Terrorist Gavrilo Princip, the assassin who ignited world war I - a Graphic Novel Review

This graphic novel is about Gavrilo Princip, the man who shot Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand, the successor to the Austrian-Hungarian double monarchy, and his wife, in 1914, thus unleashing the First World War. Furthermore, a little more is told about the situation prior to the assassination.

If someone tries to explain how this war started, I always feel like I'm listening to a financial adviser of a bank who tries to explain a complicated financial product. When he’s finished he asks if I understand, I say no and then he tells it in simple language again and I think; Yes, I understand, that sounds logical. Then I think after two minutes; How was it again?

Early 1900 there was much dissatisfaction among the Slavic peoples. They were once freed from the Turkish rulers, but Austria-Hungary had replaced the Turks. They considered the Slavic people as inferior. For example, the Austria-Hungarian government only granted licenses to Croatian café's as they promised to spy for the government. On October 8, 1912, Montenegro declared war on Turkey to liberate the Macedonians, followed ten days later by Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece. Because they could not agree on how to devide the liberated Macedonia, Bulgaria declared war on Serbia and Greece, and Romania and Turkey attacked Bulgaria. Do you understand? Well I can't make sense of it anymore.

Writers Henrik Rehr and Marc Reynebeau have chosen to unilaterally tell Gavrilo Princip's story. We sometimes see Franz-Ferdinand with his family and we see him hunting and being selfish, but little is told about him. Is that bad? I would say; No. Because Princip also knew little about Franz-Ferdinand's life. For him, he was just the face of the oppressor. This allows you to understand more about why Princip committed this terrible act.

Gavrilo Princip was undoubtedly a terrorist but, contrary to the terrorists of nowadays , who attack masses of innocent people, Princip committed his attack directly to the rulers. Through this act of terror, he wanted to enforce an ideal; All Slavic people united in one country; Yugoslavia. He did not live to see it, but in that regard he succeeded and Gavrilo Princip got a hero status. But at the expense of what? can you ask yourself. 9,448,000 deaths and 17,670,905 wounded and that's only the soldiers who fought in the First World War. But to be fair, this could Princip not foresee.

Rehr's realistic and classical looking black and white drawings reminds us of lithos. The pages are looking somewhat gloomy because the background is often black or gray. I think it does fit the story, but I have to admit that it took me almost three years before I started to read this graphic novel.

This album gives a good insight into the motives and ideals of a terrorist from the early 20th century.


Gavrilo Princip wikipedia
Henrik Rehr comiclopedia
Terrorist Gavrilo Princip at Amazone