The Harlem Hellfighters

January 13, 2014
Bestseller Brooks (World War Z) returns with the story of the first African-American regiment sent into combat by the U.S. Army in WW I. The 369th Infantry Regiment was poorly trained and ill equipped, and its soldiers were treated unfairly by command. Still, they had the single longest deployment of any American unit and achieved stunning military successes. Brooks’s text seethes with rage at the soldiers’ mistreatment, but he insists that even the racists who saw them in action would have respected their accomplishments. Like the text, White’s b&w art is intensely furious, emphasizing the war’s chaotic horror. Reading the book is a painful, memorable experience.

November 15, 2013

The New York Times best-selling author of World War Z does something different here, offering a fictionalized account of the 369th Infantry Regiment, the first African American regiment mustered to fight in World War I. The Hellfighters spent more time in combat than any other American unit but have never received their due. Intense black-and-white illustrations throughout, and intense promotion, too.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2014
Brooks (World War Z, 2006) makes a U-turn from zombies with this fictionalized account of the famous all-black 369th Infantry. The opening scene of a trench bomb sets the stage for the whole book: endless, grimacing faces and buckets of gore, mostly in the form of exploded bodies splattering across the page. This intro also betrays the book's chief concern: simply telling the story of WWI combat, albeit from an unusual point of view. As a result, the plot is fuzzy and the characters suitably enjoyable placeholders. We follow our diverse bunch from enlistment to training to the hell of France, where they fight through inhumane conditions with the utmost valor, and for what? Prejudice and humiliation at every turn. They would rather see white Germans, says one soldier, instead of black Americans march in triumph up Fifth Avenue. White's appropriately cluttered art has the horrific shock value of EC Comics classics like Frontline Combat and Two-Fisted Tales, and the whole thing comes off as resolutely Tarantinoesque. The movie version should be along any second now.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

March 15, 2014

They ended up fighting for France because the American Expeditionary Forces refused to use them. After training in South Carolina, the first African American troops to fight in World War I were sent to Europe only to be put to work as stevedores and day laborers. Only when the overwhelmed French army begged for help did the United States release the all-"colored" 369th regiment for combat--under the oversight of the French command, which treated them fairly. Ultimately one of the fiercest and most decorated units of the war, the 369th earned the "Harlem Hellfighters" nickname from the Germans, not the Allies, and spent more time in combat than any other American unit. Brooks (World War Z; The Zombie Survival Guide) based the lightly fictionalized account on true events and people. VERDICT The centenary of World War I beginning this year begs for a graphic novel display; include this compelling account as well as titles by Jacque Tardi and Joe Sacco. Stark black-and-white art from White (Uber) gives the body-shredding violence the immediacy of a newsreel, and the absence of gray scale highlights the racial divide. For high school age and up.--M.C.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.