Customer Reviews

Alan's War: The Memories of G.I. Alan Cope

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As modern day North americans, we cannot appreciate the experiences soldiers had. Even with our technically superior computer generated, the memories and emotions that real soldiers lived through cannot be equalled.

Alan Cope and Emmanuel Guibert met by happenstance, and the collaboration that resulted is marvelous. Alan Cope tells us through Emmanuels' art his life as a soldier. Drafted at age 18, he joined the army to fight a guy named Adolph. His travels through France, Switzerland, Germany, California, and all points Europe are fascinating. This book is his journal, rendered in charming art that brings to life significant events and people that changed him from naive youth to wisened veteran.

It is clear that war changes people. While there are no atheists in foxholes, after the experience can turn believers into atheists or scar them forever. Alan was changed. His friends Gerhart and Vera were changed. Jako was changed. Landis changed. In the end, each went on with their lives based on their previous experiences.

As a reader, I was entranced by the simple narrative tone of the book. It was almost like Private Alan Cope was right beside me as I lived his life from training to his final years. While we could not smell the smells of the Alps as he hiked on Sundays, or the fresh dew of the French countryside,or the smell of German cooking, we can feel the effect on Alan. We cannot feel the horror of war, or the physcial exhaustion his training, the pain at losing friends, but we can feel the effect on Alan.

One thing about this book that I loved was the sheer variety of 'famous' people that Alan (or his close friends) knew. I also loved the depth of his relationships with his fellow soldiers, and his determined effort to not let his friendships die. One thing is very clear, Emmanuel's friendship is echoed in this book.

Reading this volume, I almost feel myself reaching over and pouring Alan a snifter of brandy and listening spellbound as the evening sun falls.

Thank you Emannauel and Alan for sharing this deep friendship with us.

Www.firstsecondbooks.com

Tim Lasiuta

Memory is a tricky thing. Decades later, looking back at a time when you were young, in a foreign land and under fire, you can be forgiven if you mistake a few things. In the case of Alan Cope, former U.S. soldier in World War II, there are only a few stumbling blocks in his recollections, but illustrator Emmanuel Guibert has wisely left them intact in ALAN'S WAR. They are few and far between, it seems, and they only serve to render Alan's story all the more human.

To provide just a short background: Guibert met Cope in the mid-'90s by chance, when Guibert asked him for directions. A native of France, Guibert was intrigued by Cope, an American expatriate now living in France. Cope was born in a coastal town in California and drafted into the war immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He did his job, like millions of other men in the greatest generation, and saw the world. He did so without fanfare, and some 50 years later, he still didn't expect any. Cope passed away in 1999, but over their five-year friendship, Cope shared many of his war stories with Guibert, a talented artist who would draw those stories under Cope's guidance. The stories were printed in France, where they were warmly received. Now they've been released here in the United States.

Cope, despite being incredibly open in the sharing of his war stories, was nonetheless a very private man, and Guibert respects that. He recorded their conversations and uses Cope's own words to narrate ALAN'S WAR. It makes it even more personal and renders this long-ago era even more immediate to see Cope's words on the page. There's an innocence at the beginning of the book that speaks to the nature of the world at the time, yet there's also a universality to what Cope experiences that translates through the decades.

When Cope and his fellow draftees miss their train to boot camp, they know they're in trouble. So they decide to enjoy their remaining time by seeing the sights of New York City. In another book, it would almost be a throwaway tale, not worthy of remembering or spotlighting. Here, it becomes a tender look at the playfulness of boys headed off to war, not knowing which, if any, of them would survive the experience.

Cope was an interesting man, and the years that passed since the war did not dull his insight. He kept a soft-spoken viewpoint that allowed him to modestly and subtly detail the friendships he developed and the brutal experiences he endured without ever dwelling in sentimentality. That was his rare gift as a storyteller, and Guibert's knowing move to leave it intact. Better still, Guibert's illustrations shine through with startling clarity in black and white. Cope's stories deserve no less.

--- Reviewed by John Hogan

This is a remarkable book. Guibert's style is immediately engaging -- it sounds corny but it was easy to believe he was speaking directly to me. The art is equally engaging. It supports the story without distracting, and provides a fantastic sense of time and place. They worked together to keep me riveted from cover to cover.

Emmanuel Guibert created "Brune" in 1992, a comics style story about the rise of fascism during the 1930s. He then did several comics for "Lapin", a French magazine, including 'La Guerre d'Alan.' It told the war experiences of Guibert's friend Alan Ingram Cope, an American soldier in World War II.

'La Guerre d'Alan' has now been translated into English and will appear in a number of installments. This first volume is an absolute triumph: the drawings are superb and the text has an honest, direct quality that is very compelling.

