Battlefields: Dear Billy

Just a quick mini comic review right out of the gate. I picked up "Battlefields: Dear Billy" on a lark, mostly because of the evocative cover pictured above. Without any idea about the history of the title I pictured a throwback story to the old Sgt. Rock comics. I was pleasantly surprised to find something completely different within it's covers.

This is a well written war story told from a woman's perspective. It's 1942 British nurse Carrie Sutton finds herself suffering unspeakable horrors at the hands of the Japanese when she's caught behind enemy lines. The emotional baggage she packs once she's rescued is considerable and very moving. Nevertheless, in British stiff upper lip fashion she hides her scars from the "Billy" of the title. Of course he has scars of his own...

The only complaint I had about this title (other than the horrible cursive font they use for her letters to Billy) was that the Japanese were written as very one-dimensional bastards, bordering on monsters . The last page of the book changed my perspective on this. If this story goes where I think it's going than this setup is going to pay off big time.

This comic is worth reading.