Customer Reviews

Two Generals

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My wife bought me a copy of the World War 2 graphic novel "Two Generals" for Christmas, the story of two Canadian officers who take part in the battle for Normandy following the D-Day landings. For half an hour I was oblivious to the screams and shouts of my two kids as I read this book, choking back the tears. I had no family at Normandy and am not prone to emotional outbursts so I can only conclude that this is simply an excellent story, heart-breakingly well told.

My wife was cross with me for leaving her to look after two screaming children, so I just passed the book to her and watched her react in the same way that I had.

The author's impressive research is noticeable on every page. The front cover for example shows St Giles Church, Stokes Poges, with the ivy and bushes as they were in the 1940s not as they are now. It stands up well to a re-read, with subtleties noticed that I missed the first time.

If Herge had written for adults, he would have come up with something like this!

War stories are complicated and difficult to tell, which makes comics the perfect medium for telling them: The creator can show not only the characters and their actions but also their surroundings, the details of military life, maps of battles and strategy, and the carnage that comes with war, all without breaking the narrative with blocks of description. Scott Chantler uses the medium to its fullest in an unusual sort of war story: His grandfather's experiences in the D-Day invasion as a lieutenant in the Canadian Highland Light Infantry. The story is drawn largely from the diary of Chantler's grandfather, Law Chantler, and the letters of his best friend, Jack Chrysler. In keeping with the source material, the book itself is designed to look like a diary, complete with elastic-loop bookmark.

The book is divided into two parts. The first is mostly taken up with the period before the invasion, when Law Chantler and Jack Chrysler were going through training in England. This part of the book is mostly light-hearted, chronicling the two men's experiences in a new country and the trials they face in their training, but there a few moments that foreshadow what is to come, as when Chantler and Chrysler witness a bus accident in which a woman is killed. As the day draws near, the unit begins training with live ammunition (which means real casualties), and they are issued collapsible bicycles for use in the invasion. Important dignitaries, including the King of England, come to wish them well, and then--after a false start--they board ships and learn that they are indeed going to be part of the invasion of Normandy.

Part Two is the story of the invasion itself. Chantler's unit hits the beach but then stalls and can move no further. The Canadians were up against one of the elite units of the German army, commanded by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel himself, and they were both outnumbered and outgunned. There are periods of waiting--even a few more light-hearted moments, as when Chantler captures a German soldier who is relieving himself in the woods--before the story culminates in a final, bloody assault on the town of Buron, which was key to the capture of Caen. Here the palette shifts from gray-green to red as the characters engage in hand-to-hand combat and press forward even as their comrades and commanders are killed on either side of them. After all that, though, the book ends on a quiet note, with Law Chantler standing quietly among the scattered bodies, his mind in another time and place.

The art and storytelling in this book are nothing short of superb. Scott Chantler has a clear, crisp style that suits this type of story well. He uses muted colors in a thoughtful way--gray-green for most of the story, red to accent a moment of blood or violence and, later, as the dominant color in the battle scenes. This is never overdone, and in fact the art has a coolness to it that makes the sometimes disturbing subject matter easy to take. We are, after all, looking at this story from a distance.

Chantler composes his pages carefully, starting with a nine-panel grid but often breaking it to introduce horizontal and vertical shapes. The small panels mean we are often looking at the story in a series of small details--a face, an object, a gesture--and sometimes objects or shapes mirror those on the opposite page. When he widens the view, as he does for a two-page spread of the ships on D-Day, the effect is truly stunning.

The book winds up with a description of the significance of the battle of Buron and some more personal reflections. This is a war story that never glamorizes war; Chantler not only shows the injuries men receive on the battlefield, he hints at the longer-lasting consequences for those who survive, and there is a profound personal loss at the heart of it. Two Generals is a moving story, beautifully drawn and artfully told, and all the more important because it is true.

Chantler has posted some of his research and the original photos and documents he drew on to create Two Generals at the Two Generals Research Blog.


-- Brigid Alverson

I had been waiting for this from Amazon.ca since August, and I finally received this book and it is beautiful. The binding, the story, the colouring of the "Tintin" style illustration, the emotion, it was perfect.

This is the graphic novel I always envisioned making about my Grandad. If I could only draw half as well as Mr. Chantler. What a thing to be able to give to his family - a piece of their legacy.

The hard-cover is astounding, it has the same look and feel as an embossed oxblood leather-bound officer's field notebook, complete with elastic place marker. Just holding this book puts you into the time and place as a physical object even before the story begins to work on your imagination.

