By Wayne Vansant
Published by Dead Reckoning
It’s sad how mediocre so many graphic novels are when it’s a great storytelling medium. This, however, is not the case with the excellent ‘Katusha’, which tells the story of a young Ukrainian woman in the Great Patriotic War.
Often a historical story suffers from either being overwhelmed by the author’s research or else the research is poor and the fictional aspects overwhelm the story. Thankfully that hasn’t happened here: with the real and fictional aspects of the story combining flawlessly, you learn a lot but it just happens organically, and you really care about the characters. I love Wayne Vansant’s artwork as much as his text – it’s really original and sincere, a million miles away from plastic cookie cutter ‘super hero’ art.
Indeed, ‘Katusha’ reminds me a lot of Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun’s ‘Charley’s War’ in its moving qualities and accurate research, but also the fact that both stories unfold from the point of view of a teenage protagonist.
An extremely moving tale, one that would appeal to anyone who likes a good story.
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