer Valerie Finnigan was approached by the daughter of U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. David Sawyer at the 2014 Salt Lake Comic Con regarding the project. The general was a former commander of the 23rd Fighter Group, which flies the A-10 aircraft.

The A-10–formally named the "Thunderbolt II," but more commonly called some variant of "Warthog"–is specifically designed to provide troops on the ground with Close Air Support ("CAS"). The aircraft, which went into production in 1977, the low- and slow-flying aircraft notably features a titanium bathtub for pilot survivability, and a gatling cannon that delivers up to 3,900 rounds of 30mm ordnance per minute.

In defense-policy circles and on the Internet, there are on-going debates whether the U.S. Air Force can continue to support ground troops using expensive, high-flying, multipurpose aircraft such as the F-35 "Lightning II." Critics argue the Air Force is actively squashing stories of the A-10's continued successes in Afghanistan and other theaters, for political reasons.

Finnigan quickly got to work on the project, now titled "Tiger on the Storm," researching the unit and the aircraft:

"The aircraft themselves also proved a bit of a challenge," she writes on her blog. "Appearance counts for a lot in a visual medium like comics, which is probably why A-10 Warthogs such as those flown by the 23rd [Tactical Fighter Wing] don't appear often in comics. The civilian public wouldn't line up by the hundreds or thousands to see them in an air show like they would for much prettier F-18 Hornets. While Warthogs are maneuverable enough to do their jobs, they look ugly and sound downright obnoxious."

"Get to know them though, and you just may fall in love as much as anyone can with aircraft," she continues. "In talking with veterans who served on the ground as well as in the air, I learned why the Warthogs are so feared by enemy forces and strongly beloved by our troops. This is why I’m glad to have 'Korean War' penciller Dan Monroe on board doing pencils and inks. His ten years in the Army helped him learn a healthy appreciation of good close air support such as the Warthogs provide."

In addition to Finnigan and Monroe, "Korean War" team members Eric White (colors) and Tom Orzechowski (letters) are also potentially participating in the "Tiger on the Storm" project. Via Indiegogo, the crowd-funding effort seeks up to $50,000 to cover production, printing, and distribution costs. For more information, click here.

'The Activity' Comes to a Close, While War Rages On

After a few decades away from the practice—I had stopped patrolling 7-Eleven spinner racks by the late-1980s—I recently returned to reading comic books because of two things:

1. My grade-school warrior-princess was asking me why there weren't any girl heroes. 

2. At a Military Experience & the Arts conference, I heard some comics creators and veterans discuss the art form as a means of exploring military histories, personal wartime experiences, and even emerging trends and technologies.

In 2011 and 2012, Image Comics' "The Activity," and DC Comics' "Men at War," and Top Cow's "Think Tank" were my beachheads into the genre of 21st century war comics.

Notably, "Men at War" featured a reboot of the iconic World War II-era character Sgt. Rock, who hadn't been featured in his own book since 1988. Each of us had been away too long.

In 2012, Marvel Comics launched Fury MAX: My War Gone By a second volume of Fury MAX, in which writer Garth Ennis returned to tell an blood-spattered story that followed Nick Fury through Cuba, Vietnam, and Nicaragua. Not my wars, but certain the backdrops of my childhood and adolescence.

The "Men at War" series lasted only seven issues. DC Comics tried again with a dinosaur-filled "G.I. Combat" series and, more recently, with "Star Spangled War Stories, featuring G.I. Zombie."

Now, I'm not a purist. War comics make for some strange bedfellows. I'm happy to include elements of horror, alternate history, historical fantasy, super powers, and even sentient chimpanzees in my personal definition of of the genre. For me, the larger question is whether or not they contribute to readers' understanding of the costs, individual and collective, of going to war.

I'm not usually attracted to undead story lines, for example, but I think Mark Sable's "Graveyard of Empires" (2011-2012) is mostly successful in its gritty depiction of counterinsurgency, defense contracting, and nation-building in Afghanistan. If the presence of zombies in the story helps expose readers to questions regarding U.S./NATO involvement there, so much the better.

War comics, bottom line, should be a big G.I. tent.

As a middle-aged journalist and historian focused on modern-day conflicts, however, I find myself motivated more by projects that are more founded in reality. War is strange and beautiful and nasty enough, without adding literal demons.

Take, for example, Ennis's history-infused "War Stories" (DC Vertigo); "Battlefields" (Dynamite Entertainment), and the current ongoing "War Stories" (Avatar Press).

