Civil War Adventure: Real History: Stories of the War That Divided America. This item is unavailable.Civil War Adventure: Real History: Stories of the War That Divided America

Presents fictional versions of the famous battles, officers, and events of the Civil War, from the efficiency of sharpshooters and poignant naval battles to the tragedies of war and struggles on the home front.

Dixon, veteran of some of comicdom's great war titles (Alien Legion, The 'Nam, G. I. Joe), layers on historical fact and fictional human drama for this curriculum-friendly outing. There's plenty of battlefield chaos, to be sure, but the tales are clearly a product of meticulous research and loaded with insights into the monotony and terror of fighting in a war. Short and feature-length stories that jump around the Civil War timeline and focus on the experiences of both influential officers and common soldiers are supported by short essays providing historical background, general background on things like armaments and battlefield surgery, and excerpts from actual letters home. A spiritual successor to EC's legendary Two-Fisted Tales in capturing gritty battlefield realism and its toll on the human spirit in evocative, high-quality black-and-white art, this also makes a good companion to C. M. Butzer's Gettysburg: The Graphic Novel (2009) and would make a solid addition to any Civil War curriculum to frame the era in a more personal way. Grades 6-10. --Jesse Karp