Broken Frontier

This is the second of a two-part “Inter-Review”, a review and an interview in one!  Looking at Finding Peace, a new war graphic novel by Tom Waltz and Nathan St. John.

Read the first part HERE .

Broken Frontier Review: Finding Peace closes on perhaps the most powerful wartime tale I’ve ever read, called “Covent”, chronicling the journey of a Middle Eastern woman as she tries to survive the conflicts surrounding her by traveling to a nearby church, and joining the sisters there.  But ultimately, she’s forced to defend the convent with extreme violence, despite her intentions. Written and Illustrated by Nathan St John (The Missionary ), the tone with which he tells the story is extraordinary for a number of reasons: 1) he manages to remain objective, never turning to melodrama or criticism, though as an observer he does question the conditions involved. 2) He explores everything, every side, every people, every nook and cranny of a common girl and her family’s existence inside a war-torn third-world country. 3) He manages to evoke sympathy through education alone, through simple witness of events as they unfold. There’s never a moment of manipulation, of trying to evoke a reaction from the reader; the story is stoic and deadpan, and because of this, utterly heartbreaking when it draws to its inevitable close.

BROKEN FRONTIER: For “Convent”, Nathan, the one story told from a non-westerner’s point of view, was this a story based on something or someone you’ve known of or heard of?  What was the direct inspiration for the tale?

NATHAN ST. JOHN:  It was a challenge, which is why the detached narration seems to work so well.  I think too much dialogue between characters would have compromised the authenticity of the story. While not related to any actual events, it combines many of the sad characteristics of conflicts today—secretarian violence, the disintegration of society, modern armaments and foreign interventions.

BF Review: Nathan handles the full art chores on Finding Peace , for “Convent” but for all the other Tom Waltz-penned shorts as well, and the results are breathtaking to behold. There’s immediacy inherent in his charcoal sketch-work, a sense of pages being drawn as they occur, fast and yet artful, jaw-droppingly intricate while done in harsh and rapid strokes. The color of the book is a haze of desert-hued sepia tones, like ageing vellum, with a tinge of pinkish red as though the paper were the victims of a saturated climate, left overlong in a high-humidity of blood. It’s difficult to tear the eyes away, one page impossible to not lead to the next, to take in another ferociously dynamic sequence of images. There’s one thing blatantly obvious within the first five pages of Finding Peace, and that’s that Nathan St. John is an artist you will never forget.

BF: What were your experiences with comics before Finding Peace, and how did you find the experience of putting together a gargantuan 100+ page book of this nature?

NSJ:  Well, I think gargantuan is certainly the right word to describe it. There were a couple of times when it all seemed pretty overwhelming. Tom was good about discussing how he wanted to see the content of his stories, which, of course, helped greatly.  It all came down to producing a steady output of drawings and then being very self-critical about which frames were working.  I trained as an architect and have long experience with the innumerable revisions done when designing a building, so it was really a matter of applying a similar thought process.

BF: On the subject of the color tones, how did you choose them?

NSJ: Tom and I felt strongly about keeping the character of the initial “Convent” story drawings, so coloring in the conventional sense was out of the question. I was living in Phoenix at the time, so maybe some of that desert color did creep into my subconscious… Either way, we realized pretty early on that the sepia color tones were giving the stories unique and powerful characteristics.

BF: Was the book done digitally and was there any part of it done old school sans electronics?

NSJ: Ultimately it was a mix of techniques. Each frame was drawn using charcoal pencils, with crushed charcoal and ink added later to heighten the atmospheric qualities in some frames. The computer was used later to adjust some of the contrast and give it uniform color characteristics.  It was not a linear process, so changes were always being made to all parts of the book.  So yes, a bit ´old school´ and labor intensive… 

BF Review: A half-dozen tales, each simple and recognizable and yet wholly alien, toned by a color of life we all know of but hardly ever witness firsthand. Waltz and St. John have crafted a sincere thick-cut slice of life, albeit a horrific one, and for its honestly as well as its compassion (and also its necessary distance), it is a bona fide masterpiece. The art by St. John is outlandishly good, and fitting, and when coupled with the stories, the result is a war graphic novel far more tasteful, artful, and impacting than any in recent memory. No soaring Hollywood music or overblown posturing to go along with the pathos; it’s no fable, no parable, just reality on paper as best a human being ever could.  f you’ve ever admired Maus or Persepolis or Pride of Baghdad, Finding Peace is the next step, a superior work that admirably finds its place next to these, and arguably surpasses them page for page.

BF: Will there be another collection containing stories in the Finding Peace style, or further war-based tales from either of you in the future?

TOM WALTZ: I really hope so. I’m very fortunate to be doing quite a few other projects right now for IDW, but I absolutely hope Nate and I get to work together again. I’d like this to be the first of many books we do as a team. I know we both have plenty more stories to tell.

NSJ : I agree. This was a tremendously gratifying experience, so future associations with Tom and IDW would be great. There are indeed innumerable stories to tell, and I think drawing on some fascinating and overlooked events in history may be my next step. Like Art Spiegelman´s Maus and Joe Sacco´s incredible work, I believe this medium can both entertain and inform in ways traditional print and film cannot.

BF: If there was one thing that could be done to help ease tensions and suffering in the Middle East, what would you say that might be? Tom ?

TW:  I wish I had an answer to that, I really do.  At this point, though—and at the risk of sounding both overly cynical and off-the-wall—it feels like the only thing that will bring all of us together will be something like an extraterrestrial invasion… something that will finally remind us that we are all humans who share the same planet, and it’s in our best interests to find some common ground quickly, before we lose it all. 

BF: Ha!  Ronald Reagan was actually very vocal about the fact that he believed an alien invasion would one day bring all nations together. He was an actor, after all. And you, Nathan?

NSJ: One is unfortunately confronting generations of animosity and misunderstanding between groups of people.  I wish I had an answer on that one.

BF: Alien invasion it is, then.  Sigh….

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Thus ends the Inter-Review.

For more on Finding Peace and for preorders, go to the website of Charlie Foxtrot Entertainment, who produced the GN alongside IDW Publishing.