And the work of artist-veterans, such as Will Eisner's "Last Day In Vietnam" (2000) and Joe Kubert's Dong Xoai, Vietnam 1965 (2011).

I'm also drawn to comics journalism about war and the edges of conflict, such as David Axe's War is Boring" and Joe Sacco's collection "Journalism".

All this pull-list pedigree leads me back to "The Activity"—written by Nathan Edmondson, drawn by Mitch Gerads—which started me on this comics journey, and which apparently has concluded as a series with a double-sized issue No. 15. Given the creative team's commitments to a couple of Marvel NOW titles, readers of "The Activity" had to wait 14 months between issue Nos. 15 and 16. It was worth it, and I appreciated the creators bringing home a bit of closure.

If it's not completely over, the series is at least reportedly on an extended hiatus. Or, as soldiers might call such a thing, a "tactical pause."

If you're not into collecting monthly "floppies," the third volume of the series is now available in trade paperback. The first trade paperback is here. The second is here.

Throughout the series, Edmondson and Gerads got an awful lot right. The primary thread followed Team Omaha, a 5-member special forces team from the military's Intelligence Support Activity. The tone was realistic and plausible, without sacrificing drama and story. Think of it as a tactical-vested "Mission: Impossible." In keeping with the series' tagline, "warfare without warning," Team Omaha hid both in the shadows and in the great wide opens. Then, it decisively brought the hurt.

In one notable story, Team Omaha even deployed to American soil. In issue No. 11, the team has to track down a bomb hidden in Minneapolis. That story hit close to home, and explored briefly the realities of our post-9/11 world, without feeling alarmist, jingoist, or pessimistic.

There were lots of names in "The Activity." Lots of teams. Lots of agencies. You needed a playbook to figure out who was doing what to whom, who was on the injured list, and who was still in the game. Helpfully, each issue provided a network diagram depicting the status of each character. Those pages reminded me of tracking charts I'd used in the military, working in Tactical Operations Centers.

The dialogue was right. There were jokes. There were things left unsaid. There was quiet understanding of where you'd been, and where you were going. This was how soldiers and veterans talk with each other, and relate with each other. In life, and in death.

The weaponry, vehicles, and military equipment were correct, too. Anyone who's familiar with Gerads' depictions of Marvel's The Punisher, and with Edmondson's writing in both the current Punisher and Black Widow series, will recognize the realism they bring to their craft. This is how gear looks. This is how gear is used.

After all, nothing breaks down the Fourth Wall for a veteran faster than a badly drawn tank.

Throughout the series, the colors on page were practically jazz—part of the mood, providing the movement from scene to scene, and the visual fireworks of splash and bang-bang. Essentially, the application of color was its own character in "The Activity." It became part of the book's terrain, the weather, the environment. (I was continually reminded that Army briefs such factors under the heading of "enemy situation.") Those responsible included colorists Andy W. Clift, Jon Scrivens, Joseph Frazzetta.

And, finally, I should call out at least one of the characters. I have a soft spot for Leslie Ryan (Callsign: "Fiddler"), a red-haired Army sergeant that is part of Team Omaha. She's a strong, capable, and, most of all, realistic female protagonist. I'd be proud to have her on my team, or to be on hers. When I was in uniform, I encountered plenty of such soldiers, male and female.

So, if my daughter ever asks about my war comics—when she's much, much older, of course—I'll happily share with her "The Activity." I hope that it will ignite a conversation.

A conversation about how war is hell, and how we should try to avoid it.

And about the human stories that happen, when we don't.

'War Stories' Comic Now Tracks '73 Israeli Tank Crew

"War Stories" No. 4 from Avatar Press, wrap-around cover variant

In addition to more fantastic stories featuring such characters as Nick Furyand The Punisher, comic-book writer Garth Ennis has a long personal history of telling gritty, realistic, and fact-filled tales of war.

There are, for example, two four-issue mini-series with the title "War Stories," published by Vertigo in 2001 and 2003. And there are more than eight collected volumes of his "Battlefields" series, published by Dynamite Entertainment starting in 2008—each comprising quirky, fact-filled stories about lesser-known aspects of history, driven by memorable characters.

In three of those "Battlefields" volumes, for example, appeared stories of British tank crews, each headed by a veteran sergeant whose Tyneside dialect was thicker than the armor that protected them.

Seriously, Sgt. Stiles's dialogue is harder to interpret than reading Shakespeare. But much more fun.

The crew appears in three series or volumes, each written by Ennis and drawn by Carlos Ezquerra:

• "The Tankies" (Battlefields, Vol. 1): Cpl. Stiles and his crew man a British Churchill tank during the battle for Normandy.

