haysm's review
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Minor: Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, War, Animal death, Body horror, and Gore
aprileclecticbookworm's review
3.0
A dark, raw, honest and not romanticized in any way graphic novel highlighting last moments of French soldiers in WW1.
stopsatgreen's review
4.0
The stories of French soldiers in World War I. Beautifully detailed and feels very authentic.
rickklaw's review
5.0
This extraordinary collection of World War I tales offers perhaps the finest work from the lauded Tardi. Each story, based on actual accounts from French soldiers, relates the often-horrific realities of trench-warfare. Disturbing yet compelling images abound: a dead, mangled horse hanging from a tree serves as a warning; rats feasting on corpses; amputations; executions; countless dead. Far more memorable are the impassioned stories themselves. Betrayal, deceit, mistrust, murder, hope, and even humor run throughout these tales. Painstakingly researched, the amazing Tardi perfectly captures the everyday despair of the World War I trench soldier. Visceral, powerful, and effective, the flawless It Was The War of the Trenches blazed a new standard for the war comic.
rosseroo's review
4.0
In case you missed the memo, World War I was a nightmare of pointless suffering for millions upon millions of people. This beautifully produced (and translated) reprint of a 1993 French graphic collection takes you there via a loose collection of personal stories from the French trenches. There's no protagonist, no plot, no narrative, just, as the author writes in his foreword: "Nothing but a gigantic, anonymous scream of agony." Each of these "screams of agony" is the story of a French soldier and the madness he encounters at the front lines. There are about 8-10 stories, ranging from 2-15 pages each, and they march across the mind with relentless horror. Tardi drew heavily upon archival photos and research in drafting these stories, and it certainly shows both in the detail and emotional truth of the images. In another part of the preface the author wrote, "The only thing that interests me is man and his suffering, and it fills me with rage." and that rage comes across very directly. This is not a book to be read for fun, but to be studied in conjunction with other seminal works on World War I such as Goodbye to All That, Paths of Glory, and many many more books and films (which are listed in the excellent bibliography in the rear of the book). The book occupies the uneasy but vital space between pure documentary footage, memoir, and fiction, and could be an excellent teaching tool for the classroom.
bryanmanio's review
3.0
Absolute despair, from back to front. This WW1 story tells tales of French soldiers in the trenches, and does a masterful job of depicting the pure hell within.
jameseckman's review
4.0
One of the grimmest comics on war I have ever read. Other similar works would include [b:Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths|10051438|Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths|Shigeru Mizuki|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1312077252s/10051438.jpg|14947448].