January 1915. In the heart of the poor Champagne region. Six months already, Europe is burning and is bathing in blood. Six months that has caused thousands of deaths. But at the front it is the bodies of three women who distress the army.
Three women, killed in cold blood. On their bodies ... every time ... a farewell letter. A farewell letter written by their killer. A farewell sealed with the trench mud, ... a last resting place, unthinkable to those who are the symbol of safety and security, the ultimate foundations of humanity.
Women ... Impossible. Everything would collapse. Or else is it the war itself that’s being killed…
This is written on the back of this album. I could not have said it better myself. When I began to read in this graphic novel, it became clear that words and sayings are used that are unknown to me. At first I thought it was a bad translation, but I soon understood that the Dutch translation of this originally French graphic novel was made for the Flemish market. Once I had accepted that fact, I was immediately sucked into the story.
The main character, Lieutenant Vialatte, was assigned to the military police after he was rejected for the army. When he is charged with the investigation of the murders, he decides to go to the front trenches to find out how the women got there. He wants to taste the atmosphere of the war to find out about the motives of the perpetrator. But this graphic novel is not just a search for the killer, we also get to know Vialatte very well. Long he stays optimistic. Nevertheless, the war will also have an effect on him.
The descriptions of the war I think are very beautiful, they really make me feel for Vialatte. Dialogues are very realistic. I can imagine vividly that when you are in the misery that the soldiers are in you have developed a cynical sense of humor. Without that, it seems difficult to survive.
There is one comment. When soldiers in a train see strung up soldiers on a tree someone calls: "Hey guys, look outside! Through the war, the trees bear strange fruits!” This reminded me of a song that Billie Holiday has sung: Strange Fruit. Only in this song is about black men in South America in the 30s. A song I still get goose bumps from.
When it comes to World War I, you can hardly ignore the master of this subject, Jacques Tardi. A comparison is therefore made quick. What I notice is that Tardi's reflection of WOI is more unilateral than the image Christophe Goret, alias Kris, outlines in this book. Tardi mainly shows the soldiers who want to kill their superiors and want to desert or commit mutiny. Kris also shows this side, but he also tells about the soldiers fighting for loyalty to the soldiers who are in the same shit. They are fighting because they can not do anything else because the home front does not understand them and they fight because they owe it to the comrades who have been killed.
The drawings by Martin Leclerc, alias Maël, do not compare with that of Tardi. The lines appear scratched loosely on paper. I can imagine that a soldier made them in a trench. The coloring also deserves a mention. At first I thought it was watercolor, but looking at the intensity of the colors, I think it's done with ecoline. The violence and the blood splashes off the pages. This will drag you right into the story.
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Genre: War, Detective
Links:
Mother War catawiki
Martin Leclerc on comiclopedia
Kris on wikipedia
