ShareThisBy ANDREW A. SMITH
Thursday, November 16, 2006
If you thought you had considered the Iraq War from every angle, here's a new one. In the graphic novel "Pride of Baghdad," you discover the perspective of the animals.
Amazingly, this remarkable story is based on real events. When the Americans bombed the Iraqi capital in 2003, a pride of lions escaped from the zoo. "Pride of Baghdad" is their story, imagined by writer Brian K. Vaughan and artist Niko Henrichon.
"I think you can read it at one level as 'Watership Down' ... as just sort of an anthropomorphized animal adventure," Vaughan said in an interview with National Public Radio (www.npr.org). "But I was definitely more influenced by something like 'Animal Farm', and I wanted to use this story to talk about my own conflicted feelings about the Iraq War."
Which means politics. But calm down _ it's not the tiresome, conventional red-state/blue-state sort, and Vaughan has no obvious axe to grind. The lions (and monkeys, turtles and other animals) have different opinions on the benefits of captivity, the definition of freedom _ and the price paid for each. However, none of it is a direct allegory to any specific ideology, with the debate merely a backdrop to survival.
And not only do the animals have different opinions, but Vaughan also invests them with distinctive personalities. Especially the lions _ Zill, Noor, Safa and Ali _ who quickly become as familiar as our own family members, warts and all. And it's easy to love them just as much.
Which is not to slight Henrichon, whose expressive artwork astonishes in its range of emotion and specificity of character _ you can not only distinguish between the lions, but you know instantly what they're feeling. His Baghdad is equally convincing, shifting from beauty to carnage, from peace to war, with breath-taking ease. A master of both action and mood, Henrichon's seductively smooth style gently seduces you into his world, a world that afterwards you can't imagine any other way.
Which mirrors the story. "Pride" also shifts unexpectedly from humor to horror, from adventure to philosophy, and rattles along so breathlessly that you wish you could spend more time with it, and with this wonderfully imagined family. Which is, of course, a pride of lions, which have their own unique view of the world.
"I hope there are other animals out there my age," says the cub Ali, about the world outside the zoo. "I always wanted to kill a baby goat."
Humor aside, that begs the question: Why use animals to tell this story?
"It's very difficult to empathize with foreign casualties of war," Vaughan said in an interview in The New York Times. "It's always difficult to connect with 'the other.' Animals have a way of bridging that gap. ... Animals don't have a race or creed, so we have a connection with them that we can't have with 'the other'."
"Pride" is a departure from Vaughan's other work, which includes the gender gap ("Y: The Last Man"), superheroes ("Runaways," "The Escapists") and political drama ("Ex Machina"). Most are available as trade paperbacks, and you can always learn more at Vaughan's websites, www.bkv.tv and http://blog.myspace.com/briankvaughan.
But it's easy to see that Vaughan crafted every word of the minimalist "Pride" with _ well, pride. "I think it's the best project I've ever been a part of," he told Worlds of Westfield magazine.
This reviewer tends to agree. "Pride of Baghdad" is something to be proud of.
Other reviews:
_ Speaking of the Iraq War, the graphic novel "War Fix" ($15.95, NBM) follows a journalist who becomes inexorably drawn into, and absorbed by, imbedded reporting on that conflict. Unfortunately, the title gives away the ending of the reporter's character arc, but it's the journey, not the destination, that matters _ and this well-crafted trip (by writer David Axe and artist Steven Olexa) is worth the price of the ticket.
_ Full disclosure: I'm pre-disposed to speak favorably of "Jetta: Tales of the Toshigawa," as it's written, drawn and published by the husband-and-wife team of Martheus and Janet Wade, who hail from my hometown of Memphis.
"Toshigawa" is a mish-mash of genres, with a samurai (ish) heroine who battles a demon army with swords and sorcery as the avatar of an ancient Japanese clan. Falling somewhere between "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Shi" _ with a touch of "Magnus Robot Fighter" tossed in _ "Toshigawa" has the potential to appeal to fans of all those concepts.
The third GN, "Jetta: Tales of the Toshigawa _ Rain" (Maw Productions, $8.25), is available at comic shops and at www.toshigawa.com.
Contact Andrew A. Smith of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis at capncomics(at)aol.com or www.captaincomics.us.
