Army @ Love Vol. 1: The Hot Zone Club (Paperback)

by Rick Veitch (Author), Jose Villarrubia (Illustrator), Gary Erskine (Illustrator)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Veitch is one of comics' most deeply cracked satirists, and the concept behind his new series is as bizarre as they come: a forced coupling of romantic soap opera and war-story action, bound together with a heavy dose of tar-black comedy about the corrupting force of globalized American capitalism. It's set a few years in the future, when America's war in Afbaghistan has gotten a shot in the arm from its Motivation & Morale division, which is in charge of making military service irresistibly sexy to thrill-seeking youth. (The Hot Zone Club is for people who've had the ultimate peak experience of sex under fire.) The central romance plot concerns a sleazy stage magician/soldier named Flabbergast, whose lover chats on a cellphone with her husband during firefights; the story's overcrowded with dozens of subplots and minor characters, including a secretary of war who collects celebrity hair clippings and a military-robot operator with Down syndrome who's got a mother so overbearing she intimidates insurgent raiders. Veitch's lacerating writing riffs on clichés both military and erotic—usually both at once—and his artwork does the same, conflating the glamorous lushness of fashion ads with the scrappy precision of combat journalism and vintage war comics. (Oct.)
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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Vertigo (October 3, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401214746
• ISBN-13: 978-1401214746
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 6.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #631,645 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Selling War to the Young, October 24, 2007

By	Joshua Koppel (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

What happens when an unpopular war goes on too long? How do you manage to enlist? Rick Veitch shows a possible future where these issues have to be dealt with. Simply put, the Army finds a way to dress combat in a way that will appeal to young folks. This is done with the creation of MOMO, or Motivation and Morale. Young folks have become addicted to adrenaline thanks to their usual entertainments. The Army can meet that need through combat. It also supplies top secret "retreats" which are really bacchanalian orgies of booze, drugs and sex.

The story is told in two parts. One part is that of the director of MOMO and how he keeps the product moving. The second part is told through a combat squad and some of their family members. How do married couples handle issues that could arise if word got out about what is really going on at the front? High-tech gadgetry keeps the troops mostly safe so that they can enjoy the post-combat parties.

Well-realized characters populate this view of the future that looks like it could be very possible. This is an excellent start to a good-looking series. This is a Vertigo title so consider it R-rated at the very least. Although billed as a combination of a war comic and a romance comic it does not suffer from the lack of dimensionality these two genres are often associated with. Instead this is a fresh new approach. I can't wait to read more.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, Scathing Parody, November 15, 2007

By	Our Gods Wear Spandex! "secretsun.blogspot.com" (United States) - See all my reviews

Rick Veitch's Army@Love will very much appeal to fans of all stripes. This book is a scathing parody of our current military adventuring in the Middle East that is laugh-out-loud funny and sexy as hell. Think Chaykin's American Flagg transposed into our current reality (not much of a leap, actually). Veitch's imagineering is so endlessly inventive and frightfully credible he may find unwittingly himself drafted into service to re-remake the military for the 21st Century.

4.0 out of 5 stars Veitch hits a homer out to Afbaghistan!!!, April 9, 2009

By	Dev "Believer" (Centennial, CO) - See all my reviews

Rick Veitch scripts and illustrates a wonderfully enjoyable story about the possibilities of modern warfare over the next few years. The ideas he comes up with realistically aren't that far off, and only help to create a handful of deep characters that truly draw you in as a reader. There are a few story inconsistencies here and there, but nothing that distracts the audience to any great degree. And some of the inconsistencies even make sense as you get further into the comic (The character of Loman comes to mind).

On the art side of things, Veitch and collaborator Gary Erskine hit a few speed bumps in the first issue, but truly gel by the time you hit the end, only making you wish you had the second volume to dive into.