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"Arrowsmith"
Apr. 16th, 2012 06:36 amAll we can do is see it through. Try to contain the fire until it burns out. And hope something survives... Old ways are ending. New ways are being born. And whether that’s good or bad, whether we’re building a better future, or Hell on Earth – we just don’t know. And we won’t, until it’s all over, and it’s too late to fix anything.
The year is 1915. As the Great War rages in Europe, refugees have been pouring into America. Fletcher Arrowsmith of Connecticut knows that it’s only a matter of time before the country enters the bloody conflict that has had even the Gods of his friend the Rock Troll turn their backs on Humanity. He can do no less than to enlist in the Overseas Airmen Corps. As he goes thru the grueling training that will allow him to fly with the assistance of a dragon, he falls in love with Grace, heiress to the fortune of the Hilliard Packaged Sorceries. All too soon though, he and the rest of the Corps ship over to Europe. There, he faces death repeatedly as his friends and allies are brought down by Prussia’s ruthless use of Dark Forces. Still Arrowsmith clings to his faith that his side is fighting the Good Fight, and that it’d never resort to such monstrous weapons. But that belief finds itself severely tested.
Writer Kurt Busiek and artist Carlos Pacheco gave us this 6-issue comic-book in late 2003 and it was quite clear that Busiek had many other tales to tell about Airman Arrowsmith. Nothing more came of it though. Maybe it didn’t do as well as he had originally thought. Maybe it had come too early, what with Naomi Novik’s “Téméraire” still three years away, and nobody knew what to make of his story. No matter what the cause, as a result very few people know of this, even among those who are fans of Busiek’s other work, such as landmark books “Marvels” and “AstroCity” which rekindled my love of comics back when they first came out in the early 1990s. “Arrowsmith” was eventually reprinted as a trade paperback, and I hope you’ll give it a try.
(By the way, I hear that Busiek quite enjoyed Carrie Vaughn's own homage to comic-books, the novel "After the Golden Age", so much so that he posted a comment on her blog. One wonders if squeeing ensued.)