The story is fascinating, touching, tragic, and humorous, and often made me think of the short tales my Grandad would relate about the war. That generation did not speak a great deal about the horrors they were made to endure, but would often tell of the funny things that occurred along the way. Chantler captures this perfectly balancing the personal with the historical, providing both an individual and an overarching view of what happened to his grandfather as an officer in the Highland Light Infantry of Canada.

This is only my second graphic-novel, and I was surprised again at the blazing pace I was able to cut through a very richly detailed and well researched story and still take away so much from the experience.

The story is of course enhanced by the illustrations which are beautiful. Each page is exceptionally laid out and the colouring made it perfect. The entire book is monochromatic sepia or khaki like old photographs and uniforms of the time, with the occasional punctuation of deep ruby-red accent frames providing a very dramatic effect. This book is a work of art.

I love how the book ended, and then ended again. Where most would have left off, Chantler stops and then provides a little more which makes all the difference. I'm so glad to have read this now, just following Remembrance Day.

Very few comics have made me cry. This is one of them. The last handful of pages are masterful, as Scott Chantler reframes a scene we've visited several times before in the book, giving it new resonance and tying the whole narrative together in a way that packs real power. It's a brilliant example of thoughtful storytelling, emotional without being manipulative. But then, there isn't a pen stroke in this comic that isn't perfectly planned. TWO GENERALS should be given to all prospective cartoonists as a tutorial on how to visually tell tales. Adhering to a strict layout based on a nine-panel grid, Chantler frequently relies on silence and small details to relate change, movement, and outward expression of inner thought and feeling. His pin-point eyes tell more about a character's internal conflict than most other comics artists manage when rendering a complete face. Also, his sparse use of color avoids gimmickry and instead conveys an added layer of meaning. The portentous use of the dark wine color that also adorns the cover of this handsomely designed graphic novel alerts us to deaths to come, like a more serious employment of the Star Trek red shirt. Except here, under the grim specter of war, any man is as expendable as any other.

TWO GENERALS is based in large part on the diaries of the author's grandfather, a lieutenant in the Canadian army in World War II. Chantler's approach is, in some ways, "just the facts, ma'am," avoiding mawkish sentimentality; yet, he is not scared of nostalgia, humor, or genuine human connection. The comic also manages to honor the brave fighters without cheerleading or propaganda, in much the same way another visual medium, television, payed tribute to the soldiers in the miniseries BAND OF BROTHERS and THE PACIFIC. I'm considering putting TWO GENERALS on the same shelf as those DVD sets, even if it would fly in the face of my compulsive filing system. Someone get this novel in the hands of Tom Hanks, stat.

Reason for Reading: I love reading journals,memoirs and books based on them.

Wow! That one word could some up my complete review. Wow to the story! Wow to the graphics! Wow to the physical book itself!

Let's start with the book. The top and bottom halves are faux leather-look, the corners are rounded on the board and the pages. The pages are a nice thick quality paper and the book virtually looks like a moleskin journal. It even has an elastic band to hold it together. Beautiful book to behold!

The story is centred on the true life WW II experiences of the author's grandfather Lew Chantler and his best friend Jack. Little did they know it but they would end up being in the famous attack on the beaches of Normandy and be the Canadian division who recaptured Caen, France and ultimately ended up in the battle at Buron. The book spends plenty of time describing their training in England and life for the soldier not on active duty there before the meat of the story switches over to the Invasion at Normandy and the horrors of war. Examine the horror and tragedy of war the book certainly does while still recognizing the bravery and honour of the men who fought and those who died for their country. Taken up to the leadership level of majors, presidents, kings and those who plan the war, irony can often be found in Chantler's book. This is also the story of the bond of friendship and how one doesn't know how strong a friendship is until it is put to the test of a hardship.

The artwork is fantastic. The majority of the work is done in b/w drawing with one colour added and for the majority of the book that colour is khaki, obviously representing the army, but whenever a scene that mentions the upcoming war or its possible dangers a bit of red is added which provides an unsettling contrast. As the scenes become more dangerous the khaki is left behind and red becomes the one colour in each frame, easily representing war. But when it comes to the most barbaric scenes in the middle of battle with limbs flying and death everywhere, the scheme turns to red and a light terracotta colour and these colours clearly represent death and horror.

The author wrote his story using as source material, his grandfather's journal, letter's to his wife and letter's received by him from others. Chantler was also able to track down some remaining survivors/or their families who could help him with other source materials. A brutal yet compelling story of war. One that shows the horrors of war but also shows the bravery of those who fought and the respect we owe them. Scott Chantler has done his late grandfather proud. A compelling piece of Canadian history from the point of view of one Canadian who served his country.