Arrowsmith: So Smart in Their Fine Uniforms - Book 01 - Softcover

Busiek, Kurt; Pacheco, Carlos

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1401202993 ISBN 13: 9781401202996

Publisher: WildStorm, 2004

Synopsis

The return of a classic! An oversized, fully remastered collection of the fantasy-adventure epic to accompany the all-new series. Young Fletcher Arrowsmith learns the true cost of war in an alternate history where dragons and magic spells are as much a part of World War I as bullets and barbed wire. This edition, in hardcover for the first time, will present the art as PACHECO originally intended.

Collects ARROWSMITH, VOL. 1 #1-6

About this title

Reviews

In the first of a proposed series of Arrowsmith books, Astro City writer Busiek builds a clever extended metaphor to play with the tropes of smalltown-boy-learns-that-war-is-hell stories. It's 1915, and Fletcher Arrowsmith is a Connecticut farm boy who heads to Europe to learn to fly and fight the Prussians. It's all pretty normal—except that in this world, magic has taken the place of technology, Connecticut is part of the United States of Columbia, Fletcher's actually learning to fly on his own (with the aid of a miniature dragon), the aerial battles are fought with swords (when they don't involve "incendiary bolts" or monsters), Fletcher's hometown buddy is a Lothingarian troll with a thick foreign accent, the deadly gas that the Prussians and Tyrolians use turns people into flesh-eating demons and Fletcher must search his soul after he discovers he has helped destroy Holbrück by dropping fire elementals on it. Arrowsmith's mixture of WWI aesthetics and sword-and-sorcery elements must've been tricky to pull off visually, but Pacheco holds his own, drawing with a slick-lined grace and understating the witty variations he's devised for everything from the soldiers' outfits to European architecture. Everything proceeds precisely according to the traditions of the genre, but the setup's ingenious enough to make the clichés tolerable.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: WildStorm
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1401202993
• ISBN 13: 9781401202996
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160