it was the war of the trenches by jacques tardi

In contrast the many instruments of war, such as the great artillery pieces which produced such horror, are depicted with an almost draughtsmans-like documentation. Depicted in black and white and grey is a land twisted by war until it has become something alien, a world of twisted razor wire and mud soaked trenches where corpses are strung from the very trees. This book would not work without such complementary art. It both concentrates the grim horrors of war to an almost feverish intensity, and in the twisting narrative gives a sense of inescapable nightmare. It is this freewheeling focus that is one of the books real strengths. Such events are not told in any sort of chronological order, and what begins as one soldiers story will often shift to that of anothers. (Notice how names are always fully capitalised, as if to shout out that each is a unique human being.) There is Private DESBOIS, whose company is sent over the trench to their slaughter and who, after the disordered retreat that follows, are deliberately bombarded by their own artillery before the survivors are put on trial for cowardice.

There is the tale of the nihilist Private BINET who heads out into no-mans-land to find a missing friend, of Private LAFONT who heeds the first mad calls for war, and of Private BOUVREUIL who makes art out of the detritus of war. Snapshots of WWI, from the early days of the war before the trenches to the grim tallies taken at its conclusion are presented, narratively, displaced in time. Rather than constraining itself to a single narrative, “It Was The War Of The Trenches” acts as an anthology series of sorts. Instead, “It Was The War Of The Trenches” is a book driven by a cold, simmering rage, a humanistic exploration of the suffering and degradation of the common soldier in the so-called ‘war to end all wars’. Nor is it an exercise in grand, character driven storytelling, containing complex story arcs of a thousand moving parts coming together in a twist ending. It isn’t a history lesson, exploring the political factors leading up to the Great War or chronicling the events of great battles. “It Was The War Of The Trenches” by Jacques Tardi is an exploration of the first World War.

It was the war of the trenches by jacques tardi