• "The Firefly and His Majesty" (Battlefields, Vol. 5): Sgt. Stiles and a new crew man a new Sherman Firefly—no longer always outgunned, but still not a match for the German King Tiger that lies in wait for the Allied advance.

• "The Green Fields Beyond" (Battlefields, Vol. 10): World War II veteran Stiles continues fights on in the Korean War, as part of a Centurion tank crew assigned to the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars.

The armored pedigree is important, insofar that it demonstrates not only that Ennis knows his way around a story, but that he knows his way around a tank as well. This is fiction, but fiction with a point—and the point is to illuminate history. Ennis aims toward realism, not sensationalism. These are not books for children.

"War Stories" No. 4, standard cover

Now arrives from Ennis a newly launched "War Stories" series, this time published by Avatar Press. In issue No. 4, on stands Jan. 7, starts "Children of Israel," a 3-part story of an Israeli tank crew on the Golan Heights in early October, 1973. The artist is Tomas Aira, who delivers serviceably expressive characters, along with technically appropriate military equipment. Nothing kills a war comic like in inaccurately rendered weapons.

The tank is again a Centurion, but its commander is a yet-unnamed sergeant who was a boy during World War II. The character remembers seeing the inside of a German tank—most likely a Panzer III—while living the Warsaw Ghetto, as well as being liberated by Soviet T-34s in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The first issue is heavy with exposition, but Ennis makes it all clank together nicely. The sergeant talks with his captain about the current strategic and political terrain. The latter has helpfully drawn a map in the sand for some visiting journalists. "You shouldn't talk to reporters, Captain," the sergeant advises. "It only encourages them."

The sergeant also talks about his crew, made up of reservists with no previous experience of war. In NCO staccato, he observes:

Chaim's the driver, a little bullet of a man from Nazareth. Not much seems to shake him [...] Gunner Daniel is a lethal shot, but lacks imagination. Independent action is beyond him. He'll never be promoted, never wonder why. The loader, Shlomo, is a nervous wreck.

Given the approachable ways that Ennis communicates military history, one hopes that he continues his armored march toward present day.

The "War Stories" series is currently only available in monthly issues. Check your local comic store, or on-line retailers. or digitally via Comixology. Note that there are multiple variant covers.

Comic's First Issue Tells of World War I Code-Talkers

The comic book "Tales of the Mighty Code Talkers," recently released by the Indigenous Narratives Collective, Austin, Texas, helps introduce readers to a rich history of Native American soldiers on 20th century battlefields.

The comic is written and illustrated by Arigon Starr. A series and/or collected volume of comics is planned.

The practice of using speakers of Native American languages to encrypt military radio transmissions is well-known and celebrated in some circles. It even served as the inspiration of a 2002 feature film "Windtalkers." (Admittedly, that film had shortcomings, including the fact that it focused on a non-Native American protagonist.)

However, few realize that the practice originated not with the use of Navajo speakers in the Pacific Theater during World War II, but with Cherokee and Choctaw speakers in World War I France.

During that war, Cherokee men assigned to the U.S. 30th Infantry Division used their language during to pass communication between headquarters and front lines.

Some 14 Choctaw men similarly served in the U.S. 36th Infantry Division. The first issue of "Tales of the Mighty Code Talkers" comic tells the story of Cpl. Solomon Louis and other Choctaw soldiers. According to the Choctaw Code Talkers Association website:

Code Talker Solomon Bond Louis, 142nd Infantry, was from Bryan County. He is credited with being the leader of the original Choctaw Code Talkers during the war. Seeing his buddies at Armstrong Academy enlist in the armed services, Louis who was underage, pretended to be 18 so that he too could join. He received his basic training at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. 

He was sent to Ft. Worth, Texas where he joined an all-Indian Company which was part of the 36th Division. In France, Louis was stationed at Division Headquarters with James Edwards on the other end of the telephone line out in the field at the front line. Edwards informed Louis in Choctaw what the Germans were up to.

In World War II, 27 members of Iowa's Meskwaki (Sac and Fox) people used their language skills in the North African Theater. They were assigned to Iowa's 168th Infantry Regiment, 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division.

A Facebook page for the Indigenous Narratives Collective is here. The $5 "Tales of the Mighty Code Talkers" No. 1 issue may be ordered here. Use the code GAKAC2014 to receive 10 percent off, and a second issue will be donated to a Native American student of history.

A $15 limited-edition poster, illustrated by Kristina Bad Hand, features the cover design for the first trade paperback collection of the comic series. It is available for sale online here.