Gettysburg: The Graphic Novel

It absolutely needed more room to cover the entire June 30th- November 19th events of Gettysburg. Since all the battle was too confusing (even with detailed maps) to be properly covered in so few pages, he should have stuck to the the post-retreat situation in which he poignantly represented the dead and clearly immortalized all the important happenings through the end of the Gettysburg Address- the very end of the mass funeral of the dead soldiers. The events of the day of that speech, which was but an addendum to the generation's greatest orator's two hours of emotional remembrance and rhetoric, were the highlights of this book. The reason that I jumped for this treat was it is unmistakably a "The Center of Cartoon Studies" presentation. The reason I didn't qualify "style" was because this is EXACTLY the book you get from them- down to the (what I would call) "tri-tone" coloring and the paginated index at the end with corresponding panels which gives them precedence, further explanation and additional significance. It's as if Butler was a student there and/or had Sturm's blessing to present it in homage. -StrictlySequential (goodreads)

About halfway through Gettysburg, a photographer arrives to record the aftermath of the battle. "Such a picture conveys a useful moral," he muses, as he focuses on a body lying on the battlefield. "It shows the blank horror and reality of war, in opposition to its pageantry." The same could be said of Gettysburg: The Graphic Novel. War is often spoken of in terms of great masses of soldiers advancing, retreating, or flanking the enemy. C. M. Butzer brings the battle down to the atomic level, showing individual soldiers fighting in the woods, charging with bayonets drawn, and staring up, dumbstruck, as a cannonball hurtles down upon them from the sky. And he does not flinch from the horrors of war; after the battle, he shows bodies scattered on the battlefield and a soldier nonchalantly carrying an armload of amputated arms and legs. In just 80 pages, Butzer sets the scene, depicts the battle and its aftermath, and shows the movement to create a national cemetery on the site, as well as Lincoln writing his speech and the ceremony at Gettysburg. This is a lot of material, and the first half of the book is too compressed. The initial skirmish at Gettysburg is over with in three pages, and the action is hard to follow. The generals speak in sound bites and then disappear. We catch a brief glimpse of a field hospital, a short exchange with the governor of Pennsylvania, a snatch of conversation among the cemetery planners. Butzer compensates for this with copious notes in the back of the book, in which he fully explains each scene and adds more historical details. This makes interesting reading, but it would have been even better if it had been integrated more fully into the narrative. While this part of the book is hard to read, it also succeeds in doing something only a graphic novel could do: It puts the reader inside the story. It's one thing to read an account of a battle, but quite another to look down the dusty streets of Gettysburg and see the Confederate troops advancing while the local African Americans move out to safer territory. Once Lincoln appears, about halfway through the book, the action slows. We see Lincoln riding the train to Gettysburg and meditating in silence in his hotel room. Then we get to see a rare sight: The delivery of the Gettysburg Address in its original context, at the battlefield, and preceded by a long, fiery speech by the famous orator Edward Everett. When Lincoln takes the stage, the stillness is palpable. As Lincoln delivers the speech, Butzer backs away from literal reality, illustrating the words with depictions of the full pageantry of American civil rights history, from the Revolution and the founding fathers to union marches, suffragists, and a gay liberation parade. Butzer's figures sometimes look stiff and awkward, but he is very good at setting the scene and conveying emotion. And that's the real value of Gettysburg: it does more than just present the facts, it puts the reader in the heart of t

GETTYSBURG: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL is almost exactly what it proposes itself to be: a graphic-novel account of the Civil War's Battle of Gettysburg and its aftermath, culminating with Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. It's obvious that Butzer has done his research on this one, as you can see if you flip to his bibliography at the back, but I kept wishing that this research could have been presented in a manner that would be easier to understand. Even with a decent knowledge of the Civil War's political and historical climate, the first several pages of Butzer's account were difficult to follow, long on images and short on explanatory text. The author/illustrator appears to have foreseen this complaint, and has included in the back of the book a panel-by-panel discussion of the historical background for each page of the comic, but I kept wanting that information to be made available to me on the same page as the images. The narration picks up after the battle has ended and the Union must care for its sick and wounded; from here on, Butzer's arresting visual narrative is bolstered by quoting from the journals and letters of people who were actually present, including a local nurse and the photographer sent to document the battlefield carnage. I will say this for Butzer: the images themselves are beautiful. Rendered in black, white, and a gray-blue reminiscent of both Union and Confederate uniforms, these drawings capture the atmosphere of Gettysburg before and after the battles with the same harsh clarity as famous photographer Timothy O'Sullivan, some of whose original prints from Gettysburg are reproduced by Butzer as drawings. By the time the graphic novel presents the Gettsyburg Address itself, Butzer is in fine form, juxtaposing images of the crowd gathered to consecrate the new national cemetery and moments in American history, past and future, that seem to be encapsulated within Lincoln's speech. The final image of Lincoln as he walks away through the now-empty graveyard is evocative and sparse, sending chills up my spine. Still, if you are looking for an interesting place to start learning about Gettysburg or the Civil War, you might want to start with something that will give you all the facts up front, instead of relegating them to ten pages of notes in the back. Based purely on the art content, I'd give this book 5 stars, but the difficulty following the story, especially of the battle itself, detracts from the artistic experience and makes it hard to determine how effective this graphic novel is as anything other than a series of evocative images. Reviewed by: Candace Cunard

As both a civil war buff and comic book junky, I often wondered why a product like this had never been created (I suppose it takes the bicentennial of Lincoln's birthday to motivate the publishing community). I found the book gave an interesting perspective on the battle itself, which surprised me given the amount of media previously dedicated to the event (the Gettysburg motion picture and several made for TV renditions). The difference was the author's ability to let the reader inside the minds of the characters, similar to a novel, while the artwork allowed one to sit back and enjoy the action. My only criticism is that i would have liked to have seen this expanded into a several part series, instead of just one publication.

As someone who picked up this book, not because of a curiosity about Lincoln, but because of an appreciation for the graphic novel as a medium, I was pleasantly surprised: C.M. Butzer's skill as a storyteller is readily apparent and lends itself wonderfully to the task of relating an important slice of history to young readers. Throughout, Butzer's compositional choices speak to a creator who is well versed in the tradition of the medium and, that this book was produced for a young audience belies the sophistication it is imbued with. My only complaint is similar to reviewer B. Russo's: I would like to see Mr. Butzer bring his formidable talents to bear and stretch his legs on a lengthier project.

Call me a Yankee, but I feel that Gettysburg: The Graphic Novel is a subtle and beautifully drawn depiction of the Battle of Gettysburg and the Gettysburg Address that followed it. Butzer is a talented artist, but he does not present a simplistic version of history. This is a taste of war, appropriate for pre-teens while not hiding the grim realities of battle. The text is drawn from letters and first-person accounts, and the images reference historical photographs of the events. The notes that accompany the drawings are an integral part of this book and one of its most important elements--the detailed references should give young readers a starting point for further research. This book will not appeal to Southern apologists: it does not hide its pro-Lincoln bias nor its reliance on historical sources. It successfully suggests a subtle reading of history--for example, Lincoln's quiet (cough) before scattered applause suggests the quiet acceptance of the address itself. This short, accessible graphic novel about one battle of the Civil War is a visually appealing introduction to a contentious period in American history. Butzer's interpration of the Gettysburg Address, both romantic and modern, is beautiful and moving.