Entertainment, Books - Marine Corps Times

The art of war

Gen. William T. Sherman said “war is hell.” If it’s not, Tom Waltz’s graphic novel “Children of the Grave” lets you know it’s at least in the same neighborhood.

Waltz, 37, a former Marine and former Army National Guardsman, has penned a story about war at its most fundamental level -- about killing and dying.

But it’s also a tale of horror, one that presents its protagonists with visions of hell -- the hell they find on the battlefield and the hell that already burns inside them.

In mixing the two genres, war and horror, Waltz addresses justice, atonement and forgiveness, themes that elevate the story to something more than the usual us-versus-them shoot-’em-up.

A story rooted in reality

“Children” opens as three special operators working for a CIA-like organization called “The Program” arrive in the mountainous Kilipan region of Stinwan, a fictional Muslim country that could be Iraq or Afghanistan.

An uneasy cease-fire had temporarily halted fighting between the Stinwanese army and the Kilipanese, but that agreement went up in flames when Stinwanese Col. Akbar Assan “went rogue” with a band of followers, slaughtering Kilipanese children in a massive ethnic cleansing.

The soldiers arrive in search of evidence of the genocide, but what they find instead are hundreds of child-sized graves, all open, all empty.

For former Army Ranger and Delta Force member Lt. Michael Drake, former Ranger Sgt. Reginald “Shiv” Reese and former Marine recon sniper Sgt. Pedro “Lil’ Pete” Rodriguez, that’s when the nightmare begins.

The three are visited by the ghosts of dead children and family members. The children have a mission for the troops. They want justice. They want vengeance.

For all the richness of the story, graphic novels are a side occupation for Waltz, whose day job is as an electronic commerce analyst for SAIC in San Diego. A Marine veteran of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, he later joined the Army National Guard and served as a military police specialist.

But his story doesn’t stem directly from his own military experience. Instead, it was inspired in part by watching news coverage of United Nations troops unearthing a mass grave, probably in Bosnia.

“Initially, the story idea was simple: What if kids killed in genocide came back from the dead to seek revenge?” Waltz said in a Sept. 8 telephone interview from his home in San Diego. “I began drawing on my experience of being in the MPs and a Marine. It became a military horror story.”

As the idea developed, Waltz realized the usual horror story devices -- zombies, vampires, the undead -- weren’t enough. The horror of past experience also needed to figure prominently.

“I wanted to tell a story that shows that traumas from childhood affect what you do as an adult, or what you can’t do as an adult,” he said. “That the past can rule the present and, generally, that’s not a good thing.”

What makes Waltz’s story stand out is his take on the villain, Assan, a one-time warrior hero of Stinwan’s bloodiest campaigns who evolved into an angry, scarred terrorist leader intent on wiping out the Kilipan population of his country.

The dead also haunt Assan. In many ways, he resembles Captain Ahab, another scarred and angry leader bent on vengeance, no matter the cost to himself or others. For Ahab, the enemy was Moby Dick, the whale who took his leg during an earlier seafaring venture.

Assan’s hatred of the Kilipanese stems from the murder of his own family. But he’s not the only character in this graphic novel to suffer the childhood trauma of losing one’s parents. Two of the American soldiers are also orphans. That term is at the heart of the soldiers’ team name: “Team Orphan.”

Military details

First published last year as a four-part series by Shooting Star Comics, “Children of the Grave” was reissued this summer as a trade paperback by independent comic house IDW Publishing. Along with the full four-part series, the trade paperback includes six “Children”-inspired guest illustrations and an eight-page story called “The Sorrow,” penned in honor of the National Association to Protect Children (www.protect.org).

Service members will notice the details right away, both in the writing and the artwork. They are right-on enough to make anyone familiar with the military -- and especially today’s grunts -- think, “Hey, I know those guys.”

The artwork is by Casey Maloney, an artist from California who never served in the military but nonetheless effectively captured the weapons and gear of war.

“Mostly, I just used Google images,” he said. “I also have a couple of reference books.”

Maloney, 25, draws inspiration for his art from well-known comic artists. Among his influences: Jim Lee, who has illustrated “The Fantastic Four,” “The Uncanny X-Men,” “Batman” and “Superman”; Joe “Mad” Madureira, artist and creator of the “Battle Chasers”; and Marc Silvestri, who drew “Cyber Force” and now runs Top Cow Comics.

Among the fans of “Children” is John Del Vecchio, a combat veteran and author of several novels, including “The 13th Valley,” which is based in part on his experiences with the 101st Airborne in Vietnam. Del Vecchio was particularly surprised by the comic’s depth and power.

Waltz said he discovered his work while deployed to Kuwait during the Persian Gulf War. The two have never met but have kept in touch by phone and e-mail, Del Vecchio said.

“I was never a comic book reader, but I was blown away by the emotional impact,” he said in a telephone interview Sept. 13. “The quickness, how fast the action is ... how fast the whole thing moves. In a novel, you have all the description in the writing itself. Now, you have it all right there, visually, in the drawings. It was an experience for me. To tell the truth, it was very powerful.”

The book’s violent conclusion is an orgy of bloodletting that is at once revenge, justice and atonement: a “Don Giovanni” climax with a Darth Vader twist.

We won’t spoil it for you, but the resolution offers food for thought, especially for active-duty troops or veterans who have served in combat or lost people who have. But a story that leaves nothing to talk or think about is one not worth reading.

“There are personal battles that people fight with themselves” in coping with the past, Waltz said. “You don’t have to forget, but if you live in the past, then you’re not living. So with each character, even the terrorist character, you realize there is a reason” they are what they are.

“Children of the Grave” retails for $14.99. Check it out at www.idwpublishing.com.