If you like this novel, take a look at the wonderful comic novel The Professor's Daughter created by Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Guibert. It tells the tale of a love affair between a professor's daughter and the mummy of Imhotep IV in Victorian London. The sepia tones make London appear as it did 100 years ago; Guibert has drawn Alan's War in stark black and white tones that reflect the World War II as seen through war photographers's camera lens.

The Amazon extract is very good, but check out Macmillan's website at the link in the first Comment; the extracts are much clearer and really sell the book all on their own. This book brought World War II home to me as very few other books have been able to do. Wonderful!

Robert C. Ross 2008

So good it seems effortless. Exactly what I hope for from all graphic novels, but rarely get....blending a story that keeps you guessing with multiple sub-themes that let the reader enter into a fully dimensional universe, guided without being force-fed by the author. Beautiful clean lines, use of photo-montage to evoke the feel of the times. A true graphic "novel" - all the depth and strength of a well-written story with the added dimension of picture storytelling meshed so well with the words, it's hard to imagine one without the other. I can't wait for the sequel!

Despite the evocative artwork, the inescapable fact of the matter remains that Alan Cope had, at most, a superficial encounter with war and the book reflects this. He arrives in Europe in early 1945 and doesn't ever see actual combat.

The small section of the book that deals with his experiences in the military, from training to his mustering out have the unmistakable flavor of authenticity. It allows you to see what things were like for some soldiers, but Mr. Cope's experiences were not what I would consider typical. For him there was comparatively little danger or privation. He spent the winter of 44-45 warm and dry while the bulk of the army was fighting the Battle of the Bulge.

If the battle of Omaha Beach and the siege of Bastonge were the extreme of WWII combat, danger, and heroism, then Alan's War is certainly at the other end of the spectrum.

The bulk of the book deals with what Mr. Cope does after the war, which is mostly unremarkable.

All in all, I give this book 1.5 stars for artwork, and .5 stars for story.

Found this in the graphic novel section and picked it up for two reasons. I liked the drawing style, and the fact that its a depiction of real events, rather than a sci-fi or comic book type story.

In the simplest terms, its a well told memoir of a man who had an unusual, and mostly not very dangerous by WWII standards, experience in the war. Much of the focus is on life experiences, stories, anecdotes, lessons, well told, with suspense and recurring threads.

It's not an action story, but it is interesting, memorable and provocative. It made me wonder if I told my life story to someone at an old age, if I'd have anything nearly as interesting to tell about what I'd done, and what I thought about what I'd done. Much less if I could find someone so thoughtful and talented to draw my story.

Length:: 8:33 Mins

Graphic Novel Gems is a simple graphic novel review show. In this episode I reviewed "Alan's War"

Memory is a tricky thing. Decades later, looking back at a time when you were young, in a foreign land and under fire, you can be forgiven if you mistake a few things. In the case of Alan Cope, former U.S. soldier in World War II, there are only a few stumbling blocks in his recollections, but illustrator Emmanuel Guibert has wisely left them intact in Alan's War. They are few and far between, it seems, and they only serve to render Alan's story all the more human.

To provide just a short background: Guibert met Cope in the mid-'90s by chance, when Guibert asked him for directions. A native of France, Guibert was intrigued by Cope, an American expatriate now living in France. Cope was born in a coastal town in California and drafted into the war immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He did his job, like millions of other men in the greatest generation, and saw the world. He did so without fanfare, and some 50 years later, he still didn't expect any. Cope passed away in 1999, but over their five-year friendship, Cope shared many of his war stories with Guibert, a talented artist who would draw those stories under Cope's guidance. The stories were printed in France, where they were warmly received. Now they've been released here in the United States.

Cope, despite being incredibly open in the sharing of his war stories, was nonetheless a very private man, and Guibert respects that. He recorded their conversations and uses Cope's own words to narrate Alan's War. It makes it even more personal and renders this long-ago era even more immediate to see Cope's words on the page. There's an innocence at the beginning of the book that speaks to the nature of the world at the time, yet there's also a universality to what Cope experiences that translates through the decades.

When Cope and his fellow draftees miss their train to boot camp, they know they're in trouble. So they decide to enjoy their remaining time by seeing the sights of New York City. In another book, it would almost be a throwaway tale, not worthy of remembering or spotlighting. Here, it becomes a tender look at the playfulness of boys headed off to war, not knowing which, if any, of them would survive the experience.

Cope was an interesting man, and the years that passed since the war did not dull his insight. He kept a soft-spoken viewpoint that allowed him to modestly and subtly detail the friendships he developed and the brutal experiences he endured without ever dwelling in sentimentality. That was his rare gift as a storyteller, and Guibert's knowing move to leave it intact. Better still, Guibert's illustrations shine through with startling clarity in black and white. Cope's stories deserve no less.

-- John Hogan

Illustrations and text were beautiful. Well worth having in your library. A perfect graphic novel for the over 60 set, like me.